By Andrew Liszewski
Adding an electric or even gas powered motor to your bicycle can help extend its range and make it a truly viable alternative to a car for commuting. But it’s not always an easy, or cheap, conversion. Mechanical Engineering student (and coolest name of the day winner) Maxwell von Stein might have come up with a reasonably simple alternative. His Flywheel Bicycle features a – you guessed it – built-in flywheel that harnesses the bike’s energy that’s usually lost when braking. When coming to a stop the kinetic energy is instead transferred to the 15 pound flywheel as it spins up. Then, at some point while riding, the energy in the flywheel can be transferred back to the bike’s rear wheel giving the rider an extra kick or boost.
Maxwell’s goal is to see flywheel technology adopted into cars, but hopefully something will come of his bicycle design as it’s a relatively uncomplicated way to add the benefits of regenerative braking to a pedal-powered bike.
[ NPR – Video Pick: Flywheel Bicycle ] VIA [ Ubergizmo ]
I’d save the 15lbs weight difference and cost of putting the fly-wheel on the bike and buy a lighter bike with better components. And as far as extending the range of the bicycles goes, I suggest we all get in better shape.
Copenhagen Wheel
Engineers…always trying to improve on something by making it more complicated. Heck, most people barely know how to walk and chew gum. This will never “fly”.