51–60 of 172 posts
Why is there an obsession with calling things "magical"? Technology is the opposite of magic. The word "magical" both creates unrealistic expectations and handwaves over all of the incredible technology inside.
Some context: The average electric bicycle has a 300 watt motor. These baby's have 2000 watt motors (or 2 x 1000 watt motors, I couldn't tell) that are roughly a 5th of the size of an electric bike motor. Include a battery big enough to power that motor and the fact that they're adding regenerative braking, which electric bikes don't have, and this is a seriously awesome engineering challenge.
Trek's Ride+ uses regenerative breaking. http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/collections/electric_assist/f... TBH, it's not that big of a deal (over-hyped). P.S. I only mean regenerative breaking isn't that big of a deal. This product actually looks pretty cool to me.
What I'm trying to say is: Is there a long board riding tutorial for people who just want to slowly roll around, aren't really in the "skater" scene?
In the promo video they're getting onto CalTrain. I'd love it for the quick ride over to BART/CalTrain station.
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Wow. Which leads one to ask, could you just take the motors off the board and put them on a bike? What's the new tech that makes these motors possible?
Brushless motors. You could put them on a bike but then you'd break the laws governing electric bicycles (500w or 1000w limits depending on the jurisdiction).
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This is a bit different, I believe. Segways just do not look cool, and you would be kind of embarrassed riding one, unless you really don't give a fuck what the world thinks. These on the other hand are cool enough that you are ride them without looking like a clown.
Interesting fact: in Prague there are people offering sightseeing tours on Segways; it seems to be quite popular there.
I have been riding an electric skateboard through Copenhagen for a few years (Evo 600: http://en.evo-skate.com/street600wood/ ). We have great bicycle tracks all over the city which is ideal. The principle of the board is the same, board strapped with an electric motor, controlled by IR remote in the hand. I'll share a few thoughts. First off, my board has a 600 watt motor and does around 20mph, which is fast in the…
That said, 2kW is a lot of power! If all that could be instantaneously put down without wheel spin by a skateboard, I image it would shoot out from under your legs like a bullet out of a gun. Fun!
"all I could think was that this will change how we interact with our cities." Anyone else reminded of Dean Kamen's predictions for the segway?
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Brushless motors. You could put them on a bike but then you'd break the laws governing electric bicycles (500w or 1000w limits depending on the jurisdiction).
I'm not familiar with how a bike mounted motor can be tested, but unless the motor has '2000w' stamped on it, you're good to go.