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The Hypershell is the first mass produced exoskeleton but is it an e-bike for your legs or just some more unwanted cycling tech? We've been trying one out to try and make us faster at riding hills on the bike and seeing what it's like to use.
In this review of the Hypershell Exoskeleton we take a look at the exoskeleton features, usability and comfort for road cycling.
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0:00
This is probably going to be the weirdest cycling video I ever make
0:09
This is the hypershell exoskeleton and the idea is it's going to turn me into some type of superhuman
0:18
You see, it straps around my waist and legs and then gives me up to 30% more power
0:26
up to 800 watts apparently if that's true then this could be a genuine rival to the e-bike
0:36
right let's have a look at what we get in the box so it's quite nicely packaged
0:42
inside a box we have another box this this looks quite fancy this reminds me of uh iron man's
0:51
suitcase from uh what was that one when he was in monte carlo is that iron man 2 if i just stand on
0:58
that it'll go oh i mean it certainly looks like a fancy bit of kit but then you would kind of hope
1:07
so because this will set you back this is the pro version it'll set you back 860 pounds apparently
1:15
this is designed for all sorts of things including walking hiking walking up mountains
1:20
even cycling so we'll give it a go on the bike of course we are a cycling channel after all
1:27
but first i want to go for a bit of a walk in it see what this is all about i feel like i'm a bit
1:36
torn at the moment there's obviously is it going to be a gimmick is it going to be absolute game
1:44
changer you know you might be asking who is this for and that is a good question according to the
1:52
hypershell website basically everyone apparently everyone can benefit from one of these how do i
1:58
turn it on right apparently i need an app so i've downloaded that i've made a login
2:06
and now we're powering up oh i can feel something oh that feels slightly odd
2:13
it's sort of rotating right so i've got a few different modes so there's transparent mode so
2:23
this should allow me just to walk normally mostly mostly normal it's then got eco mode
2:30
so when these lights are green that gone green eco mode which will offer me adaptable power for
2:40
moderate activities. Oh yeah, yeah that feels really quite bizarre actually. What it's doing is basically helping lift up my leg
2:52
So you might, it might look like I'm over emphasizing my movements. Going down is perfectly normal and I've got to
3:00
start the action but then when I start it this like sort of helps pick up my leg there is sort of some twist here which i think you have to do this bit up really quite tight i can see how that
3:14
would help going up a mountain though and actually got pretty good mobility i can take pretty big
3:20
steps around but obviously the mode that you've all been waiting for is hyper mode so these go red
3:27
and this is when it offers up to that 800 watts and 30% of saving my energy
3:34
Oh my, oh my, that feels quite weird actually. So what it's doing as I'm walking is apparently adaptive motion recognition
3:44
So I don't know if you can see here, it's got all of these different things
3:49
So walking, uphill, upstairs, gravel. It's got a gravel mode. Wow. Now, running, race walking, downhill, downstairs, cycling and mountain
3:58
You can see here at the moment I am idling. If I start walking, it's recognising
4:04
It says I'm walking. It's really quite peculiar and I'm very keen to go and give it a go on some stairs
4:11
Right, let's go take these for a spin. Keep up. Whoa, that is proper bizarre
4:20
They work for running. That is really weird. It's like it's trying to get you to take a longer stride each time
4:27
But where I really want to try these is on the stairs
4:32
Right, here we go. Oh, yeah, I can feel it. It is picking my leg up
4:39
What about two at a time? I think two at a time is probably its limit
4:46
Now it's trying to push me back down. I don't know if you can see that when I go like that
4:50
and it sort of tries to push it back down. So as this one, as I lift this one
4:56
it's trying to pull that one back and lift this one simultaneously. So it's obviously like sensed a movement
5:03
Hang on, I'm off. Oh, it's good fun. Now that it's off, it's like..
5:12
It's like I've just come out the gym. It feels like I'm scuffing my feet
5:18
I'm not picking my legs up enough. oh here we go taking you a tour so up here we've got the cycling weekly archive and as you can see
5:28
there is many very old photos n forest cc if you're from n forest cc let us know now this
5:39
is where the real secrets lie so i found the proper old cupboard so if we go for like one of these 1903
5:47
volume 25 of the cycling magazine so it's all obviously a hardback copy got
5:55
be very careful they're talking about a ring quadrant there the cycle
6:00
manufacturer like this one the star model I been run over by a milk cart hate it when that happens anyway we put them away for now because well we living in about the year 2100 here And next job let go and see if these work
6:20
on a bike. We're not interested in any of them. What have we got
6:27
So, as you can see, not an e-bike. Or is it? right got it in transparency mode let's this could go one of two ways I guess
6:45
how does this work then I'm gonna go mount it like that
6:53
so no assistance at the moment let's just see i mean the saddle's too high feels a bit peculiar but i mean i'm doing it
7:07
i can ride a bike let's go for some assistance we're gonna go left i reckon dead end road
7:14
sorry about the helmet um right oh we've got assistance oh hello i'll tell you what
7:23
i am not doing anything honestly i am glass cranking as glass cranking can be
7:33
and i am moving and this is just in eco mode right i'm now in hyper mode so
7:41
i'm expecting big things big watts right let's try and do a bit of a turn
7:47
it's doing it it really is doing it I can feel like there is a fair bit of movement around here
7:57
and this bit feels quite warm but I mean it's just wanting me to pedal faster and faster
8:04
see you later it really does work quite well then but then you go down through a gear
8:13
and it's no longer got that like resistance to push against and then it sort of is just a bit oh just like that like you
8:25
turn around and then it thinks you're taking a step or and then it sort of well tries to force
8:32
your leg up which to be fair it does stop when it realizes you don't want to it gives you that extra
8:39
oomph to get away from a traffic light or something i feel like i am already getting
8:43
sweaty under here um which probably isn't the most comfortable on a long ride so yeah i am
8:51
slightly less skeptical now um it does sort of work well it does work but as you can see here
8:57
it's trying to sort of do some actions i guess my next question is is it actually legal on a bike
9:05
i mean i haven read anywhere in the instructions that it not but as many of you will know in the In the UK if you were to use an e with pedal assist the pedal assist will cut out at 25 kilometers an hour whereas I mean I assuming that this won and is that allowed is it turning
9:26
a bike into an e-bike or is it turning me into just a stronger rider so let's go and put on some
9:34
proper clothes some proper cycling clothes and go and see if this works to make me quicker up some
9:40
climbs. Now I know what you're thinking do they work on a climb and to find out I've come to the
9:47
world's most famous climb Alcdues and the answer is kind of they do definitely provide you with
9:56
some assistance now on the box it says 800 watts they provide nothing like that we're filming this
10:05
from an e-bike that has about 350 watts and it's definitely faster than i am i'd say they're
10:13
providing maybe at a push about 200 watts of assistance in their hyper mode there is some
10:21
other things that you need to consider if you want to cycle with these should we say properly
10:28
they need to be done up very tight around your waist and what that means is it's quite hard to
10:36
take deep breaths so that's not ideal the other thing they cover your pockets so you can't carry
10:45
anything I realized that when I almost crushed my phone and popped a gel other than that they do
10:56
kind of work it is quite warm around this area obviously it's not very breathable but yes
11:04
they do provide some assistance i think it comes down to who are these actually for because most
11:13
people would be better off from a pure cycling perspective with an e-bike now granted a lot of
11:20
e-bikes are more expensive than this but potentially you could get a switch kit for your bike
11:25
or something along those lines and that's sort of a comparable value and it does work better
11:33
it's more comfortable that's for sure however later I might try and walk up that or maybe that
11:41
and obviously with a switch kit or an e-bike that wouldn't help me much whereas with this
11:49
you do have that added versatility now I don't think that they're quite there yet
11:56
but for a first attempt it is really interesting tech and in a few years time
12:03
I think this could be a genuine option let me know what you think down in the
12:10
comment section below and I'm going to try and beat my PR up out of duez right
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