Wheelgirl

LightCap200 Bike Water Bottle Night Light, Soma Crystal PolyPro, Klean Kanteen, Specialized, and Bisphenol A

If you prefer to ride your bike with a hard plastic water bottle, you can replace the current cap on a Nalgene, Camelback, or GSI water bottle with this solar-powered Sol Light 200 water bottle cap, and turn your clear or translucent water bottle turns into a bike night light. The solar light charges during the day in the sunshine while you are riding around, and the 4 bright-white LEDs at sunset shine into your empty or full water bottle turning it into a lantern. Sol Light makes the $20.00 LightCap 200 solar-light water bottle cap to fit any standard 2.25-inch diameter water bottle. The LightCap 200 has a NiMH rechargeable battery, a sensor that turns it off when it senses sunlight, and a waterproof on-and-off switch, so you can use it as a flashlight if you get a flat tire.

But of course, the questions associated with hard plastic water bottles is not about the viability of a solar light built into the cap but about the leaching of Bisphenol A (BPA) from these re-usable polycarbonate bottles. If you want to learn more about leaching plastic, you can read this. We carry in the shop the Soma Crystal PolyPro water bottles, which do not contain Bisphenol A, but the bottle is of a harder plastic, and I could never get it to deliver a really good slug of water at the top of a hill. Soma has improved the bite spout this year. So, I will try it again. I had the same type of experience trying to gulp water at the top of a hill from the non- BPA stainless steel Klean Kanteen. When climbing like a happy boat anchor in the California sun, I need to be able to deliver a stream of water to my sweaty self faster than the inflexible water bottles allow.

If you are bike racing or training, you probably ride with the soft, squeezable Specialized water bottles many road and mountain cyclists prefer, since it is harder to drink on the bike from a container you can't squeeze. (Look on the bottom of your favorite waterbottle, and see if it is stamped with the Specialized "S".) I don't have any leaching info on Specialized bottles. If you do, post a link. Feel free to post links and experiences you have had with good water bottles for endurance cycling that don't leach toxins. And if you use the Sol LightCap200, put up a post and let us know what you think.

 

Photos lifted from the Sol Light website.

Like Cool to OhGizmo to Giz

Solar Table Let's You Run Laptop Outside

The Sun Table, by Sudia Designs,  is designed to power your laptop and mobile devices while you hang out on your urban balcony or on the patio at your off-the-grid home. Of course, the cost of the solar table versus the cost of running an extension cord carrying electricity from a wall outlet is a consideration. But if you don't have a wall outlet in your off-the-grid home, you can quickly create the option of working remotely via your laptop.

For bike touring, there is not of yet an easy, inexpensive, light, portable solar solution for powering a laptop, so you can work remotely and get paid while you are away from your office building. I know that this does not make sense to people trying to get away from civilization on a bike. But computers never sleep. So, if you work on a project basis in high-tech, you can tour on your bike during the day, do your computer work via stored solar energy at night, and thus, get paid while you bike tour.

I like the idea of the solar table, because it doesn't require me to change my behavior. So, maybe the market for these solar tables are places that already have outdoor tables for working and socializing, like Starbucks, Peets, coffee shops, and outdoor cafes. If this solar table inspires you to come up with a good design which lends itself to bike touring applications, put up a post. Here is the info. on the solar table.

According to Sudia, located in Brooklyn, NY, the Sun Table is made in the USA, weighs 45 lbs, and costs $3600.00. The panel is a 64-watt multicrystalline with triple-junction solar cells. Its construction is unbreakable; it has a polymer encapsulation, and there is no glass. The Sun Table stores "13 amp hours, at 12 volts. That equals 156 Watt/hours in total. Enough to run a laptop for over 3 hours, or a TV for 4 hours." It is not designed to run big kitchen appliances. It takes 3 hours to charge in direct sunlight, and there is a battery meter for the Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery, so you can tell when the table needs to be recharged. It is not designed to be used in a rainstorm or submerged. The batteries can be replaced, and almost all of the table can be recycled after its 25-year life expectancy comes to an end.

Sudia Designs Sun Table
Treehugger to
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First 100-Percent Solar Bus in Australia Can You Take Your Bike?

Adelaide, Australia launched the first totally solar-powered bus yesterday. The bus is named, "Tindo," which is "Sun" in the language of the indigenous Kaurna people. I couldn't tell if there was a bicycle carrying rack on the bus. Combining bus and bike transportation works pretty in the Bay Area. (Adelaide cyclists, post a thought on this.)

The bus was manufactured by Design Line, head-quartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, with a principal manufacturing facility in Ashbury, New Zealand.  For you gearheads, here is the tech info from the Design Line press release:

"Using solar PV panels supplied by BP Solar, the solar PV system at the new Adelaide Central Bus Station will generate almost 70,000 kilowatt hours of zero carbon emissions electricity each year, making it currently the largest grid-connected system in Adelaide. Much of the funding for the $550,000 solar PV system has been provided by the Adelaide Solar City program, with the Adelaide City Council also committing significant funding. [My note: The city is ponying up over $8 million dollars toward achieving initiatives.]

With an operational range of 200 kilometres between charges under typical urban conditions, the air-conditioned solar electric bus is able to carry 27 passengers, with 25 seated and two wheelchair spaces. The bus uses 11 Swiss-made Zebra sodium/nickel battery modules which give it unprecedented energy storage and operational range."  [My note: Read more about Zebra batteries here and here.]

"The Lord Mayor says the solar PV recharging system and resulting carbon neutrality sets Tindo apart from other electric buses used around the world. 'There are few pure battery electric buses around the world, and most are characterised by being significantly smaller in size than Tindo, and they have a shorter operational range,' he says. 'The Adelaide City Council’s solar electric bus is the only one recharged using 100% solar PV electricity.''"

Photos lifted from the Adelaide City Council site.

adelaidecitycouncil.com to a-new-life-downunder
to autobloggreen.com to ubergizmo.com

Solar LED Christmas Lights Thanks Altoids, IKEA & China

It is getting dark at 5:00 pm, and I have a bike shop signs that needs to be lighted at night during the winter holiday shopping season. So I repositioned a solar garden light ($5) in an Altoids box, cut off and took some pieces from some battery-operated IKEA Glansa LED Christmas lights ($1.98), and made some solar LED Christmas lights that don't require a wall outlet for their power. It was less expensive to modify stuff that had already been manufactured than to start from scratch.

When it is dark, the photo sensor in the solar panel of the solar LED Christmas lights tells the circuit to use stored battery power to turn on the lights. When the sun is shining brightly, the sensor tells the circuit to not turn on the lights, but rather to take the electricity made by the solar panel and store it to a rechargeable battery, so the battery has the powers to run the lights during darkness.

I am sure that others will be able to enhance this design. But for now, I can concentrate on building two sets of Chris King BMX and road bike wheels and avoid dealing with plugs, ladders, hooks, wires, and holiday electrical fires.

The next thing is to make solar window lighting for the Wheelgirl large, store-front windows. You can always make some solar LED Christmas lights to joy up an ugly window in your home. Jump for the instructions and more photos.

Photos taken by Wheelgirl. (The little lights around the Wheelgirl sign are two short strings of solar LED Christmas lights.)

Aleutia E1 Solar-Powered Computer for Bike Touring?

Aleutia has an off-the-grid solar computing solution package that is getting a bit of attention. It runs on 200MHz x86 CPU on Puppy Linux. The graphical user interface is a Windows type. And there is spreadsheet and document writing applications on it. So, basically, you can create, modify, and save Excel and Word from the get go. You can listen to MP3s and make PDF files (portable document format). Everything is preloaded. More photos here.

The E1 portable computer needs 8 watts to work (11 watts when the CD writer and the hard drive are working.) And with the display (monitor) it needs 18W of power.  The 10.4" LCD TV (800x600 resolution) uses 10W of power. If you read the fine print on the bottom of your laptop, and you multiple Volts x Amps = Watts, you can get an idea of how much power your laptop needs.

The Aleutia E1 has a 14-hour battery. Size wise, it is 11.5cm (Width) x 11.5cm (Length) x 3.5cm (Height). So that is 4.5 x 4.5 inches. It weighs just over a pound. (That is the PC part. I don't have the weight on the other stuff.)

Basically, you can create a solar-powered solution to many UMPCs (ultra mobile personal computers), since they don't require high wattage. (Check out the Wheelgirl post on Chippy's solar-computing solution for bicycle touring.) But the Aleutia E1 is being marketed with a solar-power solution.

So, in your techno-centered holiday party conversations, you can add some chatter about the solar-powered Aleutia E1 in addition to the low-energy using in-the-news OX lap top from give one, get one OLPC (one lap top per child) and the sold out Asus eeePC  (photo in link of family computing in snow white clothing on the eeePC is a little too The Island).

(Photos lifted from Aleutia: E1;  Laptop.org: XO;  Asus: eeePC)

Aleutia E1 from notcot to dvice
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Not Sure about HYmini Wind Charger for iPod or Cellphone

Here is another renewable energy portable battery charger for your personal music and communication devices. (Specifications are after the jump.)

The HYmini captures mechanical energy created by wind, and you can mount it to your bike handlebars. It is a "supplemental" wind generator with 1 W max capacity. You can also attached miniSolar cells to it, (0.7 W max capacity, 140mAh max output, 5V max output). Stringing up to 4 miniSolar cells to the device predictably increases the battery charging capabilities.  The HYmini has a lithium-ion battery (1200mAh) that is not replaceable. Output is 250mAh to ~850mAh. You can charge the battery in the device via the wind, up to 40 mph, then it turns off. Or you can use USB, a household wall outlet, or a miniSolar cell to charge it. However, it takes 4 hours to charge it via the wall outlet, and according to the site, you can't full charge the device via the wind.

What? You can't fully charge the wind charger via the wind? Isn't this a bit counterintuitive for someone spending $49.99 for a wind-powered battery charger?

In that cycling allows you to generate mechanical energy, and provides you access with solar energy, you could design a faster-charging, stronger portable battery charger if you could couple mechanical energy from wind and bike vibration with electrical energy created by solar cells. (Just a thought for you gifted children living in the snowy states and looking for a good cycling project this winter.)

(Note: If you are not technically minded, but like the idea of using available energy to power your portable devices, don't buy anything, just keep reading about different devices. It is just like learning about gas mileage and TV flat screen resolution. The more you read, the more the numbers will start to make sense. Then, type into google your questions like "what does mAh mean" and you will get a pretty good idea of how the features and benefits of different charging devices are measured. Also, you will learn a ton about  the electrical devices and batteries you use in your everyday life.)

Dutch Students and Their Nuna4 Solar Vehicle Win Race Across Australia

I know you love your bike. And you may think that your car is boss.

But this solar car is wicked boss.

Dutch students build and race a solar car and win the Solar Worlds for the 4th time while wearing their orange proudly (just in time for Halloween).

Check out the site of the Nuon-sponsored team site. Click on the "nuna4 in actie" button on the bottom right to get a view of the driver's seat. Teams from all over the world participating in the race look like they had a blast.

Make a $5 Be Seen Solar Bike Light in Your Kitchen

My red flashing led rear bike light has never let me down. But what do you do when you have a great bike headlight and are a couple of miles from home when the battery dies?  I decided to reposition a $5.00 solar garden light into a light-weight portable "be seen" solar bike light that I could hang on my backpack. Now, in the event of a dead headlight battery, pedestrians and drivers can spot a me and my bobbing white light when I am biking on the road after dark. During the day, ride with the panel facing out. Once it is dark, flip the box over, and the white led brightly shines.

The rules of the game for making the be seen solar bike light were that I could only use things I could find in my kitchen, except for the solar garden light, which was in the living room. (They make very nice mood lights.) I had to make it relatively quickly, have fun, and be able to use it bike riding when I was done. You can certainly make yours snazzier, neater, and more weatherproof. But I was in my PJ's on a Sunday morning feeling lazy. The tools and supplies I used for the $5 be seen solar bike light are as follows:

• An old kitchen knife, a pair of scissors, a corkscrew, a wooden cutting board, a ballpoint pen, a Sharpie, a nail file.
• A solar garden light, a small wooden match, an old postal envelope,a twisty tie, a Newman's Own Organic Ginger Mint metal box. The images on Newman's mint boxes are really cool. I used the ginger dragon. But I have a cinnamon tiger tin waiting for another project. (I thought of making it with a cassette tape case, since the clear plastic will allow more light to escape. But the tape cases are made of plastic that tends to shatter. I've dropped my be seen solar bike light a couple of times, and it has survived.)

Directions to make the $5 be seen solar bike light are after the jump.

Solar Bike Touring & Getting Your Solar Panel To Work With Your Devices

I was reading makezine.com a couple of months ago, and came across a post about Steve "Chippy", a British cyclist living in Germany and bike touring along the the Rhein River. His trip is about balancing "a 450km cycle camping trip with work and a solar powered UMPC experiment". In his posts, he details the good, bad, and ugly uses of solar technology to power his communication devices and Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC). UMPCs are handy little devices if you need or want to work, but like to travel light.

Chippy made a video of how to use a solar panel to power your communication devices while you are off the grid riding around on your bike. But watch the video and read the posts before you start hooking things up to your solar panel. He outlines issues with solar charging on his bike trip in detail; scroll from the bottom first and read to the top, and it is easier to understand.

Of course, you can argue that if you are away from civilization riding your bike, that is the point, to get away. I agree until it is night, and the moon is full; you have a flat in the middle of nowhere; it is cold; you can't find a match or lighter; it is sprinkling rain, and the batteries in your flashlight are dead. Oh, I almost forgot, and you are really hungry.

(Scott a guy Chippy links to in his post has put together a 4.4 pound solar-powered communication solution during his hiking trip of the Appalachian trail. So, you might want to check that out, too.

Solio H1000 & Solio Mg, Freeloader, Fenix Lights with CREE LEDs

Suzanne from Solio stopped by for a visit today. She brought with her 1 of the 4 Solio H1000s available until the panels are released to retail shops in a week. I did a bit of a photo shoot with a Wheelgirl mug and my Chrome Dually backpack, so you could get a sense of the size of the panel.

The H1000 can be clipped to a backpack or bag, and you can charge your iPod, phone, camera, GPS while you are riding around. The cord that attaches the panel to you device is attached to the panel, so you don't really have anything extra to carry. It weighs 5.6 ounces (156 grams),which is about two candy bars. If you hang it off the back of your pack, you don't even notice it. It has been developed for search and rescue off-the-grid recharging. But it is expected to work just fine for those who are never more than 2 miles from a latte. I should be riding around with one soon.

I will carry Solio chargers in the shop as soon as they are available. The MSRP is $79.95. According to the Solio ad, the internal battery stores power for up to a year. If it is not sunny, you can charge it by plugging it into the wall. One fully charged H1000 will charge your cell phone or give you 10 hours of mp3 listening happiness. One hour of decent sun exposure give you 15 minutes of talk time or 40 minutes of mp3 music.

Solio H1000 Solar Charger Weighs in at 5.6 ounces (156gms)

I am always interested in solar chargers, since we all spend a big hunk of our time on bikes riding around in sunlight listening to iPods, and not talking on cellphones or checking our email in the middle of traffic. Almost all of those little pocket devices you throw in your bag can be recharged with solar energy.

Here is a new one from Solio. (Check out the solar-powered bike post from today, also.) If you get one of these, and use it on a bike, let us know  what you think of it.

This is from the Solio site:

"o Adapter tip system cable
o USB Port Replicator tip (powers iPhone, iPod, MP3s)
o Mini-USB tip (powers Motorola, Blackberry, Garmin, iriver)
o Nokia tip
o Instruction manual

When on the go power for your gadgets is key, plug into the Solio® Hybrid 1000. This hybrid boasts a powerful solar panel and battery in an incredibly compact and slender case, conveniently geared with a built-in rugged carabiner and cable. The Hybrid 1000 is simple to use. Just clip on, plug in, and charge up!

Universal Charger – Power virtually all your electronic devices. Works out of the box with most common mobile phones, MP3 players, and GPS units - simply change the adaptor tip.
Stores Power - Charge your devices anytime, day or night. Internal rechargeable battery stores power for up to one year. (A full Solio H1000 will charge a typical mobile phone once or give 10 hours of MP3 music - just 1 hour of sunshine = 15 minutes talk time or 40 minutes of MP3 music).*
Hybrid Charger - Charge anywhere on Earth. Plug into the Sun and charge Solio through its solar panel, it’s free and green! Or use the included tip to charge from the USB port of any computer.

Technical Specifications: Rechargeable battery 3.7V 1000mAh (Lithium Ion). Rated output 1.5 to 5 watts. DC input charge range: 5-6 volts at 400mA. Solar panel output 0.6 watts. Dimensions 198 x 68 x 18mm.

*Performance times may vary slightly depending on type of device and intensity of sunlight."

http://store.solio.com/s.nl;jsessionid=ac112b791f4367e7253fb1d34ab9b918c509cdd903f1.e3eTaxeKbh0Te34Pa38Ta38Oa3b0?it=A&id=80&sc=7&category=109