See More Blogs | Login or Register to Start Your Own Blog
Main BikingToronto Page

Spacelander 1946

Spacelander 1946

Spacelander 1946

Recently Joe emphasized this fact about the Spacelander recapturing energy by “regen” as a “first” but this isn’t actually so… That electric motors also serve as dynamos was well-known well before this. The first US patent that  acknowledged regen for electric bikes was awarded to John Schnepf in 1899! His patent number 627066 for a friction-drive system said “When the rider encounters a decline the motor may be thrown into contact with the driving-wheel and utilized as a dynamo to restore the battery”…

http://www.google.com/patents?id=F2JHAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4&source=gbs_overview_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

EDIT: UPDATE…
Turns out these are still being made! Ya can have one made for you by the Nostalgia Merchants in Boston, here:

http://www.nostalgiamerchants.com/

…

Tks
Lock


Posted: April 6th, 2010
Author:
Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

3 Comments on “Spacelander 1946”

  1. 1 cFletch said at 6:56 pm on April 6th, 2010:

    Ooooh. I like it. Wonder how much it weighed?

  2. 2 lock said at 6:19 pm on April 6th, 2010:

    Pretty fun eh?
    The prototype was aluminum… Didn’t go into production `til 1960 when they made them out of fiberglass… Only 522 of `em then went outta business… today those trade hands for $15-20,000!

  3. 3 From the Blogs: Tours, Hacks, Cup Holders and Maps! said at 3:36 pm on October 1st, 2010:

    [...] It has really cool photos and illustrations of old-timey bikes and bicycle concepts, including steam-powered bikes, and a bike from 1946 that has the first regenerative braking system. [...]

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.