You think riding a fixed gear is weird– try riding this thing. Though it looks unwieldly, it’s got a wonderful byproduct– soap. Yep, it makes totally vegan, completely natural, soap. Just Soap, they call it.
Clearly the bicycle provides an easily accessible option to creating energy. I’ve seen it used to make juice and other food items (there used to be a place in Eugene that processed raw crackers with a human-powered food processor), and I’ve written before about bicycle-powered blenders and mobile audio systems. I once read about a rave that happened in a Vancouver, B.C., park that was entirely run by pedal power. Another time, I was at the Oregon Country Fair and rode a stationary bike next to the stage which in turn powered the amplifiers that the performance was coming through on.
But there are more ambitious projects out there that use the bicycle as a basis. Consider the text message printing bike or the Guatemalan NGO that is making everything from bicycle powered generators and water pumps to grain grinders and coffee de-pulpers, for example.
The most ambitious projects I have seen, though, are the various rides (like the pedal-powered ferris wheel pictured here) at the roaming freak bike festival Cyclecide and the very cool mobile WiFi hotspot known as MagicBike.
These sorts of projects are really exciting. To do practical things with a machine that is so fun to begin with, it makes me want to get out the welder right now. What would you make bike-powered if you could?
foldable walter 
January 5, 2007 at 3:00 am
Ideally, if (when) I eventually live somewhere with a yard, then I’d like to have it covered with vines and flowers and a veggie patch instead of boring grass….but if grass were necessary, I’d like to have a pedal-powered lawn mower! Maybe I would make one for my neighbours so they don’t wake us up at 7am on a Saturday with their noisy, polluting, plant-trimming machines.
January 5, 2007 at 4:43 pm
I hate to say it but you won’t be breaking any new ground with either of your ideas. Food Not Lawns advocates big yards full of gardens here in Eugene. As for the other idea, look here and here and here.
January 30, 2007 at 9:49 pm
I’ve always wanted a bicycle powered television. I figure if I’m going to rot my brain I might as well keep the rest of myself from rotting too.