The Bicycle of the Future...

[erider_61]

Created by Ben Bowden in 1946 it unfortunately never made it to production. The ebike was very interesting on the technical side of things. The battery and cables were internal to the frame. It had a hub motor on the rear wheel that even worked as a dynamo to recharge the battery. The original patent stated it could reach a speed of 8 km/h on a 10% uphill slope.

 

[ebikemom]

Cool. How was it powered?

 

[erider_61]

I did some Google search and I don't think it's an ebike?

Look at the bottom of the front fender. It is not the same as the one in the pic I posted or are the pedals. That is the 1960's unpowered version called the "Bowden Spacelander"

In 1949 Bowden moved to South Africa, where the government seemed interested in funding his project. They gave him enough money to order the material he needed from the UK. Unfortunately they blocked the importation shortly afterwards: that made the production of the Bicycle of the Future impossible. They even confiscated the only prototype that Ben owned.

Bowden went back to designing cars. During the 60's, in the US, he managed to produce a bike that looked similar to his Bike of the Future, but without the electric motor. The bike did not have the success he hoped for. Only 522 Bowden Spacelanders were produced although lots of replicas have also been made. An original recently sold on EBay for $42,000.

 

[erider_61]

Also notice there were no headlights on the 1946 electric version...

 

[J.R.]

A very early pedal assist velomobile from 1985 is the Sinclair C5. It has the foundation of what we call an ebike today.

They didn't stress the pedal aspects in advertising, but it's there. Legal and technological limits of the day gave way to its failure.

The nephew of the inventor is trying to reinvent the Sinclair idea. Much more emphasis on PAS.

https://www.theengineer.co.uk/sinclair-c5-revamped-by-sir-clives-nephew/

 

[truth2all]

With the Treecycle Sedan from MGT Engineering, the future is bamboo. $6300 each.