There aren’t many things a bike needs. Handle bars and wheels of course, maybe some beads or cards for the spokes if you want to bring back your childhood, possibly even a water bottle holder for those long rids. I camera/rearview mirror to show you what’s behind you, though, I don’t think is necessary.
I only put the rumor tag because it sounds kind of hoaky, I’ll give you the info, and let you do your own research, or determine based on what I give you, whether you think it’s real or not. So, we have all seen folding electric bikes, well maybe not all of us, but a good number of you have probably at least heard of the things.
This is no different, the handle bars fold down, the back wheel folds up, all is good right? Till you get to the part in the imaginary instruction booklet where it tells you that you need your FeliCa enabled phone to start it.
There is also and included Bluetooth headset from Cardo that works great for in-helmet communication between you and the device. Apparently the Bluetooth headset is kind of a moot point since most people that can afford an $800 GPS unit for their motorcycle can probably afford a helmet with integrated Bluetooth.
He was a pretty great guy, at least as far as most Catholics were concerned. Anyways, OCC, the guys famous for their hit TV show and their amazing theme bikes have gone and made a bike in his memory. I have dubbed it the Pope Bike 2k7, I have no idea what they are calling it.
Coming straight from the folks who brought you the Ariel Atom 2 is their latest addition to the product line, the Enertia. This motorcycle is all electric, has a top speed of 50MPH, a max range of 45 miles @ 25mph and weighs a mere 275 pounds.
If you thought propellers were just for old planes and geeky hats, then you might want to think again. Take one MIT student, Damon Vander Lind, one three-wheeler made from chromemoly tubing and one bloody large propeller and strap them all together to make an eco-friendly fan-propelled and pedal-powered trike.
Make sure to check out the video after the cut!
Toward the end of last month there was a very special 25th birthday: on the 23rd April 1982 the Sinclair ZX Spectrum was launched on an unsuspecting British public. Here in the UK Sir Clive, the founder of Sinclair, became something of a figure of fun after the failure of his C5 personal transportation machine (a swish name for an electrically-assisted recumbent tricycle), a 1985 effort to tackle urban transport, and few are aware that his research – and the marketed results of it – continues to this day. A chance link from a ZX feature led me to Mayhem UK, official distributors of the latest Sinclair product, the folding A-Bike.
It’s been quite a few years since I’ve rode a bike, and any desire to do so now would be complicated by not actually having one any more. The cash-injected biking industry does me no favours when it comes to choosing one, either, with all manner of complicated variations in gears, brakes and chassis; stepping into a specialist bike shop is about as scary as browsing a designer clothes store, under the disapproving and contemptuous gaze of the assistants.
Gear manufacturer Shimano has obviously decided to cash in on that eco-concerned but bike-ignorant market sector, and the Coasting system is their first strike. Basically a three-speed automatic transmission for a bike, it takes all the complicated “first you flick this lever, then that one, but never stop pedalling while you do it!” madness out of the whole business.