FliteDeck was on hand at Eurobike, showing their progress within the startup area. For those not familiar, FliteDeck has basically taken the bike computer and merged it with your actual handlebars (including a built-in front light and bike bell), producing an aero-cockpit style display system. The company had been working on the project for quite some time before opening up orders earlier this year.
The price of the entire cockpit (handlebars and bike computer) has ranged from 1,795EUR to 3,499EUR, depending on which exact version you buy, and whether or not there are any discount codes available.
Therefore, at the show, I was keen to try it out in real life.
Walking up to their small booth in the Eurobike startup area, they had what appeared to be three different units on hand. One on a bike, and two on tables. The one on their main booth table was open, so I went up to it and observed for a moment.
The unit has three distinct LCD displays, all three of which are inset into the handlebars themselves. Now, setting aside this very prototype-looking unit, the actual displays themselves, and arrangement, looked fantastic. At least, at the full brightness level they appeared to be set at. Whether or not that’s a viable brightness level is a totally different question.
In asking one of the two founders, he noted that their current battery plan is 20 hours. That’s a bit of a hit from the 20-30 hours claim previously, though, such is life on startup battery claims. I’m honestly a little bit surprised they don’t have more capacity below the displays in the handlebars for a bigger battery, but I’m sure it’s a balance between structural, battery, and cost.
In any event, as you can see, it’s clearly labeled ‘prototype’ in multiple places. However, it was also clearly just sitting there begging to be touched, like every other product at Eurobike on display…so naturally, I touched each display. The center and right displays didn’t do anything when I touched and swiped them.
However, the left display did: It crashed.
Or at least, I thought it crashed. In reality, upon reviewing the footage later I realized it was just running a static slideshow, which you can see here:
A moment later, the other founder looked over, a bit perplexed. And she realized that the “Do Not Touch” sticker/label had fallen off, and blown off the stand. At that point, they acquired said sticker from the booth floor, and went about re-attaching it.
That immediately prompted my next question on timelines, and their current timeline is next summer, so about a year from now. I suppose that’s in line with the “Q2 2026” they’ve stated previously.
Now, I’d argue at this juncture, given they’re taking money for this, this should have been *FAR FAR FAR* further along. Specifically, it should have been real/operational, not a slideshow. Heck, if they wanted to slideshow it, it should have at least been a screen recording from a ride. That’s roughly what their competitors do, in so-called ‘Demo Mode’, so that bike shops and trade shows can show off all the features super quickly.
Look, I get that a prototype is bound to have bugs, but I’m seriously questioning how functional it is. There’s only a single video on their Instagram account showing it out on the road, and none of the power/cadence/speed numbers change once during that short 4-second clip, at least on the main display (center). In fact, those same four metrics in the live video they showed trying to prove it was real, are identical to the slideshow metrics (RPM is 85, power is 310w, time is 20:20, battery stats are the same, elevation is the same, etc…). Though speed and current gear is different.
Knowing how long it took Wahoo on their ACE to go from non-functional prototype, to barely functional prototype, to shipping, to eventually more usable, FliteDeck’s timelines, with far fewer resources, don’t really align.
Anyway…
Now, my last area of concern was the handlebar itself. Specifically, durability and safety. As a general rule of thumb, I don’t tend to trust startups with safety-related things. Especially safety-related things at high speed that could break and grind my face into the ground.
Thus, I asked about the handlebars. Specifically, were they OEM’ing that to some other known handlebar company, or developing it themselves. They confirmed they were developing it themselves, and then went on to note that as a German company, they are required to adhere to German laws around bicycle handlebars (for which there is an ISO spec, I assume this one). Further, they will be sending out their handlebars to a third-party lab within Germany to do all the load and safety testing, in order to get their certifications. So, that did assuage my concerns, assuming all that happens as stated.
Ultimately, I’m all for more competition in the bike computer space. More is definitely better. Or at least, more good competition.
Would I pay $2,000USD right now for this, with the hope of it being delivered next summer? Absolutely not. Not a chance in the world. Mainly because I don’t think their timelines are realistic, based on what I saw at Eurobike. And no part of the conversation led me to believe the project was meaningfully further along.
Now, if this had all the features of a Garmin/Wahoo bike computer, would/should someone pay $2,000 for it? Someone would, we know that already – such is high-end bike tech. But we don’t have clear definitions on what features are there today. My guess is the feature sets will be much more inline with a basic bike computer (e.g., lacking structured workouts, ClimbPro-like metrics, course/route following, and offline re-routing, etc…). These are all things that most bike computers recently haven’t launched with, but were added often years later.
Still, I wish them the best of luck, and would love to see where things are next spring, including trying it out for a ride. There’s no question it has the potential to look super cool. It’s just a question of whether or not that potential can be turned into reality.
With that, thanks for reading!
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I don’t see a way for the bar itself to be strong given the top is a huge gap. I guess they could bond in the computers and make them structural but even then im unconvinced.
Personally I’d chalk this up to an investor scam. Come up with a good idea, get an early investor to buy in and expand, making it look legit, go to the markets and offload to public investors, walk away rich and watch it all burn from your yacht.
Hi Ray,
I was hoping that you would cover this product and I’m not disappointed!
Initially, as a tech geek, I liked the idea, but then I realized a simple thing – the handlebars would typically outlast the bike computer and looking at other startup bike computers tightly linked to their respective clouds, I don’t expect those to be supported for the lifetime of the handlebars themselves. Probably it would be couple of years of updates (at best) and then the company would either release a “new and improved” version, fully abandoning v1, or, more likely, will simply go extinct (like, say, Absolute One).
UI-wise the screenshots definitely look nice with clear Apple CarPlay vibes.
Realistically, currently it would be easier and cheaper if you get a nice handlebar and glue a Garmin, a Wahoo, and a mobile phone to it.
If you want to be fancy, create a 3D-printed case for them.
Besides safety in the sense of “will it bend/break”, to me a key question here seems to be safety in the sense of “how many colorful and bright screens can you ignore to still look at the road”.
Already when using a large-screen garmin I find myself changing to a “boring” data page without colors and not changing too much in order to be less distracted and able to focus on traffic, enjoying the view etc.
This thing to me looks like the also crazier and crazier getting car dashboards or the giant screen in Teslas. No thanks ;-)
The picture revealing that it is just a slideshow also reveals that they seem to be using a raspberry pi or at least part of its software: the bar at the right (normally the top of the screen) is from Raspberry Pi OS desktop, including the logo in the top right ;-)
Rather than a full handlebar they could do a more streamlined head unit with fairing to go over existing bars and stems. Though our friends at the UCI would probably have something to say about that.
No. Just no. I appreciate that without innovation there is no bike industry but this is really pushing out towards the classification of novelty item, which at the price makes it unviable. It’ll be heavy, it won’t flex (screens don’t like flex), if you have a bike fit and your set up it changes then your stuck… So many reasons why it’s a no. But that’s me, I’m keen to know if anyone else sees any future for this device.
Initially I thought, that looks cool.
No doubt someone would buy such a thing as said in the review.
But personally have a lot of reservations.
– It takes up loads of useful handlebar space. Garmins “larger” computers mount the other way likely for this reason.
– How much does it weigh?
– Obsolescence vs. the handlebar.
– The distraction !
It’s way too big for me to be honest, just like Garmins biggest units; I prefer the form factor of my Edge 840 even if I miss a few features and can’t get live segments to work on it. Don’t need a phone on my handlebars – if I did I could simply mount my actual phone there.
I attach my bike computer to a lot of bikes. Not keen to buy 5 of these ;O)
In principle, I always like innovative projects, including this one. However, I also have my doubts about a realistic implementation and a real need in the market. Especially when it comes to price/performance of the functions apart from the design.
What is also interesting about this project is the way it is funded, as the founder runs an OnlyFans account to raise money. You can think what you like about that. However, future investors must be aware of being associated with it.
Im following them for quite a while now. It’s also easier being German because the do more things in German i think.
I think its quite an interesting project: Its self funded, not investor funded. She has an engineering background from a sports car manufacturer, i think this is also an explanation why this much of display space is there.
They now do the carbon works literally in house.
The displays don’t „waste“ handlebar space because what would you want to mount to the handlebar when there is already a computer, a light and a bell integrated? You can grip all the usual places i use without problems.
What i see as caveats are mostly software things:
– How does it integrate into other smart systems? There are a lot of training planing platforms to support.
– How customizable will it be? What sensors are supported?
– How future proof is the whole thing? Not only in getting data out, but also in?
I think its a niche project for enthusiasts who can afford bikes like the Baldiso road bike she rides and wich was at the booth.
I never was aware of the Q2/26 time frame and now that i know it, i also don’t believe it will be there.
@Ray:
Im living in Germany and comment timestamps are 6h behind, is this on purpose?
Hello!
The timestamps are aligned to US East Coast time. Sorta always been that way, given the ‘DC’ part of DC Rainmaker.
That said, never really thought to see about simply having it enumerate your local time zone.