Those smart guys over at MIT SENSEable City lab have developed a wheel that can be retrofitted to a regular bike. The Copenhagen wheel is here

cph_002

Acting in a similar way to hybrid energy drives in cars it stores the kinetic energy generated from cycling and braking and stores it for later use when you really need it. That’s smart, but really just an adaption of existing technology.

It is covered in the NY Times here What gets less attention is what I think is the really smart bit, the telematics, which gathers environmental and ride data for display to the user, or for aggregation by city planners to build spatial maps.

I’d ditch the drivetrain and provide just the sensor part allowing the unit to be much smaller and therefore less intrusive visually. If you want a motor, get a moped.

The mayors seem to like it.

MIT Mayors

Green gimmick or something useful ?