Photo: Messe Friedrichshafen, www.messe-friedrichshafen.de
Eurobike closed a successful week in which records were broken for trade visitors, public attendance, and submittals for the esteemed Eurobike awards. For the second year, a Eurobike Green Award was given to a product that "exhibits particularly significant ecological and sustainable value." This year's green award goes to a gadget a lot of people have been waiting for: a universal charger for harvesting pedal power to charge any music player, mobile phone, GPS or other electrical device. More on specs and availability of the charger for powering any gadget you own below.
The Eurobike Green Award Winner
If you enjoy having your bicycle lights powered by your hub dynamo, the
E-Werk can take you to the next level. In the words of the award jury:
E-Werk is based on a very appealing idea - generating power while riding a bike. After all, with your own muscle power, you cannot only generate electricity for your lighting, you can also use E-Werk to produce power for such modern means of communication as cell phones, GPS or MP3 players, making you completely independent of the grid in more remote areas and eliminating the need for conventional batteries.
The E-Werk universal power supply and recharger made by Busch & Müller KG in Meinerzhagen, Germany, generates up to 16 W of power with idle losses of only 0.03 W at 30km/hr (18.6mph). At 15 km/hr (9.3mph), the device recharges as fast as the average plug-in power unit. A stylus stored at the bottom of E-WERK adjusts voltage (2.8 to 13.3 V) and current (0.1 to 1,5 A) variably so that many different applications can be served.
The E-Werk weighs only 53 g and comes with two cables and a USB connector suitable for being "tinkered" onto any device. Optional extenders and cockpit adaptors reach devices anywhere on the bike and help manage all electronics within the riders view. The E-Werk is available starting in October for €139.
Comments
Hub dynamo driven electricity generation
Another excellent innovation which, like internal hub driven lights, would make cycling that much more convenient and practical .....
Why is it that while technologies like this are commonplace in places where cycling is prevalent, they are virtually unobtainable in New Zealand?
'Because there is no demand for them here " ( so I've so often been told by people in the cycle retail industry here) - Go figure ...
- If you know where this product can be obtained in New Zealand , please let me know so I can add it to my page on self-sustaining energy generation technologies:
http://urbanbicycles.googlepages.com/lightingtechnologies
Alan Preston in Mangawhai, Northland.