Our electric bicycles can be recharged using a solar module or normal household power. The solar module is not mounted on the bicycle. The module is designed to stay at home in a sunny area collecting energy all day, when you return home in the evening you connect the two systems and the energy is transferred from the solar module to the bicycle. If you are not ideally positioned to use a solar module then you can recharge the bicycle from any home power outlet. We have in development a few different systems of solar charging that use a direct connection from the solar panel straight to the bicycle battery, we look forward to providing these to the public soon.

Electric bicycles are a joy to ride, without even using the pedals it is possible to travel over 30 km on one charge and further if you pedal. The bicycles are healthy, quiet and relaxing and are ideal for people traveling up to 40 km each day. There are so many good reasons to ride an electric bike. Firstly, they are very healthy. Because the bicycle is so much more enjoyable to ride than a regular bike you use it far more often. You will use it for most journeys and when you do you will have no concerns for hills, traffic, parking, getting sweaty, wind or distance. Because you can pedal as much as you feel like you will gradually begin to increase your fitness and will tend to cycle more – all in a super relaxing healthy way! Because you ride faster using less energy the wind chill keeps you cooler and it seems that sweat it totally eliminated. Electric bikes are also very safe, in some ways more so than a regular bike. With the increased speed you do not suffer from being dangerously overtaken nearly as often. Also, you will not feel the need to rush downhills at dangerous speeds. Costs and convenience of using an electric bike are incredibly superior to using a car. The initial outlay will be $800 for a high quality conversion kit with the best lithium ion batteries available. There are no insurance or registration costs and maintenance is very minimal – the same as a regular bike. The motors are brushless, which means the only moving part is the wheel and they will last a long time with no maintenance. The only additional cost you should have is for a new battery every 3 – 5 years. This works out to be about 1 cent/km! Finally and most importantly, electric bikes are a great way to aid the environment by reducing your carbon footprint. The continual burning of fossil fuels is not sustainable and probably the best way you can help is by consuming less petrol! We cannot avoid using commercial energy unless we revert back to the stone age but you can reduce your usage dramatically. Using renewable energy will also push along the technology in a sustainable direction.

Solar Bike aims to be a small research and development business that develops renewable technology and helps everyone start riding electric bicycles around rather than using their cars. We are constantly involved in testing new products for efficiency, quality and price to ensure that we can bring you the best combination of cost, quality, comfort and practicality. The business was founded by Matthew Timmins and Wenxu Zhou, both research scientists at the University of Western Australia with key interests and ongoing research into algal biofuel technology - click here to see some of our previous few years publications: (1,  2,  3) . They firmly believe that using solar powered bicycles is one of the best methods of reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and minimising environmental damage caused by carbon dioxide emissions. If any profits are made from this business they will always go to the development of renewable energy and transportation systems.