THE BIKE FACTORY / GENERATORS

In 20XX, while in Ghana working on the Bicycle Factory, we had an insight that inspired a unique project.

In villages where we had delivered bikes, that had no power - someone was designated to collect all the cellphones in the village, and ride to the nearest village with power to charge them. The cellphones were then used as communication devices during the day, and as a light at night.

When we got back to Toronto, we thought about this and came up with the idea to build a generator to attach to the bikes. The generator would have a USB input on it so it could be adapted to charge a cellphone, but it could also be used to charge a bike light. The bike light could then be used as a flash light, study lamp etc.

We opted to build something entirely custom because we had some unique challenges that were specific to Africa. We wanted to build the simplest motor with the fewest moving parts so that it was less likely to break down but easy to repair. We wanted a multipurpose light that was long lasting and bright. We wanted to let the kids hang it in multiple ways, and have it be used as a desk lantern for studying late into the night.

To accomplish this I assembled a team consisting of an engineer and designer to help us build the product. We opted to create a custom circuit that would handle the power input and ensure we hit 5V consistently to charge a phone, without going over (which could damage a phone). The casing was 3D printed so we could keep printing new prototypes, each improving on the last design. This kept our process fast, and iterative until we came to the final product design.

In Feb 2014, we took 10 prototypes to Ghana to a village with no power and gave them to the kids. It was an amazing feeling to see these kids riding their bikes and using the lamps at night to study. We'll continue to monitor the generators over the next 6 months, and improve the product before we make a larger deployment next year.