Copenhagen wheel makes for smooth ‘sailing’ for the cyclist in you



The Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change has a lot of people present hoping to make a difference to the shoddy state we’ve got our plant in. As ideas and thoughts are thrown about here’s one that MIT came up with – the Copenhagen wheel. It’s not just a wheel, we’’ it is but it’s more of battery that stores energy with technology similar to KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System), which has help evolve Formula One racing over the past few years. The idea behind the project is primarily to cut down fuel emissions by encouraging the use of cycles instead of vehicles. The Wheel is designed to make it easier and smoother for those who would have to travel long distances. The Wheel can store energy every time the rider puts on the brakes and then returns that power to provide a boost when riding uphill or to add a burst of speed in traffic.


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The design is such that braking allows the kinetic energy caused to be recuperated by an electric motor and then stored by batteries within the wheel, so that it can be given back to the user when needed. The bike wheel contains all you’ll ever need. There are no sensors or additional electronics incorporated at all. As you pedal forward, the sensor inside the wheel tells its electric motor to give you a boost. When you hit the brakes, the motor regenerates, slowing you down and recharging the batteries. It’s not a bad looking design either and speaking as one of the lazy types, this idea just might have me on the go.
Cnet