Electric Bikes - Fuel cell bike coming to US

http://dvice.com/archives/2009/01/hmx_fuel_cell_b.php#

The reviewer is a biased moron. Knows absolutely nothing about the subject. Now that is a lazy writer. A truly lazy person wouldn't own a bicycle in the first place, probably like the writer.

How does one re-charge the fuel cell?

What I don't get is how fuel cells are expensive. $3,000 is competitive with battery electric bikes! The car manufacturers swear that a fuel cell car would run six figures. Are fuel cells insanely expensive to scale up or is this bike a hoax? The latter is my current conclusion.

I'm not sure how you're supposed to get hydrogen. Do they sell you a hydrolysis kit with it?

This may have to be a wait and see. Hydrogen can be produced from simple electrolysis using water, essentially freeing the H and the O from H2O. It's not generally considered viable because the electrical energy required for electrolysis is greater than the energy that may be derived from the byproducts, H and O. Batteries are not 100% efficient either.

Disclosure: I don't know how they plan to recharge the fuel cell, and I'm not an engineer.

In any event, $3K for an eBike is not such a strange amount as the article's author seems to believe. While we're not in the same league as say boaters, I think we all know this ain't no cheap hobby :(

I don't see $3,000 for a 180 mile range bad at all.

180 miles to the charge. That's a lot! WOW!

Wouldn't it be great if a manufacturer made a fuel-cell engine that attaches to ANY bike? Potentially, ANY bike could run on these rechargeable fuel-cells. That way, you could trade in an expired fuel-cell with cash at the local convenience store for a fully-charged fuel-cell. Same way we do with propane tanks today. Since all diamond-frame bikes are made with nearly-identical frames, and all are driven by metal chains, I think this idea could be made to work.

The initial cost of $3000 for the bike is not that bad. The big question is how much it would cost to refuel the tanks with hydrogen? Where does one refill them?

It could be that the thing is designed to refuel itself from wall outlet electricity and water. Adding water may not even be necessary if the fuel cell captures the water that it produces when it combines hydrogen and oxygen.

A fairly simple device can make hydrogen using nothing more than water and electricity.

I don't see $3,000 for a 180 mile range bad at all.Fuel cell lifespan isn't too great for even industrial applications AFAIK, and $3,000 buys a lot of battery. Hell, $1500 will get a ~46lb pack of LiFePO4s (and couple 36V scooter motors/controllers) that should last ~3,000 complete cycles down to 70% capacity if treated properly. That's what, ~350,000+ miles per pack? Odds are the owner won't ride that much, so they'll probably age out before that, but we're still talking decades of useful life w/ range decreasing ~1-2% per year.