The ezycommuter and more
It has been a crazy week for me so far and I don’t foresee a slow down in the next couple of days. I will be leaving for a 2 week long business trip next week, so I have a lot to do in the office and at home before I hit the road (or I guess I should say hit the air since I will be flying). I had a different post planned, but I have too much on my mind to collect my thoughts. Instead I will pass along some good links which have recently come to my attention.
A friend who lives in Taiwan pointed me to this article about the Easy commuting electric bicycle. The two wheel drive electric bike, which I assume will only be available in Japan, sounds pretty interesting; the front wheel is powered by the motor and the rear wheel by the rider. Sanyo claims that the 1:2 assist ratio makes riding the bike easier. As the Akihabara News article points out, the ebike can be about 70% power assisted and 30% rider powered. The most important feature, which they point out, is the self-charging (Loop Charge Function) Eneloop battery. It apparently provides a cruising range of 100km in automatic mode. I am not sure how this self charging battery works, but I would love to hear more from anyone who is knowledgeable on the subject.
This blog posted an interesting QA. James is an industrial designer, formerly with Ziba, who left the world of product design consulting to start his own design company. He talks about his reasons for the switch in the post. I think it is very interesting and I think you will too.
Best electric bicycle and folding electric bike at