Sadega - Retractable Assistive Wheels

Mission

Sadega wants to make starting up and stopping on a bicycle safer, while further allowing for a normal cycling experience.

The challenge

The amount of elderly with e-bikes is increasing rapidly in the Netherlands. Elderly are overrepresented in the number of e-bike accidents: 90 percent of victims is 60 or older. Elderly are vulnerable and minor accidents can have major consequences. We found out that a large proportion of bicycle accidents among elderly happens when getting on and off and gaining speed. Elderly experience a loss in strength and balance due to aging. It is extra hard for elderly to balance heavy e-bikes, especially at low speed. Cycling keeps elderly mobile, active and healthy. Sadega wants to make cycling safer and relieve the healthcare system, by focusing on this problem.

The solution

The purpose of our product is to offer elderly people support when starting up and stopping on their bicycle. This is realized with assistive wheels. These assistive wheels can be electronically retracted into a case, by a switch on the handlebar. They then allow for a normal cycling experience at speed. Activation is done with motors, which move the wheels by means of cables on pulleys. When an object hits the wheels, they move back and redeploy, to prevent accidents. The mechanism and bicycle bags can be universally mounted on luggage carriers.