Flywheel bicycle offers a timely boost

Getting around the town on a bicycle is one of the greenest methods, what with ever increasing fuel prices making many people think three times before they purchase another gas guzzler. After all, if the public transportation system in your area is decent enough to get around, why not give it a go? Who knows, you might even run into a long lost friend on the bus which you definitely won’t if you’re driving your own car. Maxwell von Stein, a 22 year-old Cooper Union graduate, prefers the bicycle as his transportation of choice, where he has built a bicycle which relies on a flywheel to store extra energy.

He will need not brake unless he really needs to, but instead, he will slow the entire bicycle down by transferring the kinetic energy from the back wheel into the flywheel – which will spin between the bars of the frame. When he needs an energy boost, he will be able to transfer the flywheel energy back to the wheel. Seems like a simple enough system, how come no one else came forward to do something like this? Guess there is always a first time for everything – you go, Max! Check out a video of the Flywheel bicycle after the jump.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Gadgets, Green, Transportation
Tags: bicycle