Some key features of the iBike Dash

[Velocomp]

1) The Phone Booth weighs 82 grams, only 20 grams more than the Gen III

2) The Li-Ion rechargeable spare battery weighs 20 grams and its size is only 1.75" x 1.25" x 0.25"--small enough to carry in your jersey pocket or bag.

3) The spare battery charges the iPhone and the iPhone powers the iBike electronics.

4) We've tested battery life with screen brightness on full, GPS on in it's highest power usage setting, and bluetooth on. Using one spare battery, iBike Dash operating time is over 4 hours with a 3GS, and we expect it to be more than 5 hours with the iPhone 4.

5) For rides longer than 4 hours, the Phone Booth is designed so that the spare battery can be swapped out "live" at a rest break. With two spare batteries ride time is about 8 hours.

6) We have not done any power management of electronics. Once we get to that we expect battery life to increase significantly.

7) The steer tube mount system accommodates odd-ball shaped stems and handlebars, and positions the iBike Dash perfectly over the rider's stem for easy viewing

8) App updates (downloaded from the iTunes Store) also embed firmware updates as needed. It's a slick and seamless process.

9) Data upload happens over the 3G network or through WiFi (iPod Touch).

10) Music can be played at the same time the iBike app is running

11) A phone call interrupts the iBike app, but the iBike electronics keep recording ride data in the background. Once the call ends the app resumes automatically and NO DATA IS LOST.

12) We are using a new generation of sensors in the iDash, making Cal Wind a thing of the past. Because the steer tube angle is fixed, tilt cal is no longer required.

13) New iBike 5 software will read the iDash files as well as all Gen III files. This software will be free, of course.

There's lots more and as we think of things, or you ask questions, we will provide more information.

[rcmaps]

As an idea for future development, you may wish to consider incorporating a GPS chip within the phone booth in addition to the current version for further product segmentation.

This will then enable GPS tracking for ipod Touch users (assuming that Apple keep excluding this feature from future releases of ipod touch).

Also, I have heard that the GPS chip in the iphone isn't as robust signal wise as the Garmin units and can often lose signal in the urban jungle. A separate GPS chipset could enhance or replace the built in chip. I'm not sure whether this has improved in the new 4G iphones.

Tom Tom released a mapping app and also later on released a specific car mount holder with a GPS chip for the purposes listed above.

Just an idea...

[Norm]

Hey John,

Kudos on the design of an extremely creative product. You guys are always pushing the envelope -- great job!

How does the Dash deal with airflow issues on TT bikes? Is there still the need for a remote wind sensor?

[oldfartrunner]

John,

My kudos as well.

I see that the iDash will have HR Zones. Does that mean the iBike 5 will have HR Zones displayed for all workouts on the HR Graph?

And is there going to be Power Zones we can define as well?

It would be nice to see when the HR / Power moves out of a blue Zone 1 into a green Zone 2 into a Yellow Zone 3 etc ... on the graphs.

[Norm]

John, I just ran a TT yesterday and that sparked another question:

Will you consider a TT-specific mount that extends the iDash closer to the hands when on the aero bars? It'd be helpful to be able to check the numbers by just glancing down instead of looking back at the stem.

I won my race yesterday, but I know I lost time every time I put my head down to check the numbers on my stem-mounted iAero. One day I hope to be good enough to race without using numbers as a rabbit to chase, but until then...

[Velocomp]

Congratulations on your win!

We've got lots of things in the pipeline...

[Velocomp]

John,



I see that the iDash will have HR Zones. Does that mean the iBike 5 will have HR Zones displayed for all workouts on the HR Graph?

And is there going to be Power Zones we can define as well?

It would be nice to see when the HR / Power moves out of a blue Zone 1 into a green Zone 2 into a Yellow Zone 3 etc ... on the graphs.

Yes, the Interval workouts include color-coded zones, both for HR and for power.

[oldfartrunner]

Yes, the Interval workouts include color-coded zones, both for HR and for power.

I am looking for Post Workout Analysis.

Does that mean only Interval workouts on the iDash only will have intensity zones displayed?

I was hoping for intensity zones being displayed for all workouts on the iBike software after downloading the workout data. Not just during the ride. Hopefully iBike software is headed in that direction.

[Velocomp]

Noted

[veloman]

Despite living in a warm, dry climate, I ride a lot with long fingered gloves and my iPhone in a plastic ziplock bag in my jersey pocket. On the rare occasion that I stop and look at my phone, it is sorta hit and miss as whether the touch screen will sense my finger movements with the gloves on, even out of the plastic bag. So I'm thinking with another cover on the display it might be difficult to navigate the screens with long fingered gloves. Just a thought.

-craig

[rcmaps]

I think John mentioned somewhere else that you can purchase optional iBike gloves for this purpose.

[hangdog]

John wrote:

7) The steer tube mount system accommodates odd-ball shaped stems and handlebars, and positions the iBike Dash perfectly over the rider's stem for easy viewing

Elsewhere it was mentioned that the mount suits shallow-angle stems. Would it work on a stem angled 17 degrees upwards from perpendicular to the steerer (i.e., an "upside-down" 17/73° stem)?

Thanks,

Chuan

[hangdog]

Hmm…to almost answer my own question, I found this useful photo at http://ibikeblog.com/?attachment_id=191.

It seems that the mount will handle high-angle stems if there's enough uncut steerer height above the stem, i.e., a sufficiently high stack of spacers. Unfortunately I don't have much steerer height to spare, but perhaps a sufficiently tall spacer extending above the steerer will work. I wouldn't be keen to bend the mount to fit the stem angle.

[jaye]

A couple of questions:

Judging from the pictures I've seen I'm assuming and hoping the mount will not include electronics so transporting the bike in wet weather doesn't cause wireless issues. Is that a good assumption?

My iAero III mount appears to have fried from wet weather so right now I'm just using the PT Head. I like the iAero along with the PT but if the Dash is coming reasonably soon I'd just as soon not buy another wireless mount for an iAero that has a limited useful life. On the other hand if we're talking a couple of months I might want to make that purchase.

JEC

[Velocomp]

The wireless electronics are embedded in the Phone Booth; there is no external mount. We expect to start shipping within the next 30 days.

[oaktreevi]

Hi John,

Do you have an idea when Apple will release the App? or is it released already and I just don't have a clue what I'm looking for?

[Velocomp]

We've learned that Apple has its own ways; we will keep you posted...

[oaktreevi]

Thank you.

[Steve_Davidson]

1) The Phone Booth weighs 82 grams, only 20 grams more than the Gen III

2) The Li-Ion rechargeable spare battery weighs 20 grams and its size is only 1.75" x 1.25" x 0.25"--small enough to carry in your jersey pocket or bag.

3) The spare battery charges the iPhone and the iPhone powers the iBike electronics.

4) We've tested battery life with screen brightness on full, GPS on in it's highest power usage setting, and bluetooth on. Using one spare battery, iBike Dash operating time is over 4 hours with a 3GS, and we expect it to be more than 5 hours with the iPhone 4.

5) For rides longer than 4 hours, the Phone Booth is designed so that the spare battery can be swapped out "live" at a rest break. With two spare batteries ride time is about 8 hours.

6) We have not done any power management of electronics. Once we get to that we expect battery life to increase significantly.

7) The steer tube mount system accommodates odd-ball shaped stems and handlebars, and positions the iBike Dash perfectly over the rider's stem for easy viewing

8) App updates (downloaded from the iTunes Store) also embed firmware updates as needed. It's a slick and seamless process.

9) Data upload happens over the 3G network or through WiFi (iPod Touch).

10) Music can be played at the same time the iBike app is running

11) A phone call interrupts the iBike app, but the iBike electronics keep recording ride data in the background. Once the call ends the app resumes automatically and NO DATA IS LOST.

12) We are using a new generation of sensors in the iDash, making Cal Wind a thing of the past. Because the steer tube angle is fixed, tilt cal is no longer required.

13) New iBike 5 software will read the iDash files as well as all Gen III files. This software will be free, of course.

There's lots more and as we think of things, or you ask questions, we will provide more information.

John,

This all looks fantastic and to me looks like it will pave the way for some exciting developments going forward. One feature that I would love to see would be for the unit to do some post processing to save taking a laptop for aero testing.

cheers

[oaktreevi]

Hi John

I'm curious as to what the App will be labled on iTunes. I've performed a search and there's currently iBike and iDash Apps along with a few other variations.

[Velocomp]

The app will be called "iBike".

There are other apps close to our name but not the same (we have the iBike name reserved).

The iDash app belongs to someone else.

We haven't released the app yet...

[oaktreevi]

Ok.

Thanks

[veloman]

John, I just ran a TT yesterday and that sparked another question:

Will you consider a TT-specific mount that extends the iDash closer to the hands when on the aero bars? It'd be helpful to be able to check the numbers by just glancing down instead of looking back at the stem.

I won my race yesterday, but I know I lost time every time I put my head down to check the numbers on my stem-mounted iAero. One day I hope to be good enough to race without using numbers as a rabbit to chase, but until then...

Ditto on both of Norm's questions/comments regarding the Dash and TT's. Given my short stem and arm pad location on my aerobar, I seriously don't see how the Dash stem mount would work. I'd need to see some picts of the Dash on a TT bike and the RWS setup before I buy.

Tangental question: Are you guys gonna be at Interbike this year? Hope so!

-craig

[rcmaps]

I understand that the planned method to transfer ride files from iDash to the computer is via email.

However, have you considered using iTunes to sync the files.

Under the new iTunes 9.2 version onwards, Apple allows some apps to perform "File Sharing" whereby downloaded files on the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad's App can later be "synced" to the computer via iTunes. The user can then choose to download the files and save it on a user specified location on the computer.

It can go the other way too if required , ie you can "ADD" files from your computer onto your iDevice using iTunes.

It would be great if the iDash can be setup this way either initially or as an update later on.

Check out an eBook type App called STANZA which allows you to sync downloaded books this way.

[lorduintah]

There are at least two applications that can treat the iPhone/iPod as just another disk. This allows any files to be downloaded/uploaded. At least one of them also runs on the Windows platform.

Tom

[Steve_Davidson]

John,

I've just been checking out the details of the iDash in your on-line store and was wondering why there are selections for iphone4, 3gs and ipod touch. Is there a difference or can you use an ipod or iphone in the same unit?

I've managed to get an ipod touch but may get an iphone in the future so would like to know if both would work in the same phone booth.

cheers

Steve

[Velocomp]

The same Phone Booth works for all models.

We use different foam spacers for different models of iPhone/iTouch.

So, shifting from one product to another is as simple as changing spacers.

As a convenience we are installing the correct spacers at the factory but it is extremely to change spacers at any time.

[NCH1]

Is the new mount for the ibike gen III available yet for purchase, and what is its cost?

Nik

[Velocomp]

Premieres at Interbike

[NCH1]

Does a release at interbike mean that it is quite technologically advanced?. Is it possible to divulge any more details without spoiling the show?

Nik