Hybrid Bike
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This is an amazing TV News video report on a guy, Michael Brown, who retrofitted his bicycle into a hybrid electric bike. See more description and the report below. Broadcast on TV in May 2006. You can also find a text report below, plus links to other posts on ebikes.
"Man Motors On Hybrid Bike"
May 10, 2006
It may not be everyman's answer to escalating gas prices, but for Michael Brown of Franklin, Tennessee, strapping on a helmet and hopping on his ‘electric’ bike is healthy and economical. Brown said now that gas prices are so high, the bike has already paid for itself in gas savings.
Brown's retro-fitted mountain bike is powered by a $150 dollar German-made brushless 400-watt electric motor in the hub of the front-wheel and two light-weight nickel-metal batteries. “All we had to do was just take the tire off the original one and put it on that one, put the batteries on put the wires on and it was all set to go,” said Brown.
Wires from the battery pack to the motor run neatly along the mainframe and the throttle is much like a motorcycle. It cost Brown $1,300 to build the bike from scratch, but some racing bikes can run over $2,000.
At a cost of 2 cents of electricity for a 50-mile charge, Brown saidthe savings are worth every penny. He said he uses the bike more than his car. Brown must peddle to five mph before the motor can kick-in but said he still peddles most of the time for exercise anyway.
The longest trip Brown has made was120 miles to visit his mom in south Tennessee. Brown has clocked over 15,000 miles and on the bike and has saved over $2,500 dollars worth of gas at today's prices.
If you'd like to learn more about Brown's electric bike visit www.endless-sphere.com
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5 comments:
I am developing several Hybrid electric vehicles. i am keen to intrest to send snaps of my developed vehicles hence kindly give me assistance to send me my vehicles details. My webpage is www.geocities.com/itvd2004/index.html
A Japanese technology website picked up this story (English Translation of Japanese website using Google Language translator)
Electric Bicycles and Electric Scooters
Elmo The Electric Bike and Electric Scooter Guy
This is an excellent blog for electric bicycles. There are not too many around like this. Thanks for making this such an interesting subject. Oh, by the way, Wired Magazine has a great article on hybrid cars this month. (Jan 2008 issue).
God Bless,
Elmo
I just heard a report on the radio that either there was going to be a very high tax or a ban completely on electric scooters and bicycles. I got so damn mad I thought my head was going to break open. The reason for the ban was because of studies showing that the batteries on these vehicles were too volatile and were prone to explosions.
I think they are initially going to say there is a ban when there really isn't one, so that the tax on them won't seem so bad.
Anyway, I wrote an article on the story on my blog at www.electricbikesnscooters.com
I wish this can be legal in Japan... Unfortunately the refitted with self-operating motor the bike would be considered a light motorcycle in Japan, which has quite strict regulation starting with requirement to fit a break lamp and so on.
By the way, Google's translator is very very bad at English-Japanese, though I can't recommend any alternatives (Google's is the most unlimited free service indeed).
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