Pedal-Per-Minute With Bike-Powered Cell Phone Charger
by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California 
on 12.23.08
Photo via Oscar Lhermitte
OK, so this isn’t break-through technology. But it does show the increasing availability of convenient alternative energy for charging gadgets.
Oscar Lhermitte has designed a cool cell phone charger that clips onto the reflector of your bike.
The charger just clips on, and you ride for (yes, this seems like a long time) 90 minutes for a fully charged cell phone battery. But if you only need to top off your battery, then the ride can be much shorter.
It looks pretty unobtrusive and simple – and much more streamlined than hooking a HYmini or Mini Kin onto your handlebars to whip up some wind energy. Though it does look like it could put some wear on your tires.
Motorola has already come up with a bike-powered cell charger, but it’s good that as more people hop back onto bikes for primary transportation vehicles, we have folks thinking up ways to replace the old cig-lighter-as-charger as well. And Lhermitte's is certainly a clever design.
More on Bike Power
Power Your TV, Cell Phone, or Laptop by Pedaling
Motorola’s Bike Charger for Mobile Phones
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I could be wrong about how this works, but it looks like a good way to wear out the sidewall of the tire. I would think for a high-cycle application, a non-contacting solution would be better.
"it looks like a good way to wear out the sidewall of the tire."
It looks like a good way to catch the cuff of my pants and send my phone flying into the spokes. :)
What a great way to get people active and use the bike for transportation again... I wonder how the cell phone stays on the charger though. I would like to see it in person!
Silly Rabbits !!
There's no way that the minute amount of pressure from this thing will wear on the sidewall. Although the one in the picture is misaligned. It should be tilted back a little..
To catch pants on that rig you would need hyper bell bottoms or a massive pedal overlap of the front wheel.
I think it is a neat item. Maybe a higher capacity one or pair could be used to charge a laptop battery or something. Maybe the back wheel would work better.
vsk
These things are standard equipment on european commuter bicycles for powering their lights. there is no danger to pants or tires.
Every time I see a weak charger like this, I wonder if someone has made my idea yet. I want to see a serries of 40 pound weights that you lift 5ft, which falls slowly and turns a shaft to a motor to generate power. The closest thing I've seen was that design for the tall light that claimed much more energy than it could actually make. But take that light design, make the weight huge but in manageable pieces, and you could spend 1 minute lifting 10 weights and generate power for a much longer time. Maybe 10 seconds of effort could actually charge a phone?
Andy,
Sounds like a good idea for a gym! Fan and lights powered by the equipment.
For a cell phone, a hand held crank dynamo like used on radios and flashlights would be more practical, but not as cool.