From: Damien Broderick (damienb@unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Wed Aug 27 2003 - 19:59:46 MDT
An Aussie has come up with something innovative along these lines:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ss/stories/s916760.htm
Broadcast Saturday 16/08/2003
Electric Bicycle
Summary:
After producing a solar car Dean Patterson began work on
an electric bicycle, and now he's had an order from India for
3,000,000. Robyn Williams watched a demonstration.
Transcript:
Dean Patterson: This is an almost final version. We’re
making two prototypes now to be tested and we’re asking
people to break them if they possibly can. I’m a classic
professional breaker of bicycles and things.
Robyn Williams: Well, it looks like a normal bike, the
normal size and it’s got a lumpy bit down on the front wheel
which is not too cumbersome, and the idea that I had that it
was going to be a pretty weighty impediment evaporates
immediately.
Dean Patterson: Yes, we originally designed it as a retrofit
kit; that is, you’d take your normal bicycle and just replace
the front wheel, put a couple of instruments on the handlebar
and clip in a battery. And yes, the front wheel has a rather
larger hub that you’d expect and we now have got the mass
of the motor down to about three and a half kilograms.
We’ve also managed to get all of the electronics into the
front wheel, you can actually see it.
Robyn Williams: And a mini computer screen on the front.
Dean Patterson: Yes, absolutely. We’re talking to
manufacturers in Singapore, now to Taiwan to produce a
more sophisticated version, something that looks like the
little cat eye that you put on bicycles rather than this large
chunky device we have.
etc.
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