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An electric bike in 60 seconds

Simone Maas
4 jun 2016
3 minuten om te lezen

Every saturday I work at a shoe-shop. This shop is located in a city that takes me about an half hour to cycle to. Let me tell you, cycling a half hour in the morning gets me sweating. Especially when I am in a hurry and the wind doesn’t cooperate. I would be more motivated to pedal this distance with a little help of electric power. The company GeoOrbital came up with bike-gadget that will even enable you to overhaul cars.

What is it?

The inventors behind the ‘GeoOrbital’ wanted to come up with something that allowed you to easily transform your ordinary bike into an e-bike. So they did. The wheel that they have designed looks very futuristic and it lives up to its expectations. Within 60 seconds you can replace your front wheel by the ‘GeoOrbital Wheel’. This wheel is supported by a strong electric motor and a battery that can make you go forward with 32 kilometres an hour. The wheel is connected to a panel on the steering-wheel. This way the driver is constantly updated about the current speed and the amount of energy that is left.

If you ask me the people of ‘GeoOrbital’ have had a lot of cycling-experience themselves. Their wheel covers many irritations of bike-riders. For example, when you have to deal with adverse wind (like I do every Saturday) you can determine how much electric pedal assistance you think is necessary. And they have also thought about the struggle of a flat tire, the wheel’s solid foam tire makes it impossible for this to happen. Even your bike lights will never give up on you again, because they can easily be charged by an USB-outlet.

Why is it cool?

Bikes partially driven by electricity aren’t anything new to the market. Nowadays for every 10 bikes that are sold in the Netherlands, 4 of them have some kind of electric assistance build in. However, there are two things that sets the ‘GeoOrbital Wheel’ apart from other e-bikes. First of all, it offers you the possibility to not even have to pedal while still moving forward. This makes cycling more accessible for people with certain disabilities. You can probably imagine the effect this can have on their quality of life. They feel more involved in every-day life and more confident about their body functions.

Secondly, this wheel can transform any bike into an electric one. There’s no need to buy a different bike, you just add the electric front wheel and you are good to go. An e-bike can easily cost you up to 2000 euros where the ‘GeoOrbital Wheel’ will be sold for a sum around 1000 euros. Maybe this reasonably priced gadget can persuade inhabitants of the city to give up on car-riding to continue their journeys by bike.

For years we have known how much car-riding can negatively effect the environment. For this reason, cities have been trying out several things to make the streets more city-proof. When you take in mind the Volkswagen-scandal it becomes even more urgent to make cycling more attractive. If we can not trust on car companies to make our cars less polluting, it may be time to switch over to another vehicle. By adding the ‘GeoOrbital Wheel’ to your trusty old bike you can transport yourself and have the gain of a bike’s sustainability without having the pain of its low speed and high sweat-factor.