The Pedalite - Bike Safety without Batteries
The Pedalite is a cool and unique bike lighting system that combines kinetic energy with a battery-less design for lot’s of eco-goodness for you cyclists out there.
The Pedalite is an actual bike pedal that replaces your existing ones. Beyond that, they’re self-contained. Utilizing a gearbox and generator within the pedal assembly, the spin rotation of the pedaling motion is converted into energy. That kinetic energy lights up flashing LED’s on the sides of the pedals as well as charging a storage capacitor. The capacitor then provides juice to the lights when the cyclist is freewheeling or stopped for up to 12 minutes. Because of the built-in capacitor, there is no need for batteries.
There are three LED lights on each pedal that combined provide 360 degrees of unique visibility. The lights pulsate, with a white one to the front, red to the rear and yellow to the side. If you check out the home page for the Pedalite web site (www.pedalite.com), you’ll see a short flash video that demonstrates how they look.
They aren’t cheap at $86.48 USD or £59.99 per pair, but I think these are definitely a cool invention that make the most of the free kinetic energy that the cyclist is already generating. If you’re a serious biker who spends a lot of time of cranking in the dark, these are well worth a look.
[via The Red Ferret Journal]
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POSTED IN: Eco Gadgets, General, Human-Powered
2 opinions for The Pedalite - Bike Safety without Batteries
Run to Win » » The Pedalite - Bike Safety without Batteries Unplugged Living
Dec 1, 2005 at 7:42 am
[…] Unplugged Living, a website about living off of the grid and reducing energy wastage, has an article about bicycle lights that do not require batteries. They are located in the pedal, and they use the kinetic energy of the pedaling motion to charge a capacitor which keeps the lights lit for up to 12 minutes after stopping or freewheeling. There are three LED lights on each pedal that combined provide 360 degrees of unique visibility. The lights pulsate, with a white one to the front, red to the rear and yellow to the side. If you check out the home page for the Pedalite web site (www.pedalite.com), you’ll see a short flash video that demonstrates how they look. […]
John E
Aug 20, 2007 at 8:44 am
I might be interested if they made a version which accommodates toeclips and straps, but for safety reasons, I do not ride without some sort of foot retention system. Also, if they are so concerned about theft, why not a Torx fitting instead of the more common 6mm Allen/hex key?
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