There’s something undeniably cool about bicycles that offer no clue that they’re electric. We’re not talking about the mechanical doping antics of some pro riders, but rather the super-discreet town bikes that do such an clever job at hiding their batteries and motors. Take, for example, the Cooper E, which features a fully integrated battery and motor unit in the…
We treat kids like pests, but the real plague is our refusal to design cities in favour of people. Here in Britain, there’s a company selling the Mosquito, a device designed to emit an unbearably high-pitched sound only kids can hear. According to the website, the device is aimed at people ‘fed up with groups of kids damaging their property, hanging…
Why do we allow the sale of motorised vehicles capable of breaking local and national speed limits? Nobody would suggest that cars driven within speed limits present no road danger, but we have yet to hear a rational argument for why cars need the ability to exceed the speed limit. Four in 10 drivers admit they sometimes break 30 mph speed limits…
A small and stylish-looking electric motor that clips to any bicycle in seconds aims to revolutionise the electric bike market. Most conversion kits available currently weigh in at 10-15kg and require a toolbox and some skills in electronics and mechanics to install them. According to the designers of the Rubbee, most electric bike conversion kits make your bike look like a DIY…
Bicycles don’t need indicators or brake lights (although on London’s super-busy cycle superhighways, the latter might be useful for cyclists to signal between themselves) but neither of these features are the best thing about the Magnic Microlight. They claim to be the world’s first contactless rim dynamos that work (non-magnetic) aluminium wheels and deliver bright light without any batteries, wheel-contact, cables…
19/01/18
