All about bicycles, electric-assisted bikes, technology and safety in the press

In our daily work as we deal with bicycle safety, technology and user manuals we come across lots of safety risks. The most frequent ones are published in articles of the leading German special-interest magazines TOUR – Europas Rennrad-Magazin Nr. 1, BIKE – Das Mountainbike Magazin Europas Nr. 1 and E-Bike – Das Pedelec-Magazin to make this information important for the sector accessible to a wider public.

For many years now the Eurobike Show Daily accompanying the annual international Eurobike Show has given us the opportunity to publish our perspective on major developments in the cycle industry in full-page articles.

We also speak regularly in independent lectures about all topics relating to bicycle technology and bicycle market. In addition, we are regularly cited by further special-interest magazines or trade journals as well as more and more by radio and television and in their media reports, which shows us that we are completely right with our information. The section NEWS informs you about the latest news from our specialist fields. The reports and publications of this section are listed chronologically or according to topics of interest.

RadMarkt 06/2014
Reading time 1:20 minutes

Everything (un)safe?

The panel discussion moderated by Gunnar Fehlau (Pressedienst-Fahrrad) involved the following participants: Dirk Zedler, managing director of Zedler – lnstitut für Fahrradtechnik und -Sicherheit, (...)

Detlef Glimm, as managing director of Derby Cycle in charge of the supply-chain-management, production, quality management and development, Karl Gerdes, partner and managing director of Velocity Braunschweig, Ludger Koopmann, board member of the German cycle association (ADFC) and Jo Klieber, founder and managing director or Syntace.

(...)

Tester Dirk Zedler took Porsche as an example from the automotive industry: They build their cars with a high share of carry-over parts, i.e. components which can be used unmodified in various models and over a rather long period of time. This allows not only a less expensive production, but also to launch products which have undergone more tests. For Zedler the speedlifter is a good example: This component is identical for all bicycles and allows, as in the case with the adjustable steering wheel in a car, the adjustment of the bicycle to the rider, without compromising safety.

(…)

Human-machine interface

"Do really so many parts fail, is it not the rider who is the actual risk?", asks the host Fehlau. And tester Zedler confirms that broken handlebars are actually rather seldom. There was an increased number of accidents with brand-new bicycles. From this fact you could conclude that the rider is so occupied with the new technology that he was not able to brake in an emergency. This calls for training courses, in particular for pedelec cyclists, as many people were unable to cope with the motorised vehicles.

(…)

Test engineer Zedler suggested to simply make precise distinctions in the actual use of the respective bicycle:  "No one is able to design the all-in-one device suitable for every purpose!" 

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