The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

Neodymics bike to moped conversion unit – BMU

By

Got an email the other day from Jeff Radtke. Jeff has a company up in Madison, Wisconsin called Neodymics and he's been busy designing and building a bike to moped conversion unit (a BMU), that quickly converts a standard bicycle into a moped. When I say quickly, I mean in seconds. All you do is flip your quick release lever and drop out the front wheel, put the BMU in its … [Read more...]

DIY motorcycle powered cars and more

By

Back around 1975 or 1980, Mechanix Illustrated, Popular Mechanics and Home Mechanix magazines had loads of articles featuring the work of Robert Q. Riley. The articles centered around do it yourself motorized vehicles, often combining power from a small gasoline engine with electric batteries or, in some cases, powered by one or the other alone. The vehicle bodies were often … [Read more...]

Coors brewing ethanol from spilled beer

By

With the price of gas on everyone's mind, lots of folks are looking for alternatives, like ethanol for instance. Nice idea, made out of corn or sugar or ... spilled beer? Yep. Over at Coors, they noticed a lot of spilled beer sloshing over the sides, according to this story, millions of gallons of spilled beer, so they decided they might put it to good use. They pipe it down to … [Read more...]

Yamaha MAXAM 3000

By

Looking like something from a sci-fi movie, the MAXAM 3000 is Yamaha's scooter concept, and it's big, the 3000 is 3000mm in length, that's 118 inches, almost 10 feet long! That's one monster scooter or "weekend leisure cruiser" as they call it. Loads of storage and leather seats, and the overhangs in the front and rear practically give it a car like crush zone. Whenever I see a … [Read more...]

Yamaha Gen-Ryu hybrid motorcycle

By

So, a few days ago I say there's no need for hybrid motorcycles and Yamaha turns around and introduces the Gen-Ryu hybrid motorcycle concept to be displayed at the Tokyo show. I guess they weren't listening. It has both a 600cc R6 engine and a high output electric motor, the combination of the two is said to give performance equivalent to a 1000cc motorcycle. It also has the … [Read more...]

Sustainable Abiotic Oil vs Peak Oil

By

Got a tip from a friend of mine, (Thanks, Eric!), with some interesting info about synthetic oil. Along with that info was a link to the idea of abiotic oil. In all of the hoopla about oil reserves and peak oil and what comes next, I had never run across this idea before which is that oil is generated by natural processes in the earth's magma, not by deteriorating fossilized … [Read more...]