Invention Makes Citibikes Electric

An anonymous reader writes "Inventor Jeff Guida has come up with a way to turn any Citibike into an electric scooter. His ShareRoller is about the size of a small briefcase, weighs just seven pounds, and has a 12- to 20-mile range. From the article: '"Years ago, I would've needed a giant engineering company and several million dollars in development research and it still would've taken two years or more," Guida said. But 3D printing has changed all that. In the coming months, Guida hopes to design a universal bracket so that the ShareRoller can be used on any bike. He has some competition there, as there are a few companies that make wheels that convert regular bikes into electric bikes, but he says the ShareRoller is more convenient.'"

Re:What is wrong with pedals?

[Anonymous Coward]

Or, I don't feel like showing up for work smelling like a locker room. Cheap people or people who don't have money can always take the pedal option. It's not always about trying to 'stick it to the man', my friend. Choice, and change, is a good thing. Embrace it.

Wheel reinvented.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sinclair Zeta from 2004:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/g8koe/c5martin/zeta.htm

Re:Destroys the tires

[classiclantern]

The genius of this guy's design is not the gadget but using it on Citibikes. He doesn't care if it ruins the tire. It's not his bike.

That's about right given the price point.

[Ungrounded Lightning]

Yep, 3D printing, were the per unit price is likely 10x more than other techniques ...

That goes well with the one-grand-plus pricetag for a device that should be selling for a couple hundred bux or less in mass production.

If this catches on I expect to see an injection-molded version closer to the price I mentioned. Either this guy will go to that as he ramps up or the Chinese/Koreans/whatever will have a knockoff out in a few months after it catches on.