Optibike Electric Bike
We went to the new California Academy of Sciences today, and it’s really beautiful. We really enjoyed all the new exhibits. We did miss a few old ones, like most of the fossils are gone (hmmph, I’m a frustrated paleontologist.).
I did see this amazing thing. It’s a hitech electric bike by optibike; it’s a hybrid bike really where you can pedal and/or use the motor, kind of the prius of bikes. It’s really cool. But there’s really an amazing problem about it. It costs thousands of dollars. So it’s great for upper-middle class enthusiasts who can afford somewhat costly hobbies, and be environmentally cool and still show off the latest stuff. But most of the world could never use this. Interestingly, in China each year millions of electric bikes are sold, mostly simple scooters. These are truly peoples’ machines. The companies that build them are rapidly gaining expertise mass producing affordable electric hybrid vehicles, and are beginning to move up market into bigger and more sophisticated devices. I suspect this is where the future really is: practical business people building stuff that works for everyone, and making green technology a matter of every day life and not just a neato toy for the well to do.
