Segway inventor Dean Kamen is developing a hybrid electric scooter that can run on almost anything that burns.
According to the patent, the bike has a small two-piston Stirling engine right under the seat. Though with an engine of that size, it really isn’t going to provide much juice - not much more than 5bhp.
A Stirling engine is based on tech which predates internal combustion engines by almost 100 years. It’s kinda like a steam engine in the sense that it uses external combustion. They use pistons for the crankshaft, but unlike the alternatives they have no valves for no gas ever enters or leaves the cylinders.
By Ariel Schwartz •
September 2, 2008
VentureBeat reports that PowerGenix has developed a nickel zinc (NiZn) battery that has 35 percent higher power and energy density than a nickel metal hydride (NiMH) battery (used in hybrid vehicles), but is half the cost of a lithium-ion battery.
This is great news for scooter fanatics, who right now are forced to choose between cheap scooters with lead-acid batteries and expensive scooters with powerful lithium-ion batteries.
Editor’s note: The phrase “greener transportation options” conjures up images of hybrid cars, bicycles, and buses. This week, Adam at Life Goggles takes a look at at yet another option: the Magic Wheel. This post was originally published on Friday, March 21, 2008.
If you ever look what category posts on Life Goggles are put in, you may notice this one says Product Reviews, but also Transport. That’s in the loosest sense of the word as I haven’t been able to go anywhere on this yet.
But I’m jumping ahead. The Magic Wheel, as you can see from the videos and pictures, is a cross between a unicycle, skateboard and scooter. Sort of. It’s a wheel with steps either side (and a shopping trolley/cart wheel on the back) that you have one foot on while you push off with the other like a skateboard until you reach sufficient speed to put both feet either side and glide to your destination. Well glide for a bit until you need to start pushing again.
First of all - it’s trickier than it looks in the promotions video - check out my video for my (embarrassingly, not first) attempts at mastering the Magic Wheel. I know April 1st is coming, so I might as well look at fool. To be fair, I’m not very good at skateboarding, etc., which I think would have helped, but it’s a bit tricky and young, cool kids are probably better at it than me. The package comes with some vague safety instructions and a dvd with some dubious English subtitles. But between them they tell you enough about the product to be able to give it a go.
