Bicycles Turn Your Bike into an Electric Bicycle in SECONDS (w/ video)

Published on July 28th, 2013 | by Jo Borrás

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Turn Your Bike into an Electric Bicycle in SECONDS (w/ video)

Rubbee electric bicycle

The number of American bicycle commuters is skyrocketing, with more and more Americans turning to bikes as cleaner, cheaper, and healthier alternatives to cars. Somewhat inspired by bikes like the Estonian Viks, Specialized Langster, and all the cool and trendy bicycle commuters surrounding me in Chicago, I recently picked up my own overly-hipsterish “fixie”. I (like many over-30s, I tell myself) soon discovered that this was a terrible mistake, because I am fat and lazy. What I really should have bought was an electric bicycle (or, better yet, a Honda Grom), but now I have this thing. If only there was a way to convert this slick fixie into an equally slick-looking electric bike!

Oh, wait – their is. It’s called the Rubbee (huh-huh), and it works by quickly attaching itself to your bike’s seat post with a spinning plastic wheel that “rubs” against your bicycle’s back tire, propelling you forward. It’s not quite as effective or efficient as a hub motor, but at just about $1000 (699 British Pounds) it’s quite a bit cheaper than the Pope’s new Smart Pope-cycle. Add an easy-to-carry handle that makes carrying the Rubbee a breeze, and you might even make a case for using it as an add-on for rental bikes (or as a premium, vending-machine style add-on).

You can get a better sense of what a Rubbee “electric bicycle” looks like in the video, below – and let us know what you think about this seemingly well-made new product in the comments, below. Enjoy!

 

Source | Photos: Techvehi.



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About the Author

I've been involved in motorsports and tuning since 1997, and write for a number of blogs in the Important Media network. You can find me on Twitter, Skype (jo.borras) or Google+.


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  • janetgrey

    Pretty cool, but I’d rather have more options for building my own electric bike (speed, range, batteries, motors, etc). I just got the book on how to build an ebike (also on kickstarter). Do a search for ebike book on kickstarter and I’m sure it will pop up.

    • http://www.insteading.com/ Jo Borras

      Seen it. I like this better. Less time investment.

  • gendotte

    A thousand bucks for THAT? I could modify an electric GOPED for much less. Call me when it’s cheap as well as practical/

  • Jo Borras

    You guys sound a lot like the “why would I pay $1000 for an iMac when I could BUILD a computer for a third that price!?” commenters from 10 years ago. ::YAWN::

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  • Alicia Browder

    It looks very nice however, its price is quite high though and I can’t afford to have one like those. I think there are bikes that are already electric that has a more reasonable price. Well anyway, for those who can afford it, good for them. -http://www.greenpathelectricbikes.com/

  • Jason

    Joey, cool but way overpriced. And you have no details as to how far is range, charge time etc. it’s like ‘oh this is cool look at the video’, put some more substance into the article.

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