This is a project by San Jose State University students and while they may have borrowed some inspiration from Hollywood (the Audi RSQ from I, Robot is prime example), this omnidirectional bike is very real and offers a world of possibilities. Consider what kind of maneuvers you can do when your have spheres for wheels. It’s not just about forward and back, since you can literally travel in any direction. Go sideways. Move around in a 360-degree circle while facing in the same direction.

Done right, it means that this ballsy bike can move from side to side without having to turn. This is fantastic for parallel parking,  but you can see how this kind of motion would be easily adapted for other applications too, like the military. I’m looking forward to what the extreme motocross people can do with this one.

At this point, the students from SJSU have tested some scale models and they’ve secured the parts they need for the full-sized version. The bike’s frame is complete and they have a couple of rubber-coated carbon fiber and fiberglass balls. The first (low speed) tests on the larger prototype are scheduled for later this year.

[Source]

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The BikeCharge Dynamo is such a wonderfully simple yet remarkably useful device. It taps into your cycling energy and converts it into USB output power for your gadgets. The DC generator can be mounted on just about any bike and with the universal USB output, it can also charge the majority of smartphone brands. You could presumably use it to charge your iPod or your GPS device too.

But how much power is it really generating? According to the developers, you get 3W 5.0V DC output, which will let you fully charge a typical smartphone in about two to three hours. Even if you’re only cycling to the grocery store or taking a ride through the park, you may as well make the most of your expended energy, right? Thankfully, the BikeCharge Dynamo is also weatherproof and is 20% lighter than similar systems. There’s also a quick release clutch if you want to get rid of that extra resistance when you don’t need charging, as well as a built-in 1W LED light.

You can pick up the BikeCharge Dynamo for $99.99, and the installation is a simple DIY affair.

[Source]

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California-based snowboard company Signal Snowboards is famous for bringing out interesting new snowboard designs in their Web series “Every Third Thursday“. What they have come up with now is a snowboard dubbed “Air if you Dare” which can be inflated like a bike tire.

Signal Snowboards’ previous works include a surfboard-snowboard hybrid, the Candy Snowboard, iShred and many more. Their new design integrates inflatable inner tubes into the core of a snowboard.

Signal founder Dave Lee explains why he came up with such a design: “I was changing the tire on my wife’s road bike and I was like ‘Oh man, I could put these inner tubes in a snowboard core and change the flex or change the base structure pretty easily. I wanted to see if we could actually add air to change the form of the board. What if air could be used to take your board from a light rocker nose and tail to a heavier rocker setting for different snow days“.

Before getting inflated, the finished board is very flexible. But the inflated board added some stiffness and it actually allowed a user to spring forward with more power while performing jumps. So that’s a stiff, stable board for a big mountain and a flexible one for freestyle, all in a single “Air if you Dare”.

Although the concept is quite interesting, the inflatable snowboard won’t hit stores anytime soon. You can end up with a flat board and blowouts are also possible due to the pressure on the boards. But we are sure that these guys will solve all the issues on another Third Thursday. In the meantime, you can check out the video to take a peek at how the board was made.

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The idea of a self-sealing inner tube isn’t exactly new. We see them on a range of car tires, as well as tires for bicycles. However, the inner tube on the Michelin Portek is quite different. First, it has a square cross-section rather than a round one. This is supposed to provide for a better fit against the rim and it eliminates that “twisting” problem you get when mounting.

Perhaps more importantly, the surface of the Portek has a series of bumps on it. When you inflate a regular inner tube, it expands the rubber on the outside. This makes small punctures even bigger. The bumps on the Portek, on the other hand, get the rubber to compress rather than expand. This helps to make small punctures even smaller. This way, that sealing goop can more easily do its job.

We’ll have to wait for some impartial third parties to give the Portek a try, but it sounds promising. Each tire sells for $8.99 and they’re offering them for commuter and mountain bikes for now. Road racers will have to wait.

[Read]

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Formula 1 engineers create BERU Factor 001 bicycle

Formula 1 engineers have proven their genius and created something out of the box, yes its true –this time it’s not a car, not even a motorcycle but a bicycle.

It’s a master-piece creation of BERU F1 Systems (British engineering firm), factor 001 was designed from the ground up as an “integrated, cohesive device” according to the ideas of the talented engineers of BERU. BERU was keen about what a customer would desire and what they would really love to see in a dream bicycle, thus they introduced features like carbon fiber monocoque frame, carbon-ceramic brakes and an LCD touch-screen that displays biometrics and several other readings to distract the rider and crash into a wall. Luckily carbon fibre is nearly indestructable.

Each factor 001 takes six engineers to build the master-piece an entire week. Hence, BERU will produce only a few hundred factor 001 bicycles. A factor 001 bicycle is currently on a display at the London’s Science Museum and Harrod’s department store at price £22,000 (that equals around 34,000 US$).  It won’t be a surprise to see many top racing professionals trying out this bicycle.

BERU Factor 001 Bicycle Image Gallery

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