Brammo + iPod Rider Community In Planning?
I really wanted to not do any more Brammo posts this week but they make that very difficult when they post teasers like this to twitter…
The Brammo boys (head of design and mechanical engineering) make a trip to Nike for a product development presentation at Nike HQ on Friday
Now what would they be doing at Nike HQ? I have a hunch they might be planning a product similar to Nike + iPod that integrates with Brammo’s built in GPS to catalog an owners rides. Nike + iPod has a sensor that you insert in your shoe and it sends information to your iPod. Nike explains it like this:
As you run, your iPod or iPhone 3GS tells you your time, distance, pace, and calories burned. And it gives you feedback at the halfway point and in the final lead-up to your goal. You can also see the details of your workout on your iPod or iPhone 3GS.
When your run is finished, connect your iPod nano, iPod touch, or iPhone 3GS to your Mac or PC, and your workout data automatically syncs to nikeplus.com. Go there and see all your runs and share motivation with runners across the world.
I imagine Brammo could do something very similar by having their bike send throttle usage, speed, distance and battery utilization from it’s digital controller along with GPS coordinates to an iPod or iPhone. This data, once uploaded to a central web site could be used to compare your ride to previous rides over the same roads or to other peoples rides on that road. You could share a route with other Brammo riders.
Back in May I suggested to Craig Bramscher that they might want to “Use onboard electronics to recommend improvements to my riding style; throttle control, braking, etc. Use GPS to tell me where.” There are a lot of possibilities especially considering Brammo has an API. If they open that up to users it could get very interesting.
In August Brammofan.com covered a presentation the Brammo interns put together that hinted at doing ride tracking and integration with an iPhone. See the video below. Watching that I don’t think I am too far off. All of that would fit very well with the “Brammo + iPod” community.
The cool/scary part of all this is we would find out who is really riding their bike and who has a garage ornament.
What kind of features would you want to see if this is the route Brammo is going?
In: Brammo · Tagged with: Apple, Brammo, Brammo + iPod, Community, GPS, iPhone, iPod, Nike + iPod, Rumor Mill, Speculation, Tracking, WiFi
