, for which numerous patents have been filed. The most recent, in 2022, detailed the sensor’s integration into the crank arm. That would be a step forward; most existing crank power meters add sensors to the outside of the crank, which can lead to issues of inconsistency with some cranks.
That’s right – in Google’s self-driving car fantasy “an adhesive layer positioned on the front end of the vehicle” would bond the person to the front of the car so that they remained with it until it stopped.
The whole thing had the air of a publicity exercise. As one road.cc commenter put it: “‘Stick a Brompton in the boot of your Ford’ wouldn’t get the same number of column inches or the same level of discussion. Marketing, innit?”One of the most important patents in the history of bike gearing was awarded to Tetsuo Maeda, the owner of Japanese component maker SunTour in 1964.
Cashed up from selling millions of inexpensive rear derailleurs and with a research and development staff of about 200 against SunTour’s 20, Shimano unleashed a flood of new products over the next few years. SunTour simply could not compete. By the early 90s SunTour was effectively gone, though the name lives on in Taiwanese parts and suspension fork maker SR Suntour.