Greenwheel

Scientists at MIT have created a bike wheel that houses its own electric motor to provide extra power to standard pedal bikes. The idea is simple, remove your existing tire and replace it with the Greenwheel. Inside the 2 inch thick aluminum frame sits the 3 major components, an electric generator, batteries, and an electric motor. Unlike many other systems for bikes which create electric power have many cords running throughout out the bike to the throttle, but the Greenwheel uses wireless technology. Instillation does require some amount of knowledge about bikes but a quick stop at a bike shop will easily do the trick. The Greenwheel can be installed on any type of bike or frame. The greenwheel can be equipped on the front, rear, or both parts of the bike. It is estimated that a rider can travel up to 25 miles on the batterie and that distance is doubled with the pedals being utilized. Also the batteries can be recharged through plugging it into a wall or pedaling also charges the batteries. The Greenwheel is also durable, researchers  believe the Greenwheel has a range of about 40,000 miles, or about 8 years of use with 20 miles driven per business day. The team hopes to turn out over a dozen Greenwheel configurations to hard-core bikers and novice riders by this spring. Once the team finds the optimal power, speed, and cost they hope to begin large scale production. In preparation for the 2010 world cup Copenhagen and South Africa have shown interest in utilizing the Greenwheel for public transportation. Many people are finding the advantage of the Greenwheel in the form of getting people out of cars and onto bikes and public transportation to help cut the use of fossil fuels and carbon emissions. Also the Greenwheel is  made from environmentally friendly materials. An exact cost has not been found for the product but one of the Greenwheel designers Ryan Chin believes a privately purchased Greenwheel will be around several hundred dollars. Rod Sadowski of the Active Transportation Alliance thinks the Greenwheel could encourage people to ditch their car and turn to biking but he also says "The biggest barrier to people getting out of cars and riding is that they don't feel safe, as a society we need to place a stronger focus on creating laws to stop incidents from occurring and on upgrading infrastructure to make every road bike-friendly." I feel the Greenwheel is a great invention that will help promote biking and also help people during these tough economic times. Also the product is great for the environment which is on everyone's mind during these times. I agree with Sadowski many people are afraid of biking on open roads so they just keep using their cars. The Greenwheel is only appealing to certain people. Those who live in close proximity to their jobs and places that they frequent often are attracted to this product. People who live at a longer range of such places are not very tempted to engage in the use of a Greenwheel instead of their cars. 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29259226/