Idea of the Day - A Very Special Bicycle

Todays Idea of the Day is actually several ideas that you'll have to imagine as one since I don't have the photoshop/GIMP skills to dummy up an image. So use your imagination, if you would.


We'll start with this:



A bike from TidalForce. It's pretty dang tight. Those funky looking hubs are the motors and the thing has regenerative brakes. Very cool. Enough for an idea all by itself but today is value added day so I'm taking it farther.

The TidalForce bike is foldable, but not down to the point I want to get to. So we're going to steal the motors, brakes, etc. off of it and use them on this:




"Bike Friday folding bicycles, travel bicycles and folding bike accessories

Folding bike, travel bike, collapsible bike ... no matter what you name it, only one bicycle folds in seconds, packs into a standard airline suitcase and "Rides as good as your best bike". That's how former Bicycling executive editor Ed Pavelka of RoadBikeRider.com famously described the world's leading performance travel bicycle."


The TidalForce is foldable but not to the same extent as this one so we're going to combine them. Cool huh? A small, foldable electric assist bicycle.

But in the words of Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, I'm just gettin started.


Let's swap out the chain and gears with one of these:



I understand that the chain setup is tried and true, but I like the shaft drive better for what I'm thinking about.

Now we'll head back over to TidalForce and grab:




A spare battery. I like their setup and with a little tweaking that rack could do quiet a bit of duty. I _love_ that you can easily unplug this battery if you know that you don't need the extra range/speed and save the weight.

I don't think we're quite done though. We need something to keep it in out of the weather and from getting banged up in its corner of the trunk. Luckily Bike Friday already has made something that is damn near perfect.




A basic suitcase with a twist.



It's also a trailer.

And here it is all packed away




We'll add a socket to the case to let the batteries charge while it's in it's cornor of the trunk. A little circuitry to the car itself to keep the charger from draining the car battery plus a couple of solar panels on the parcel shelf/dash to help with all of this

What do we end up with? A portable, electric assist bicycle that fits in to a fairly small area, requires little upkeep and gives low emmissions. It will run up to 40 miles (64 km) without pedaling with a top speed of 20 mph (32 km/h). Its case provides a trailer if needed or just use some soft sided panniers for the days shopping and leave the case in the car or office. With a little clever design you could make a soft sided case that transformed into something to carry the load when you were riding that would let you fold it all up giving you yet more flexibility

And that is the idea for the day. Don't expect this kind of thought every day, I type too slow