Padded Shorts » treehugger

World bicycle relief

extra — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 10:56:58 +0000

World bicycle relief is something that I can support and will.

They are training people how to fix a bicycle in a place where there isn’t a bicycle shop that can service your bicycle for 400 km. The bicycles they are building are simple, not light weight since they are build to take up to 100Kg. Using a bicycle riding a bicycle increases one’s capacity to carry by 5 times. And you can easy do a journey on your bicycle where it would take up to four times longer on foot.

World Bicycle Relief was founded in 2005 by SRAM Corporation and Trek Bicycle in response to the December 2004 tsunami that swept the Indian Ocean, and now they are doing Project Zambia.

World Bicycle Relief has partnered with a USAID-funded, World Vision-led coalition of relief organizations to address the HIV/AIDS crisis in Zambia. We will provide 23,000 bicycles to community home-based care volunteers, disease prevention educators and vulnerable households. We are also training and equipping more than 400 bicycle mechanics in the field. The program will reach more than 500,000 adults, orphans and vulnerable children.

Tendai’s Dream, is a great story how a bicycle helped her to get to and from her school 5 miles away. If a bicycle can help her and make her life better, think what it could do to you here in London, where I’m sure that you are living much closer.

LINK : velonews : world bicycle project zambia
LINK : world bicycle relief

Pump your lights

extra — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:27:53 +0000

Yeah I know you might think I have lost it here, but now I do mean pump your light. As in charge your lights while pumping.

Now what a great idea have a light that you charge while pumping or just use your pump to charge when your batteries are running a bit low.

20 seconds of pumping suffices for 45 minutes of track-illuminating LED power. Simply pump up your tires, or perform the pumping motions merely to recharge the device, then clamp it into its holder and away you go.

Even though it did win a Eurobike 2009 award it is still just a prototype.

LINK : treehugger – bike light tire pump recharges while pumping.
LINK : formpasch – PUYL bicycle pump and portable light combined

Pardo, a tricycle ?

extra — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:42:53 +0000

Now this tricycle looks a bit mad in a good way.

Instead of pedalling you have to kick/push with your legs to get the trike to move forward. It does looks fast and very suspensioned (if that is a word) which it has to be since you are laying on your chest on the tricycle.

I wonder if it fits a 6’4″ person. The best part is that the tricycle can be folded up for easy storing and when you are moving about when off the trike.

Can I have a go, please ?

LINK : treehugger – Move Like a Cheetah with this Incredible Human Powered Vehicle

Self-Powered Laser For Safer Night Cycling

extra — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:07:58 +0000

This is a self powered laser light, the battery that is recharged via a dynamo and this is what it does …

The laser draws an ellipse of light that is sensitive to anything crossing the perimeter. If a car comes too close, the light becomes red and all the horns will go off – until the car moves away.

As the article states you can’t rely on “standard-fare reflectors that may or may not reflect properly, depending on the angle of the car headlights hitting you”. So I agree that anything that could help you to be seen on the road at night is a good idea.

Though looking at the drawings this very visible ellipse it is very close to the bicycle and if it only turns red when a vehicle that close to the bicycle. Then that vehicle is way to close to the bicycle already and can’t see the light anyway because it is beamed to the floor. And also this thing will go on and off all the time if you are living and cycling within a busy city like London. Other cyclist, pedestrians and cars are that close to you pretty much already. And what is going to happen if you pass a lamp post or other street furniture.

Hmm, hock it up with a sound system and a few other bike rides and you have a moving disco :)

LINK: treehugger.com : self powered laser for safer night cycling

Recycle your bicycle

extra — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:06:16 +0000

Today when I went out with our recycle box to our recycle bin, I found a bicycle inside.

Well it was a classic BSO and in bad nick. Unfortunately, your LBS will not take this bicycle in and give it a new life. It will simply cost too much to get it back on the road. But by all means it is not the end of its life as a bicycle. With a bit of TLC and some spare parts you could get this up and running again as your backup bicycle.

Or you could give it to some of the various organisations who will happily take your old bicycle and do their best to give new life to it.

Here are a few below …

UK Based :
www.re-cycle.org – Bicycle Aid for Africa: Re-Cycle’s mission is to collect second hand bicycles and ship them to Africa. Our partners distribute bikes and teach riders the skills to repair and maintain them. Our bikes also help health/AIDS workers reach remote villages and even provide an ambulance service in remote Namibia.

www.bikerecycling.net/: It’s a directory of all the community projects, non-profit businesses, training and rehabilitation schemes and other projects that are happy to receive your donations of bikes, parts, accessories etc – and of course financial donations…

www.uk.freecycle.org/: Well at least just put it on this website and I’m sure that someone will be around shortly to pick it up.

www.bikeworks.org.uk: We recycle & refurbish used and abandoned bikes so that they can be re used or when this isn’t possible materials (steel, aluminium) are put into the recycling system.

www.thebikestation.org.uk/: The Bike Station is Edinburgh’s bicycle recycling and cycling promotion charity. We repair unwanted bikes and put them back on the road.

Even State side they are at it.
www.recycleabicycle.org/: Recycle-a-Bicycle is a community-based bike shop and non-profit organization that provides educational/job training programs and encourages environmental stewardship and everyday bicycle use. Through programs such as Earn-A-Bike, Ride Club, Cycle Craft, and Summer Youth Employment Program, RAB is dedicated to the health and well-being of NYC youth.

These are by all means not the only ones, this was just found after a quick googling around on the net, there are plenty more out there.

The Plug

extra — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:14:03 +0000

The Plug from Tout Terrain is probably the simplest, cleanest and neatest looking gizmo that I have seen. When it comes to things that you can plug to your dyno hub and charge other things with. Because it is integrated into a standard bicycle steer tube where you plug your USB powered device into and while you ride your bicycle it will charge.

Others I have seen looks bulky and easy to nick because you are strapping it to the bicycle frame. The way that the Plug is hidden into the steer tube you do not have to worry about it.

The Plug is the world’s first power supply for devices such as mobile phones, Ipod® and GPS that is fully integrated into a standard bicycle steer tube.
The Plug offers an independent and eco-friendly power source for any bicycle rider, who is looking forward to supply electronic devices such as mobile phones, Ipod® and GPS while riding.
It can be mounted on nearly any bicycle and its integration into the steer tube offers a clean bike design and theft protection.

The Plug converts power from an existing dynamo hub into USB Standard.
A USB interface allows to run external devices, that i.e. can be mounted to the handlebar or stored in front bags.

Especially touring cyclists, commuters and messengers benefit from The Plugs features such as:

* Eco friendly power supply for USB devices via dynamo hub
* supplies GPS devices, Ipod ® or MP3 Player, mobile phones
* fully integrated into steer shaft for a clean bike design
* On/Off switch to avoid idle consumption when not used

By the look of it it will be available from Bikefix in Central London for the UK and should go for 209 SFR which is about £126, give and take few currency deals.

The Plug is very high on my list of stuff to get, even though it is limited to only charging USB able gizmo’s. But then again all my eletronic bit are USB so I really don’t need various plugs.

LINK : http://www.tout-terrain.de – The Plug

E-WERK

extra — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:03:14 +0000

The E-WERK from Busch & Müller KG can only be the bee’s knees, if it as good as their lights.

For all those who do not want to go cycling without their mobile phones, GPS, MP3 players and other electronic devices and do not have access to a stationary charging station comes the “bike mobile” E-WERK. If the compact device is connected to the hub dynamo, the electricity generated by the cyclist’s muscle power does not have to be used by only the lighting fixtures but can alternatively be processed by E-WERK.

It comes with all the adapters you can shake a stick at, so I really doubt that you will end up with a gizmo that you can’t charge. The E-WERK have two turning knobs controlling voltage (2.8 to 13.3 V) and current (0.1 to 1,5 A) which makes it much easier to control what you need charged. I wonder since it can do up to 13.3 V if it should have enough juice in it to power one of these mini pc’s for a while.

Looks like the going price is 139 euros which is around £127 give and take.

LINK : http://bumm.de – E-WERK

BioLogic ReeCharge from Dahon

extra — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:43:07 +0000

In my search for finding a way to charge my power hungry iPhone while out and about. I found this, the BioLogic ReeCharge from Dahon. Now that is a cool little thing there is not much information about how many phones you can charge and how long it takes to charge the BioLogic, though it does say “The ReeCharge will fully charge an Apple iPhone in under three hours”. And that “The ReeCharge can be charged by wall adapter or by USB from any computer” which is good if your commute is short.

The unit doesn’t look big which I like when you want to pack it away. From watching the youtube clip it looks very easy to install and use.

The ReeCharge will be available worldwide in March 2010 at a suggested retail price of €79 and US$99. Now that is good news and it is not to expensive.

VELO-CITY GLOBAL 2010

extra — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:03:05 +0000

Well it looks like I will be in CPH next year for this. Do you think that we can get London to join in and go over there and learn something ?

Copenhagen, June 22-25, 2010

The European Cyclists’ Federation, the City of Frederiksberg and the City of Copenhagen are excited to invite you to the first ever VELO-CITY GLOBAL 2010, a conference that brings together cycling experts, city planners, decision makers, NGOs and researchers from all over the world to discuss the potential and challenges of cycling.

The conference will take place in the heart of Copenhagen, one of the world’s most inspiring cycling cities, and will offer you first hand experience of the city’s many innovative initiatives in the field of cycling.

…

With Velo-city Global 2010, we aim for a living, learning and constructive conference. We expect approximately 1000 participants from 100 different countries. As our conference is the first Velo-city with a global scope, special effort will be focused on highlighting the global flavour of the conference with respect to participants, speakers and topics. Furthermore, we have chosen to make Velo-city Global 2010 a conference focused on learning. This means that engagement, interaction and knowledge sharing will be integrated throughout the conference programme. The conference will take advantage of Copenhagen’s leading position as a cycling city, and through site visits will draw attention to ongoing projects of benchmark quality.

LINK : VELO-CITY GLOBAL 2010

Pedal Power +

extra — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:33:40 +0000

I have been looking around for something that could charge my mobile phone and mp3 player while riding. I got a SON Dyno hub and wondered if there was anything that would collect the power I’m generating while cycling in the day time when I didn’t need the lights on.

I found this one Pedal Power + which looks promising. There is 3 models atm, two of them have the added bonus that they also have solar panels in them so when you are having a rest in the sun they will still charge.

PedalPower+ is an innovation that allows bike riders to recharge their mobile phones, GPS and other small devices in a safe and regulated process from a bicycle hub or bottle dynamo.

In the ‘old’ days, a bicycle dynamo was only used for one thing, bicycle lighting, which was the only electronic application that a rider needed. If you needed a telephone, you found a public phone box, if you needed to find your way you looked at a map

While the application for lighting still exists today, far more is needed, modern riders use mobile phones, GPS and need to have easy electronic answers to recharging, small devices that require 5v up to 600mA, DC input to recharge them. Appliances like GPS, mobile phones, AA and AAA batteries, digital cameras, MP3, iPod and iPhone, to name a few.

At PedalPower+ we provide the solution. Our range of products gives you a complete system by generating energy while on your bike, using that energy to recharge your device while riding, collecting and storing all or part of the energy and using the collected energy to charge devices while not riding. How easy.

They are also making the world first DC power Dyno Hub, which make it easier to charge your small electronic hungry gadgets.

And best of all you can get an adapter which can charge your AAA batteries too, so this little thing is quite handy. They say on their website that they are looking into getting dealers in Europe and the US.