by Rachel Nuwer

Traveling by bike has clear advantages. It’s cheaper than driving, produces no greenhouse gas emissions and gives peddlers a convenient workout on the go. There’s also at least one obvious disadvantage: running into a morning meeting with armpit stains and sweat streaks down the back of your shirt after hustling through a bike commute.

“I bike a lot, and I always go to meetings sweaty,” says Niko Klansek, an entrepreneur who first tried to solve his problem by tinkering with electric bikes for several years. But the sole purpose of those contraptions is to provide an effortless ride, and Klansek soon realized he “wanted to do something more with bicycles.” So he founded FlyKly, a Brooklyn-based startup dedicated to “bringing bicycles to the 21st century.”

This week, FlyKly is introducing the Smart Wheel, a product two years in the making. The 12-person team responsible for creating the Smart Wheel calls it the world’s first intelligent wheel for bikes. The nine-pound device fits onto nearly any bike by replacing the rear wheel. They say the installation process takes just a minute or two to complete. It contains a slender electric motor that can be adjusted to carry riders up to 20 mph for 30 miles. “Now, you can dress for the destination, not the ride,” Klansek says.

At the end of the day, commuters looking for a bit more exercise can turn the wheel off and pedal home without the added boost.

The company’s patented motor includes a layer of thin magnets surrounded by batteries and several protective casings that form a disc. The motor fits over the Smart Wheel’s spokes, and owners lock it into place on their bike frame with a special key. It charges itself on downhill descents and when a user pedals, or it can be plugged into the wall to recharge.

A wheel with its own app

Once installed, owners control the Smart Wheel with a FlyKly app downloaded onto their iOS, Android or Pebble device. A contraption called the Smart Light—which simultaneously acts as smart phone holder, charger and bike light—is situated on the bike’s handle bar and uses powerful Van der Waals forces (also known as gecko adhesion) to hold the phone in place. It also comes with two external straps for extra security. “We are 100 percent certain your phone won’t fall off,” Klansek says.

In addition to setting the wheel’s speed, the app helps riders map their route according to convenience, safety or best scenery and tracks statistics like distance pedaled, average speed and ride duration. The FlyKly team built an open-source platform so developers can design apps for other wearable technologies like the Nike FuelBand. “People can build their own software or hardware on top of it,” Klansek says.

When riders reach their destination, they can lock their Smart Wheel with the app to deter theft. If someone does run off with the bike or the wheel, the built-in GPS will alert owners via Bluetooth that their machine is on the move and allow them to track its whereabouts.

Users can opt to share favorite routes or stats with friends, or even share their data anonymously with city planners. Klansek imagines Smart Wheel users’ compiled data assisting with designing safer and more efficient bicycle lanes in cities, for example.

FlyKly’s first functional prototypes were developed earlier this year, and the company plans to deliver preordered Smart Wheels in April 2014. To reach that goal, FlyKly launched a Kickstarter campaign on Wednesday to help with production costs. Preordered Smart Wheels cost $590.

All images: Courtesy FlyKly.

Rachel Nuwer is a freelance science journalist who writes for venues including the New York Times, ScienceNOW and Audubon Magazine. She lives in Brooklyn, NY. She tweets @RachelNuwer.