Electric Assist Bikes
In general, I’m not such a fan of these.
A bike with an electric motor? Really, you’ve got to be kidding me! That is SO missing the point.
BUT . . . just sometimes, when the wind is in my face for the whole of the journey home . . . or I’ve left late for work (again) and I need just a bit more va-va-vooom to get me there in time . . . or when I’m riding against a continual flow of red lights (start-stop-start-stop-start-stop-start-stop-start-stop-start-stop-oh-for-crying-out-loud), I can almost see where they might come in handy.
If only someone would come up with a bike that looked slightly less dorky (Pashley / omafeits = stylish . . . while the above Technium screams nerd to me. Sorry if you have one and love it, but that’s what I feel about it :-/ )
But wait, what’s that from those clever chaps at MIT . . .?
No, it’s not another Female London Cyclist (FLC ) who’s opted to cut out the middle man in the left-turning-lorry-and-bicycle-activist symbiotic relationship. And nor is that the winner of the biggest, most obvious, yet unnecessary pie-plate competition. And in the absence of Lenny Henry in the photo, we’ll assume it’s nothing to do with Red Nose Day .
No. Those MIT chaps have come up with The Copenhagen Wheel - a Kinetic Regenerative Braking System . Or in plain English . . .
A jolly clever thingamajig that uses magnets and dynamo doo-dahs work as a brake. The electricity that’s generated is then stored in batteries in that red thingie, which also contains a motor. When you need more va-va-voom, that’s used to give you a bit more ooomph.
Kapish?
Well, I like it anyway. If only it were available in chromed steel . . . .
I have one and I love it.
My pedal electric is fantastic. It lets me go further than I would. It makes me ride more often. It levels out the hills, which is important in a town like Wellington. I average about 28 km/hr (over 30km/hr in the first hour) versus 20 km/hr on my normal bike. So if I have an hour to ride I get to go 50% further. It’s also the difference between riding on sand, and not riding on sand, and the local beaches near me are legal roads and not much used by cars, and riding on the beach is fun).
I don’t quite get the need for regenerative braking so much, but I wonder if the motor in the back wheel and and a generator in the front for charging the battery when going downhill would be more useful than the regenerative braking thing. Whoever uses their brakes?
Now I am dreaming of putting a motor on a recumbent ,styling a shell around it like it was designed for showing off at a 1930’s World’s Fair and putting a few spare batteries and my tent in it, and touring.
And I think the electric motors on bikes will become more commonplace and turn more cities over to bicycles. Lithium polymer and leg power could beat gasoline in the future culture wars.