Eric Prue, design coordinator for Innovate Marquette SmartZone, shows commuter bikes on Wednesday in the Outdoor Exploration segment of Innovation Week at Northern Michigan University. The bikes are technologically advanced and make it easier for a bicyclist to use. (Journal photo by Christie Mastric)

MARQUETTE — Bicycles have come a long way since the banana seat era, and examples of new innovative bikes — and other recreational products — were on display on Wednesday during Innovation Week on the Forest Roberts Theatre lawn at Northern Michigan University.

Innovation Week, which began Monday, was a three-day professional development conference that gathered leaders and offered keynote speakers and workshops.

Part of the focus on Wednesday was a segment focused on innovations in the outdoors that featured new products supported by Innovate Marquette SmartZone, a resource for local entrepreneurs and innovators focused on technology-based ventures that enable accessibility, sustainability and creativity in the region.

Ease of use also is important in the outdoor recreation industry.

“About 43% of that trillion-dollar industry are new users,” said Joe Thiel, CEO of Innovate Marquette SmartZone and executive director of Invent@NMU. “We want to have those new users feel very comfortable in accessing outdoor recreational space.”

Thiel talked about electric vehicles and SSVs — suitable-sized vehicles — that people can use in what he called the “outdoor recreation space.”

Thiel said Innovate Marquette SmartZone received a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to experiment with the devices and look at how EVs are used in outdoor recreation.

Creating an entire industry clustered around this concept is one of the main motives of Innovate Marquette SmartZone, he said.

Thiel said the products on display on Wednesday are “very, very new” with many idiosyncrasies, but noted that Innovate Marquette SmartZone already has made some improvements, one being to a mountain bike.

“We actually patented a surface charger that you can surface-charge your mountain bike just by setting it on it, off of this solar panel,” Thiel said.

Additionally, a solar-powered battery bank can charge different devices on the back of a vehicle.

“Imagine going outdoor recreating now,” Thiel said, pointing to a particular display. “You can grab a battery bank out of here, take it to your campsite, put up a solar panel, and now you can actually have all your devices, everything, attached with a solar-power generator.”

Innovate Marquette SmartZone, he said, also works with clients to bring them to the prototype stage of manufacturing.

“This is where (we) go from the ideas and everything in the industry to new ideas around those existing things to create new products that we can actually produce here from Marquette,” Thiel said.

For instance, Innovate Marquette SmartZone, he said, works with Mqt Onewheel to modify its products.

The company explained, in an informational flyer available at the Wednesday event, that a onewheel is a self-balancing electric all-terrain skateboard that allows the user to learn forward to go and lean back to slow down or stop. The motor has a security feature that will tilt up the front of the board. This feature, called a “pushback,” lets the user know they’re at the top power or speed, which forces the user to a slower speed.

Eric Prue, design coordinator at Innovate Marquette SmartZone, discussed some of the products with wheels and how they can lend ease to neophyte riders.

“A lot of it is applying comfort to people that are not normally out in the outdoor rec space,” Prue said.

For example, the Volcon Grunt, he said, is an electric motorcycle that can be ridden on the beach or the snow.

Prue acknowledged being a motorcycle newbie before trying the Grunt.

“It was super easy for a new user,” Prue said.

The Grunt has no gears, no clutch, no gasoline — and no noise.

“Everything here is really quiet, so it’s not intimidating for new users to get on it,” Prue said.

He said Innovation Marquette SmartZone, which purchased the products, is creating a connection with the companies and improving the products for new users.

“A lot of these products here just came out on the market,” Prue said. “A lot of these companies are very new, so there’s a lot of room for innovation for us to come in and be able to do our thing, and get people excited about the space and come back to us with ideas in the outdoor rec space — because we live in Marquette, because we have the trail system that we have.”

The display also included commuter bikes that can be used around town.

Prue said two of the bikes have a motor in the middle of the wheel, called a hub drive, that directly drives the wheel so there’s no loss of power. Another bike, the Fuel 9.7 Trek bike, has Bluetooth shifting that allows the rider to shift more quickly.

The Innovation Week itinerary also included presentations on topics such as artificial intelligence and the metaverse, and provided networking opportunities.

Besides Innovation Week, Innovate Marquette SmartZone conducts Tech Talks, a technology-based speaker series, and Women in Entrepreneurship, an annual celebration featuring local entrepreneurs and business professionals.

For more details, visit innovatemarquette.org.