...more recent posts
Wednesday, Jul 19, 2006
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Turn your bicycle into a moped with revopower
The good folks at RevoPower claim they’re re-inventing the wheel. And, let me tell you, I’m wanting to believe them. Here’s the deal. You take your current bicycle (be it a mountain bike, a cruiser or a commuter bike), you remove the front wheel, and replace it with RevoPower’s. A little wiring here and there, nothing too hard, and you’re set. Then, you go out biking, as usual. But, say you’re growing tired, or you hit a slope and you’re just lazy… well, press a button, and the integrated commercial grade, 23cc two-stroke engine will kick in. You get 1.1 HP or 0.8 KW power output with a maximum rpm 7500 to help you along the way. On a flat surface, the engine will even take you up to speeds of 20mph, with a merciful 200mpg.Nothing too amazing here, except click through and look at the picture. It's really slick how integrated it is with the wheel. Seems like it would be really easy to switch front wheels back and forth between this, and your traditional bike wheel.
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
anybody notice some car ads on tv are suddenly touting gas mileage again?
Top 10 Gas Unguzzlers:
1. Honda Insight — 60/66
2. Toyota Prius — 60/51*
3. Honda Civic Hybrid — 49/51*
4. Volkswagen Golf TDI — 37/44
Volkswagen New Beetle TDI — 37/44
5. Volkswagen Jetta TDI — 36/41
6. Toyota Corolla — 32/41
7. Scion xA — 32/37
8. Hyundai Accent — 32/35
Kia Rio — 32/35
9. Honda Civic — 30/40*
10. Pontiac Vibe — 30/36
Toyota Matrix — 30/36
Sunday, Apr 30, 2006
Friday, Apr 28, 2006
future kos series on renewables.
I haven't read it yet, so I'm not sure if it confirms or denies my skeptical take on most alternate energy sources, but Popular Mechanics has a new article that chrunches the numbers. Seems like the right place to start.
Students from the Danish college of technology (DTU) have develeped a new and innovative fuelsystem which eleminates the loss of hydrogen in a fuel cell.
By eleminating the loss of hydrogen in the fuel cells, the Danish students have made hydrogen power "cost efficient" and have layed a major piece in the hydrogen engine puzzle.
The new fuel system was developed while working on the new hydrogen car "DTU Dynamo". Last year the car set a new world record by driving 15 miles on 0,35 ounces of hydrogen. This equals to the 450 miles per gallon of gas.
This new invention has already been patented, and a new development is said to be underway.
A tiny chemical reactor that can convert vegetable oil directly into biodiesel could help farmers turn some of their crops into homegrown fuel to operate agricultural equipment instead of relying on costly imported oil.Cool. Stuff like this is important. But as usual the article doesn't mention the problematic stuff, like, we use incredible amounts of oil products in agriculture. So switching to biodiesel may well be part of some solution, but it doesn't replace our dependence on "costly imported oil."