Pedal-Per-Minute With Bike-Powered Cell Phone Charger

By
Jaymi Heimbuch
Writer
  • California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Jaymi Heimbuch is a writer and photographer specializing in wildlife conservation. She is the author of The Ethiopian Wolf: Hope at the Edge of Extinction.
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Jaymi Heimbuch
Updated October 11, 2018
bike powered cell phone charger photo
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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.