Following our July article on folding bikes, Woody Saland sent us the letter at right about his experience with electric bicycles for transportation at airport destinations. I asked him to send me a couple of photos and here they are. I wanted to show how he’s using this bike as an interesting juxtaposition to this month’s article on lithium-ion batteries. As he explains in his letter, this bike is a folder that’s also propelled by a small electric motor powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack.
What’s most interesting is not so much the bike itself but what it represents. Like the Prius he drives to the airport in, Saland’s Phantom bike is nothing less than a hybrid. It’s a pure parallel hybrid, meaning it can be powered by either electricity or—the primary means—by carbohydrate-fueled human muscle. Within the realm of electric bikes, there are two subcategories, power-on-demand or throttle-controlled designs and power-assist or so-called pedelecs that reduce human effort by providing electric assistance.