Maxwell von Stein and his flywheel bicycle made it to Science Friday.
Props to Murali. The people behind the usual suspects (e.g. Bike Hugger and Bicycle Design) and I all saw von Stein’s flywheel bike design re-posted at all of the various design blogs, but we independently decided there wasn’t anything new here. Props to von Stein, though, for using this to draw some attention to his job hunt — it’s a great project in that regard. I love that he’s using a NuVinci 360 hub in this as well.
Williams Hybrid Power, http://www.williamshybridpower.com/, an offshoot of the Williams Formula 1 team based in the UK has been developing this kind of technology for cars.
I’d want to see the math on the efficiency of the boost of the flywheel versus the cost of carrying it. I’d also rather see it better enclosed! Still, it’s a pretty damned clever use of a Nuvinci hub, and a far more elegant solution than an ebike. Though I’d go crazy for this flywheel on a fixed gear, or Sturmey S3X hub, I can’t see how that would be mechanically possible (without Sheldon Brown to dream something up).