1.Offenes Gespräch im Bauhaus Dessau – runder Tisch zu Rechtsextremismus

Schon wieder Bauhaus: Das Thema beschäftigt mich. Immerhin geht es um das große Ideenerbe, um dessen Relevanz und seine Weiterentwicklung und natürlich um künstlerische Freiheit. Die Teilnahme am Offenen Gespräch war daher Pflicht.

Bauhaus Dessau: Visionsschmiede ade? Präsentiert sich die Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau 2018 wirklich offen?

Artwork: yuyun  CC BY-NC-SA

Gestern fand es statt. Dank der Fishbowl-Methode kamen unterschiedlichste Teilnehmer*innen zu Wort – auf Augenhöhe. More…

Bauhaus Dessau – Brauhaus oder Krise als Chance?

Das Bauhaus Dessau sagt das Konzert von Feine Sahne Fischfilet ab. Was nun folgt, ist beeindruckend:

Bauhaus Dessau - Brauhaus oder Krise als Chance Teil 01: the artwork shows the mainbuiling of the Bauhaus in Dessaus and Building at Gropiusallee for the workers of Junkers. in the middle is an image of Forum of the Future which envisions a redirecting of society - copyright form:f

Artwork: yuyun  CC BY-NC-SA

Das alles macht Hoffnung und daher ließe sich sagen: Ende gut, alles gut. Aber so ist es nicht. More…

IoT – Na, dann mal los!

Seit zwei Tagen beschäftige ich mich wieder mit dem Thema Digitalisierung. Es endete, wie es gerade öfter mal endet: mit einer Gefühlsmischung aus Hilflosigkeit, Ohnmacht, Wut und Faszination.

IoT - Na dann mal los!: Call to Action and Links concerning IoT - The image shows a collage: a Noodle dish overwriten by the words: No Go - copyright by formf.de

Artwork: yuyun  CC BY-NC-SA

Da diese Mischung natürlich ziemlich beunruhigend und das Internet „abmurksen“ keine Lösung ist, stand ich wie üblich vor der Frage: wie sich verhalten zu dem Thema? More…

Kabel kaputt = Kommunikation ade

„Für den Bereich liegt eine Großstörung vor“ erklärte mir die automatische Ansage, als ich wegen des Totalausfalls bei der Telekom anrief. Es schien ein Riesenproblem zu geben.
Kabel kaputt - Bild von Deep Web Dive-Projekt von Trevor Paglen Unterseekabel Eine Callcenter-Mitarbeiterin hatte eine Erklärung parat: Kabel kaputt – will meinen Kabelschaden. Es folgten viele andere Begründungen. Der Kreativität waren in diesem Mikrokosmos der Telekommunikation kaum Grenzen gesetzt. More…

IoT und das digitale Pedelec

Das E-Bike etabliert sich. Die Marktzahlen sind auch 2017 beeindruckend und da ist weiterhin Luft nach oben. So weit so gut. 

Das digitale Pedelec: Pedelec-Entwurf auf coloriertem Bildausschnitt von "digitales Handwerk", Frau beobachtet E-BikeDie wendigen Fahrzeuge sind sogar auf dem Weg zum festen Bestandteil der Alltagsmobilität zu werden. Und wie alle neuen Mobilitätsoptionen sind sie ganz selbstverständlich kommunikativ. More…

Where does Mobility go?

Where does Mobility go? Presence of Nature Events„If we look into the future it is not evident today in which direction things will go. We are near to a so called tipping point. The ball can fall left or right. The future of humankind can be somehow or other….and it is not the traffic, that determines which…(future) option will arise, but the options will determine, how traffic and mobility behaviour will look like.“ (free quote, Prof. Dr. Dr. Radermacher, 9.Friedrich-List-Symposium)

Having this in mind I checked various factors: the mobility behavior of the nowerdays young generation, the expected demografic change, the development of urban structures, the development of work structures and the upcoming nature events. (slides language: German). More…

Where does Society go?

Who will be the main target group(s) for e-bikes and pedelecs in ten years? To answer this question profoundly I checked out developments of environment, society and mobility. Scenarios of various organizations offer a wide spread range of future options. They ask all the same questions: How will humankind respond to the challenges, which are waiting? Are we capable to see a responsibility for our future on this planet? More…

„Future Project Earth“ – A Congress of „GeoUnion“

October, 18th and 19th I had the pleasure to participate at the congress „Future Project Earth“ organized by GeoUnion. Scientists of various fields of earth sciences talked about the situation of our planet. For me as an interested but ordinary person it was a great overview regarding the actual state of earth, the challenges we face and the oppurtunities we have – to cope with an earth, which is changing rapidly.

 

Reports were monitoring changes concerning athmosphere, water and land, population growth, limits of resources and as result: the increasing vulnerability of humankind. More…

Integrative Drive Systems – A Comment to a Mail

It is great to get comments on my posts. Lately I got one via mail, which was very interesting, since it concerned one of the most intrigering drive systems: the NexxtDrive drive. I got a link to the Zemo-project from ZEG (pdf / language: german). Already in 2008 ZEG thought about checking out the NexxtDrive system. In the end they decided against it in favour for the Bosch system. The decision was based on a study, which claimed that the NexxtDrive system will never work properly. During my latest research I checked out a patent from F. Moeller for NexxtDrive from 2010 . The resulting drive system seems to be a very comfortable drive which integrates electric and muscle power – perfect for citybikes. It provides a variable transmission ratio and electric braking.

 

In the Go Pedelec Reader H. Neupert talked about upcoming drive systems. Like him I´m convinced one future option for the drives is to integrate muscle and electric power. The pedelec from Dolphin E-Bikes is still one of the best bikes on the market concerning performance. It reacts direct and powerful. Why? It works with a drive system which integrates both kind of power.

Eurobike 2012 – Daily Business?

Known and unknown manufacturers presented their announced news. New Companies like Momentum from Great Briten joined the old bulls. A lot of the news is already pubblished in the relevant media, missing themes will follow in the forthcoming days. My question of interest was:Does the market explode in reality? My personal impression is: no, not yet.

Impressions from the fair:

The range of  applications diversifies and technical developments are coming and great visions were shown. More…

Future starts now

The speed of the drive-developments is amazing. On my actual list are ten companies, which present new drive-systems. As far as I know all can be tested at Eurobike. Some of them are revolutionary. Höganäs and MotorExellence will show their transverse flux motors, Protanium will present a kadern-motor and – if true – the most advanced motor will be shown by nexxtdrive, a step-less drive.

            

Specially these projects catched my attention. But they are far away of being all. Winora developed a new motor together with TranzX, Panasonic shows a rear hub motor together with KTM, AEG will present interesting kits and add pressure on Bosch, who also presents a more powerful motor. Kalkhoff cooperated with Alber for a new rear hub motor and Brose will take the next steps with their middle motor. Last but not least: Giant presents new bikes with Yamaha motor. How many others will present new drive concepts at Eurobike 2012? And which products are really reliable?

After my talk at the bike conference in Munich in two days (July, 26th), I´ll post more details…and look forwards to comments and input.

Japanese Cooperation

Beside the fact, that it´s not clear if and when Yamaha plans to realize its prototype shown at the Tokyo Show 2011, it is an fascinating stylish vehicle for me. Yahama produced the first mass production pedelec in 1993 and they are still an important player in the Japanese market with their PAS-pedelecs. Now they start to cooperate with Toyota – a big player in the electric and hybrid four wheeler market. That sounds promising.

          
Both enterprices want to underline their infrastructure concepts for commuters with the presented vehicles. Even if they might change their vehicle design again, it´s worth to keep their jointly projects in mind.

Studiing Results

Since 2009 the e-bike boom already accelerated, automotive manufacturers like Volkswagen, Ford, or latest Audi and Opel created eye-catching e-bike studies. A question was always: Will the vehicle reach production? Nearly as often as the question the answer was: „We do not know, but we analyze the possibility.“ Having seen quite a lot fascinating prototypes, I am more interested in concrete vehicles than in studies. Up to today I found two.

                   

In 2010 Volkswagen presented an outstanding prototype of an e-bike. It was foldable by an intelligent mechanism and fitted into the space for the spare tire in the boot. Two years later they start to sell a pedelec with a battery on the rack and a motor in the front wheel – an average pedelec. Do they want to create the bike of the people?

            

Smart took another direction. In 2010 they showed a stylish pedelec with a rear motor and smart phone integration. 2011 realistic prototypes were published and now the company is on the way to conquer the market with a pedelec, which matches the style and the market segment of their car.