cycling.finial.com

Specialized’s Innovate or Die contest is closed. Winners will be announced on Jan 15.

The Innovate or Die Pedal-Powered Machine Contest is designed to inspire innovation and environmental change by highlighting the benefits of cycling in an unprecedented way. The challenge is to invent and build machines that transform zero-emission human energy into new and useful purposes, one pedal stroke at a time.

Some of these really are awesomely innovative. Some are not.

The overwhelming majority of the entries involve either using the bike as a generator or a water pump. Neither of these ideas is particularly new so what interested me in some of them is a new (and hopefully better) generator design or pump design, along with a “useful purpose”. Buying a stock generator and/or battery and hooking it up to a bike just doesn’t cut it, regardless of how worthy or interesting the application of the electricity is. And useful doesn’t necessarily mean world-saving.

Case in point: MIT. Hooking a bike up to a generator is about the least innovative thing I can think of. I mean, generator headlights have been around forever. Yes, it’s cool research they’re doing, but it has nothing new or different to do with bikes. Or if it does, there’s nothing about in this video.

Slightly more innovative than MIT is Georgia Tech who at least generates electricity with the suspension forks rather than the wheels, but still…

A bit better still is the “mechano-physics extrapolation” which, as far as I can tell, a far more innovative cycling generator than the MIT one. He could use a bit better presentation as I’m not really sure how much is new or different. But points for being home designed and built rather than a store-bought contraption. Like this one.

The Human-Electric hybrid is interesting. I’d like to know if it would really be practical. It looks like it could be. Maybe.

I mean, there are some worthy, practical applications here. Things like a bicycle ambulance for Namibia, for example. But he even says in the video that this is not a particularly new idea, regardless of how worthy. Nice universal joint hitch, though.

More in the spirit of the event is the SheaCycle, to create nut butter. It doesn’t use the whole bike, but I don’t think that’s a requirement. It’s using a bike in a “new and useful purpose”. It’s very clever in its use of augers and gears.

Clown bike

I’m not quite sure what to think of the boiler. It it’s a proof on concept, it works. But clearly, Ian would consume far more water pedaling the thing that he’d ever be able to produce in that boiler.

In the running for the winner has to be Emilio’s Mutli-use Bike Machine. Knife sharpener, grinder, corn degrainer, generator, blender, and 5 GPM water pump. Excellent, excellent. Truly fantastic. Everything is thought out, works well, and is eminently practical. A+.

Now here’s another good idea. The Mobile Filtration Vehicle. Water transport and filtration in one vehicle. Nice idea. The only downsides I can see to this is that it looks like it might be expensive to make, and there are filters that need to be maintained and replaced. But those aren’t relevant to the contest, so this goes to the top tier.

The Mayapedal washing machine is an interesting application. I like this. Very clever. Needs some noise suppression on that thing! Yowza!

An inertial welder. Hoofa, guys. a 300 weight flywheel? No wonder he’s out of breath! Nice idea.

A tennis ball launcher. I love it! Very very clever. A+. The operator might want to be behind a screen, though.

The mulcher/composter is nice idea, but I wonder if it wouldn’t work better with a hand crank. Nice assembly and looks like it works well. A little bit Rube Goldberg, though. Perhaps some combination of that one and this one. The larger one seems a bit more practical. The smaller one needs a flywheel or something. It looks like it would seize up pretty easily. And a third, better design.

I also like the floor sweeper. Ages ago, I worked in an amusement park that had dozens of girls walking around sweeping up stuff. This would be great for a place like that. Good job, 2d year students from Bristol U.

The biodiesel initiative is flawed for the reasons in the comments. Besides, I just don’t like the idea of using bike to enable cars to be driven, regardless of whether the fuel source is “carbon neutral” or not. Now if they’d have sold it as home heating oil or something …

Washington State has another pump, but it looks to be a bit better designed. At least it has twice the capacity of any I’ve seen so far. Then again, not a very innovative use of a bike.

I’m not sure the ice cream maker will change the world, but it’s a clever idea. And who doesn’t like ice cream? They need some agitating paddles inside the container.

I like Emily’s water pump and filter. The bike is not cannibalized to make the pump, it’s still usable as a bike. The filter is another great idea.

A similar idea is the pedal powered water filter for schools. Another great idea, but, like Emily’s and many others, while useful, not a particularly new.

The Transformation Trike is a new, useful, and interesting new bike design. It looks very expensive.

A salad spinner! Not just a prototype, a working model in use. Great work.

Gasp! A snowplow! Love. It. I wonder if that would work on the sidewalks around here. Hmmm… This is great.

Homouroboros. This is a difficult one. Clearly innovative. Certainly original. Awesome to behold, no doubt. But I suppose it comes down to whether art is “useful.” It is and it isn’t. Tough call.

Well, that’s three pages of six. I hope to view the rest later.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 21st, 2007 at 11:51 pm and is filed under Sites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.