You probably won’t be able to scale through traffic on this electric bike, but you may very well be able to climb hills without any difficulty. This electric bike is powered by sun and is known as The Maxun One. It can achieve a speed of 22km/h without even using a battery.
The bike has been created by Mr. Van Dalen who has embedded big solar panels on the front and behind the saddle. These panels, measuring 0.5 meters, charge the bike while it is being used. Since the panels are charging constantly, the bike is never out of power. Mr. Dalen says that he has travelled more than 1,000 miles during the last 3 months. He is 56 years old, lives in Maastricht in Netherlands, and is a software engineer.
He shared, “I used to have a motorcycle that I made trips through Belgium’s Ardennes Mountains on. I decided I wanted to do the same with an electric bike – cycling with a normal bicycle is too exhausting in that kind of terrain.”
The engineer doesn’t like the traditional electric bikes; he finds them ugly and wondered if a bike could be created that would work entirely on solar energy. He stated, “Some solar bikes were available, but they all used a large trailer for the solar panels and I wanted my bike to be handy in traffic and effortless to ride, even in the absence of sun. I imagined how great it would be to cycle just on solar energy without pedalling – just like sailing in the wind. People in my field all said that a bicycle on solar energy was not possible but that didn’t put me off, in fact it encouraged me to develop the solar bike.”
The Maxun One is handmade and has already been patented. It will be tested for entry in the Guinness World Records in summer of 2015. Only 50 of such bikes will be created and shall be sold with a price tag of $126,000. Mr. Dalen is a self-taught man when it comes to carbon composites and solar cells. He started researching on them back in 2010. He tried different sizes of solar panels until deciding upon a size that was big enough to provide sufficient power and yet small enough to enable the bike to be used in traffic. The bike can achieve an average speed of 20 km/h without pedaling or battery.
According to Van Dalen, “This shows how powerful the sun is. The solar panels may seem large at first glance, but the Maxun One is easy to handle in traffic and the solar panels perform particularly well, even on semi-cloudy days. I always watch out when the weather is sunny so I can ride my solar bike again. I do find it funny when Japanese people pass by, they say: here they already have solar bikes, which we have not got back home yet.”
Watch the video below to see The Maxun One in action!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWmeHcHQrMs