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Invention Makes Citibikes Electric
An anonymous reader writes "Inventor Jeff Guida has come up with a way to turn any Citibike into an electric scooter. His ShareRoller is about the size of a small briefcase, weighs just seven pounds, and has a 12- to 20-mile range. From the article: '"Years ago, I would've needed a giant engineering company and several million dollars in development research and it still would've taken two years or more," Guida said. But 3D printing has changed all that. In the coming months, Guida hopes to design a universal bracket so that the ShareRoller can be used on any bike. He has some competition there, as there are a few companies that make wheels that convert regular bikes into electric bikes, but he says the ShareRoller is more convenient.'"
Oh, right. They are too cheap and reliable. We need big business to be able to make money on bicycles, otherwise they are just toys.
Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
I remember these designs. They absolutely stripped the tread off the rear wheels within a few hundred miles of using them, and kept the local bike shops in serious business replacing wheels. Not tires: the wheels.
Sinclair Zeta from 2004:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/g8koe/c5martin/zeta.htm
Chainsaws are cheap. The other day I walked behind a warehouse and there was an electric one jammed blade-deep into an iced-over snowbank.
Some of the ideas put forth are old. Motor assist for pedal bicycles has been around practically since small gas engines were available. Electric assist is newer, but still not by much. Battery and solid state technology are making it much more capable than what we had even a few decades ago.
What is interesting is combining all this into a unit which can be installed "in seconds". That opens its use up to some applications for which motor assist may not have made much sense in the past.
Oh, and all the carping about 3D printing? Sure, its not economic for mass production. But it has its place for smaller shops who need too knock off a few prototypes quickly and cheaply. Once the design is finalized, more traditional fabrication techniques can be used.
Have gnu, will travel.
Seriously am I the only person who has been to China? E-bikes are the most common form of transport in most cites in China and retail at about USD $400. His unit is $1200 and has less features that a $400 e-bike. Does no one do their homework anymore before launching a new product?
It mentions 18 miles per hour in the article for the top speed, but I wonder if that's for 'not' or 'barely' pedaling. Can it take somebody with a max speed of 15mph pedaling on their own and get them up to 20 if they're really working at it?
but to fat and lazy to actually ride a bike enough to be in good enough shape to travel 20 miles without breaking a sweat.
Consider that there's a lot of work and sweat between 'fat&lazy' and 'slim&active'. Most people have limited choice about distance from work. A device that gets them started, to actually do it, can be of great assistance. I know there's a few hills where I would have liked this thing just for that spot. I'd still have to help it up, of course.
What about the guy who needs to travel 30 miles, and this is the difference between him biking and driving?
In other words, biking shouldn't be about exclusivity.
Selling millions - Not if it can only fit on one bike type. Fix that and maybe.
I don't read AC A human right
Yep, 3D printing, were the per unit price is likely 10x more than other techniques ...
That goes well with the one-grand-plus pricetag for a device that should be selling for a couple hundred bux or less in mass production.
If this catches on I expect to see an injection-molded version closer to the price I mentioned. Either this guy will go to that as he ramps up or the Chinese/Koreans/whatever will have a knockoff out in a few months after it catches on.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way