Solar Bicycle Overview

Bicycles are the most common and most numerous (> 2 billion) vehicle amongst any kind of vehicle whether human powered or motorised ever produced by mankind. Invented over 2 centuries back (by the German Karl von Drais in 1817), today we see a major transformation - solar bicycles. 

Currently, solar bicycle is the only electric vehicle that provides a fully sustainable, environmental friendly, motorised solution to one's travel needs (upto 25 kms per day). 

Go cycling! Roam the remote country side! Venture out to areas where there is no access to electricity or petrol pumps! Go where no man has gone before with a Solar Cycle!

Truly Sustainable Living: Be totally off fossil fuels and electric grid. Zero running cost. Travel upto 25 kms/day  with a 40W panel attached to your cycle. Use Solar. Save Mother Earth!

No Registration or Driving License required: Can't get a driving licence for your under 18 teenager? Current regulations state that those between the age of 16 to 18 can obtain a license for driving a 2-wheeler with engine capacity less than 50 cc. Many teenagers aged 17 years or less are observed to be illegally riding a registered vehicle, with engine capacity of 100 cc or higher, at high speeds contributing to higher rate of accidents on Indian roads.  Best answer is to ride to school with an environmentally sustainable solution - a solar bicycle - whose speed is limited to 30 km/hour. 

Bicycle to Work: Wish to make a transition to a healthy lifestyle? Don't have time to go to a gym?  Ride a Solar cycle to work. Can choose between manual pedalling, power assisted pedalling, or full power throttle without pedalling with a solar bicycle.  

Bring Your Own Panel: As the BYOD (Bring your own device) policy is becoming more popular, carrying your own panel to work has even more advantages. No need to search for a charging point at work. Simply park the vehicle under the Sun and the battery will silently get charged while your work. 

Safety First: In sharp contrast to a fast charging process from the electric utility's ac mains that has resulted in numerous vehicles catching fire, the solar charge process is an safe and elegant one, that is gentle on the batteries and enhances its life too.

Charge while you ride: Keep the Solar charger switched ON while you ride along with your panel. The solar panel will supply approximately 15 to 20% of the BLDC motor's  needs while you ride. This means that the battery would be supplying only 80 to 85% of the energy and thus getting drained less, again enhancing the battery life. This also means that you can  cover larger distances after a full charge.  

Pedal your way back: Run out of battery power? Unlike other e-vehicles you do not get stranded in the middle of nowhere. Pedal back home.

Low Loss / High Efficiency Charging Process: When you charge the battery from a 230 Volt ac electric mains, an AC to DC conversion takes place which is inefficient. This means high temperature - low reliability operation, or requirement for forced cooling or bigger heat sink for the charger.  Many AC to DC chargers are also seen to inject harmful harmonics into the AC system.  Unlike this, the Solar to Battery charge process is DC to DC which is more efficient, which means that the charger can be smaller in size, more reliable, no need for cooling fans, less noise, etc. 

Optimum Charging Process: Unlike other chargers, the solar charger is microcontroller based and intelligent. The ARM controller chooses an optimum - Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) point for the DC to DC (Solar to Battery) conversion for efficient charging with a smaller solar panel that can be carried on a bicycle. 

Charge in the Parking Lot Under the Sun: Staying in an Apartment or an Upper Floor? With Lithium Batteries getting placed inside the bicycle frame it becomes more and more difficult to charge the battery from an electric ac mains point; the entire bicycle needs to be lifted to the Apartment. Unless, you opt for the far more convenient alternative solution - Solar charging in the parking lot under the Sun!

Unique E-vehicle: No other E-vehicle other than a Solar Bicycle can boast of all or any of the above unique features!

Silent Operation: Unlike an Internal Combustion (IC) engine that 'explodes' once every 4 strokes, a BLDC motor offers silent and smooth operation.

Easy Start: An Internal Combustion (IC) engine needs to be cranked to start either with a manual kick or with a battery of a high capacity.  The solar bicycle has a simple start procedure - simply rotate the throttle handle. No kick start. No mis-firing. Saves your knee ligaments! 

Centre Stand: - An Aluminium Alloy centre stand helps take the weight of the solar panel more evenly than a side stand to keep the bicycle in balance in an upright position

Tilt Mechanism - An innovative tilt mechanism for the solar panel is designed around the spring loaded grip of the bicycle carrier. It gives an ability to offer the desired tilt to face the sun for faster charging. The carrier spring also absorbs shocks on a rough terrain such as a mountain road and thus helps protect the delicate solar panel from getting damaged. 

Features for Safer Riding: The retrofit adds safety features such as a powerful headlight, a loud horn, rear view mirror, a continuously ON tail light at the rear, and a powerful brake light on the rear to warn the vehicles behind when brakes are applied.

Low Cost to Upgrade your E-bicycle: Riding your e-bicycle without solar upgrade is not truly environmentally friendly. The low cost BEM Solar upgrade kit gives you the satisfaction that you are doing your bit to save the environment.