Researchers at MIT have developed a new way to bring an electric-assist motor to your ride. The new Copenhagen Wheel works similarly to hybrid cars in that it stores up a charge when you hit your brakes and then later turns on the motor when you need a boost. What’s interesting about this new design is that the motor and battery is entirely encased within the back wheel and controlled from your iPhone or Blackberry via Bluetooth. There are no external wires or batteries, and installation is as simple as putting a new rear wheel on your bike. Unfortunately, the setup is still a bit ugly, but it’s an important step in the right direction. They have yet to list a price or distribution, but it’s not like you’d want to buy a first generation version of the wheel anyway. What’ll be more exciting is a few years from now when they get the size of the hub down a bit and start selling them at reasonable prices.

But, there are certain things about electric bikes that I am weary of. For example, they seem like they would be pretty heavy. Or what if you were mid ride and your battery ran out? Would it just suck riding without power? Could you ride the bike in rain? And of course, my own, and everyone else’s biggest fear; what if it fucked up and got all Maximum Overdrive on you?

Well, my boss was nice enough to let me borrow his electric bike. Even though I don’t live more than 2 miles away from work, I was still excited to get a chance to try it out for more than a few blocks. I didn’t initially feel the electric boost, but the harder I was peddling, the faster the bike was going, crazy, right? In my head I was trying to convince myself that these bikes are sweet and it was really nice but at the same time thinking ‘is this actually worth the money that people are paying for these?’

I got home and figured that I should take the battery out and dry it off, due to the rain. I sat there trying to unlock the battery but I couldn’t get it out. I quickly realized what was going on, and felt like a dumb ass in a major way. I was turning the bike on and off, not locking and unlocking the battery.

SO, two of my fears are a thing of the past. The bike can go through rain, I am not sure about an insane downpour, but it did fine in a light-to-shitty rain. As far as a dead battery goes, well, we now know that it rides just fine as a normal bike, and if you are dumb as rocks, you may even think you are getting boosts! The bike is pretty heavy, but in all actuality, it is pretty much the same weight as my cruiser bike with side saddles on it.

So this is in no way a review of electrics bikes, because I have in no way made use of the bikes electric features. I will write about the sweet aspects of the bike as soon as I get a chance to expierience it, but I do now know that it is fine in rain and if it does not get a proper charge it is no big deal.