[anandpadhye]

I have been searching for an electric bike that:
- can run on a portable battery so that I can bring the battery home and charge it overnight off the 240V wall socket
- does not look like a stupid scooter

In fact, I was also looking to see if I can install an battery operated motor on the regular pedal operated bike. It will make me feel good about myself (when was it last time that I made something on my own rather than buying off the shelf???) and I stumbled upon this:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...e-for-bicycles

What a brilliant idea: a portable motor with rotors. You can fit this below the bicycle seat (in place of the carrier) and the rotors will make contacts with the rear tyre and provide "friction drive"

There is video embedded in the page, which can be directly accessed at:

http://vimeo.com/68219134

It looks like a start-up from UK - "Rubbee" :
http://www.rubbee.co.uk/content/rubbee-drive

Kudos to these guys.
Hope it gets to production soon.

Whenever I come across such people and ideas, I keep wondering, why didn't it ever occur to me???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP4NtIhLyAg

[sushantr5]

I am not impressed with this rubbee as it does not use regenerative mechanism. More over friction losses will be more. If slippage is there then waste of energy will also come in picture.

There are some products in market which are integrated into front wheel hub in bike. These are far more superior and practical I think.

[anandpadhye]

There are many products with hub based motors. That's a common technique. This one is different- providing drive to the wheel circumference! Another beauty is that it's plug and play. And you can move it from one bicycle to another. Can you do that with hub motors?

Yes, there will be losses, tyre-wear, etc and that's what they must be working on before they bring it to production, isn't it?

EDIT: Regeneration is a challenge. They have mentioned it in the FAQs:
http://www.rubbee.co.uk/faq-page

[volkman10]

How cool can this be?

A design engineer from Sweden has come up with the neat idea of a four-wheeled bike covered by a fabric body.

Mikael Kjellman, an outdoorsy guy who developed the PodRide which he describes as being an all-weather, four-wheeled bike that he’s being using for well over a year now. Only a prototype at this stage, the PodRide is a velomobile with a full waterproof body and it even has a trunk to carry small items such as shopping bags. It also has been fitted with a bike trailer and rides on studded tires in the winter to ensure traction on Sweden’s icy roads.

When you don’t want to pedal, the PodRide is powered by a 250-watt electric motor sourced from a regular e-bike and can reach speeds of up to 15.5 mph (25 kph). It weighs 154 pounds (70 kilograms) and has a decent range of around 37 miles (60 km) which should be enough for one day. The very compact dimensions and small turning cycle should make it pretty easy to maneuver around town and park

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lKq1fGtXFM

http://www.motor1.com/news/62208/che...r-from-sweden/