Recent Comments:
Clean Power Technologies still working on new steam-assisted cars {Autoblog Green}
Sep 5th 2008 9:07PM Not a bad idea. Avoids batteries.
Lots of waste heat from an internal combustion engine.
Another idea, store braking energy in the form of compressed air.
Intel updates the potential of wireless electric charging {Autoblog Green}
Aug 22nd 2008 7:49PM Nikola Tesla is giggling in his grave.
Electric bicycle sales soar world-wide {Autoblog Green}
Aug 18th 2008 2:43PM Because motorcycles and scooters must be ridden out in traffic while bicycles are ridden on the side of the road.
I have ridden both for decades.
I have never been hurt in a bicycle crash to the extent of a motorcycle crash.
The speeds of a bike are much lower and you are out of the traffic flow.
I think you would be surprised how quickly you could get around on an electric bike.
Electric bicycle sales soar world-wide {Autoblog Green}
Aug 17th 2008 9:25PM Electric bikes have a great future. It is dead serious business riding a motorcycle or motor scooter and most people would be completely turned off. I feel like I'm running for my life the entire time I'm on my motor scooter.
Riding a bicycle is far safer.
Ultra Motor 2 bring A2B 2 USA {Autoblog Green}
Aug 14th 2008 12:07AM I ride a mountain bike with 700c wheels, also known as a "29er".
The wheels take astonishing abuse on the trail. The street would be laughably easy by comparison.
They ride far more comfortably than the smaller 26" wheels usually found on mountain bikes. The wheels on this bike look like 20" to me. They would really crash into pot holes.
There is no need to reinvent the bicycle to carry batteries in the frame. I routinely carry loads that are heavier than batteries in my panniers.
The problem with the seating position of this bike is that it puts too much weight on the butt. The butt would go numb in a short amount of time. It is more comfortable and more efficient for pedaling to have the body's weight evenly distributed between the butt, feet, and arms. To achieve this the height of the saddle would have to be much nearer to height of the handlebars.
Dude! Better bicycle seat yields better sex {Autoblog Green}
Aug 13th 2008 10:43PM Another product designed by people who don't ride bikes to sell to people who don't ride bikes.
Ultra Motor 2 bring A2B 2 USA {Autoblog Green}
Aug 13th 2008 7:41PM It reminds me of Lee Iacocca's Charger bicycle.
A bike designed by guys in suits who actually no nothing about bicycles.
First of all, why design your own dual suspension frame when there are already so many designs that have been honed to perfection?
The wheels are too small. A large wheel (700c) with a 2 inch tire rolls with far less resistance and far more comfort and would need no suspension whatsoever.
The relationship of the height of the handlebar to the height of the seat is absurd.
A hub motor must run at a wide range of rpms but an electric motor is only efficient in a narrow rpm range.
A "through the gears" design is more energy efficient and has the potential for greater performance.
This bike is just plain old ugly and weird looking to this bike lover.
Shimano introduces "shift-by-wire" for high-end bicycles {Autoblog Green}
Aug 2nd 2008 8:41PM Important development.
They say it makes a perfect shift every time.
That will be important inducement for novice riders.
I'm envisioning a fully automatic mode.
Sure, it's expensive, now, but it will trickle down.
Yamaha files patent for Enduro bike with CVT transmission {Autoblog Green}
Jul 4th 2008 7:19PM What's significant about this design is that, unlike scooters, the engine does not swing up and down with the swingarm.
I have owned a large displacement scooter, 460cc, and can tell you that the swinging engine ruins handling and ride comfort.
A couple of large displacement scooters are of the non-swinging design, Honda Silverwing and Suzuki Bergman.
Aprilia has just come out with a CVT equipped road motorcycle called the Mana. There is no clutch lever and the transmission can be operated in automatic or manual mode. It has an 850cc v-twin engine. Aprilia claims it is the fastest accelerating naked bike available.
I doubt if the Aprilia or this Yamaha employ the same kind of CVT that scooters use which is simply two pulleys joined by a belt.
Audi begins fuel efficiency marathon with A4 2.0 TDI, shoots for 59mpg! {Autoblog Green}
Jun 27th 2008 4:53PM Think of what a smaller diesel engine in a smaller, lighter car would do.
