Another great bike has recently made its appearance this year. In Shanghai at the 9th China International Exhibition on Gas Technology, Equipment and Applications the hydrogen prototype bike was introduced.
Shanghai Pearl Hydrogen Power Source Technology Co. is the innovative company behind this new bike. In the future they hope to expand their technology to other forms of transportation such as golf carts and motorbikes.
The hydrogen fueled bike can go about 60 miles at about 15.5 m/h. Not to bad for a bike. Don't you think?
The bikes' components are also lighter than those used in electric bikes. What other advantage does this hydrogen-fueled bike have over an electric one? The hydrogen-fueled bike has a battery tank and a pair of hydrogen gas bottles that take only 30 minutes to refill, whereas an electric bike can take up to 3 hours to recharge. Owners just need to order the gas refills from local suppliers
The cost? This innovative, but not so pretty puke-green bike is at a price of $2,632, but mass production should help the price go down.
Friday, September 25, 2009
IRiver NV Mini Bike Edition--The Navigation System For Your Bike
Based on iRiver's NV car navigation system, the NV mini bike edition takes the nav system to the car's two-wheeled cousin. While it looks rather huge and dangerous in the close-up below, it's actually much more manageable than it looks and is comparable in size to other bike computers and GPS units.
Like the NV, the unit uses a touchscreen, which is scaled down to a 3.5-inch 320 x 240 size. However, iRiver has scaled up the sizing of the interface to make it more friendly to glove-wearing cyclists. With that interface, cyclists get all kinds of functions including GPS, music playback and stat calculation such as speed, distance and time. The iRiver even offers Points of Interest, providing quick info access to places like bike shops, coffee shops and restaurants. It includes both built-in speakers for annoying the neighborhood and a 3.5mm jack for those that prefer to keep it personal.
Unfortunately for us cyclists and bikers here in the States, this one is only available in Korea at the moment, and there's no word if it will make it over. Given the trendiness and popularity of biking, though, we can hold out some hope. It sells for the equivalent of $156--not bad for what's basically a GPS, multimedia player and cycling computer rolled into one.
Like the NV, the unit uses a touchscreen, which is scaled down to a 3.5-inch 320 x 240 size. However, iRiver has scaled up the sizing of the interface to make it more friendly to glove-wearing cyclists. With that interface, cyclists get all kinds of functions including GPS, music playback and stat calculation such as speed, distance and time. The iRiver even offers Points of Interest, providing quick info access to places like bike shops, coffee shops and restaurants. It includes both built-in speakers for annoying the neighborhood and a 3.5mm jack for those that prefer to keep it personal.
Unfortunately for us cyclists and bikers here in the States, this one is only available in Korea at the moment, and there's no word if it will make it over. Given the trendiness and popularity of biking, though, we can hold out some hope. It sells for the equivalent of $156--not bad for what's basically a GPS, multimedia player and cycling computer rolled into one.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Human Hair in Solar Panels Make Solhair Power
Another reuse for human hair has been discovered thanks to a young bright man from Nepal. Using human hair, the young man and his friends, invented a method to power more affordable solar panels for their village and hopefully the rest of the world. Is it Solhair Power?
The young man, Milan Karki, comes from a village in rural Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world. In Nepal it is difficult for many to access electricity. For those fortunate enough to have electricity, shortages are still a big problem.
Solar panels would provide the much needed electricity for places like Nepal all over the world, but solar panels do not come cheaply. They are expensive to make and maintain. So, as part of school project and a life long dream, Milan with his friends, came up with an idea to replace silicon with human hair, an inexpensive conductor.
In doing this solar production would be cheaper. Replacing the worn used hair with new hair when needed is also said to be easy and could be done by anyone, making maintenance cheaper as well. The question is, does it really work? Yes.
Milan has managed to charge a mobile phone
as well as run a pack of batteries that can provide light all evening. His hairy solar panel produces 9 V of energy and costs about $38 to make. On a grand scale or even a small scale what does this mean for the rest of the world? Obviously if Milan succeeds and his invention is successful and mass-produced the world will have an inexpensive solar powered option that it currently does not have. The poorest parts of the world could have access to electricity and the rest of the world could inexpensively convert to solar power.
The young man, Milan Karki, comes from a village in rural Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world. In Nepal it is difficult for many to access electricity. For those fortunate enough to have electricity, shortages are still a big problem.
Solar panels would provide the much needed electricity for places like Nepal all over the world, but solar panels do not come cheaply. They are expensive to make and maintain. So, as part of school project and a life long dream, Milan with his friends, came up with an idea to replace silicon with human hair, an inexpensive conductor.
In doing this solar production would be cheaper. Replacing the worn used hair with new hair when needed is also said to be easy and could be done by anyone, making maintenance cheaper as well. The question is, does it really work? Yes.
Milan has managed to charge a mobile phone
as well as run a pack of batteries that can provide light all evening. His hairy solar panel produces 9 V of energy and costs about $38 to make. On a grand scale or even a small scale what does this mean for the rest of the world? Obviously if Milan succeeds and his invention is successful and mass-produced the world will have an inexpensive solar powered option that it currently does not have. The poorest parts of the world could have access to electricity and the rest of the world could inexpensively convert to solar power.
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