Ride your bike, charge your iPod or cell phone, with PedalPower+ device

August 11th, 2009 by Jeff Kart

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A recent study concluded that it’s dangerous to text while driving.

What about texting while bicycling?

That’s also not advised, but a device from a company called PedalPower+ will charge your Blackberry while you ride. It also will charge your iPod.

The device, similar to the old school dynamo systems used to power headlamps via the back wheel of a bike, also stores generated power in a battery and will charge with solar panels even when you’re not riding, according to a report from the Austrailian Broadcasting Corp.

Gizmag, a technology blog, explains that developers spent three years working on PedalPower+, to work out the kinks of safely regulating current to electronic devices via a spinning bike tire.

As a result, the patented technology will charge a mobile phone from flat to finished in about two hours, the company says.

How much? Right now, the devices are only available Down Under. But the company says it’s setting up distributors in the United States and Europe.

(Image Credit: PedalPower+. Caption: Bottle dynamo installed on the back wheel of a bicycle.)

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Tags: bike, pedalpower

About the Author

Jeff Kart is typing about issues in the Great Lakes, from advanced biofuels to zero-emission vehicles. Jeff is an environmental journalist and social media evangelist based in Michigan, where the summers are short, the winters are cold, and the stories are plentiful.

TyGoFast

You can buy one already built from this company at http://www.econvergence.netcyclech.htm I have used it for 4 months now and it works well to charge my USB powered devices.