Are you looking to get more than just fresh air and exercise out of your biking commute? If you said yes, then you may want to upgrade your bike with a GreenWheel. It’s not the type of wheel that you could use on your road bike for competitive racing and it would be impractical on a mountain bike for rough trail riding, but works perfectly for those most practical pedal-powered commuter bikes. With the GreenWheel, you’ll be able to generate electric power, as well as store it and even use it as an electric motor. This would make your bike and your commute even more productive and environmentally friendly.

The GreenWheel was developed at MIT and was designed so that all of its parts are enclosed within the actual wheel with the exception of the throttle. As it has a universal design, it can be installed any just about any bike frame or wheel size, but should be done by someone with at least some moderate technical knowledge as it requires shorter spokes. If installation is beyond your technical abilities, then just about any local bike shop should be able to set you up and have you riding out on a new GreenWheel. Whether you have a GreenWheel installed on just the front, the back or both wheels is up to you.

A fully charged GreenWheel has a range of about 25 miles, but not when traveling at the top speed of 30 mph. However, you can easily double your range with some simple pedaling to charge it. As well as pedaling to charge this wheel, you can also plug it into any ordinary outlet as well. If you’re worried about the life of the GreenWheel, testing shows that it has a total lifetime of about 40,000 miles or about 8 years on a 20 mile daily commute. That’s plenty of time for some fully charged riding, and you could expect that there will be newer, more efficient versions of the GreenWheel by the time you’re ready for another commuter bike.

Children and older bike riders may get the most benefit from retrofitting a bicycle with the GreenWheel, but may also convert a few die-hard car drivers to taking up a bicycle commute a little more often. Discovery had the chance to test the GreenWheel and you can find more information about this bike wheel development at Discovery’s website.

It’s been 3 years since Armstrong retired from competitive cycling, and as a cancer survivor he has been as dedicated to raising awareness of this disease as well as raising money to help find a cure as he was a relentless competitive rider. Lance Armstrong has been the superstar of professional bike racing with his unprecedented 7 Tour victories, and since his departure there has yet to be a new rider that has captured such attention for this sport. The question on many peoples’ minds will be whether he can actually win this race at the ripe old age of 37?

Another element in this comeback is to silence critics that have accused Armstrong of using performance enhancing drugs, even though he has never tested positive before. To help dispel any assumptions to contrary, Armstrong will have a film crew documenting his training and blood testing throughout the course of the run-up to the 2009 Tour; we assume that this will eventually be packaged into a DVD with the profits going towards the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

It really doesn’t matter whether Armstrong actually wins the Tour de France in 2009, as his entry is more than enough to draw international attention to the race, and a renewed interest in competitive cycling from Americans. As well as the attention his entry will draw, we may be in store for some very heated competition that will truly make for an interesting race in 2009. We welcome Armstrong’s re-entry into the world of competitive cycling, and have great hopes that next summer in France will be exciting for cycling fans.