There actually was a little generator that was affixed to a bracket that swung the rotating top in contact with the rear tire and produced enough current to shine the light fixed to the handlebars.
 

(Schwinn Mechanical Speedometer)
 
It is very industrial age in the approach, and sort of Steam Punk, which I like.
 
None of the current cultists would put up with that added drag, so technology has moved on.
 
This device is wireless, completely. There is a tiny magnet that mounts to one of the spokes on the front wheel and is measured by a sensor that is affixed to the front fork. That, in turn, communicates with the little display screen that is mounted on the handlebar. 5 centimeters and 70, respectively, are the limits of the wireless range, so it is pretty sensitive.
 
The majority of that time, of course, was not the installation but figuring out how to set the basic parameters of the device. For accuracy, the wheel diameter is critical, so I had to divine what that was and convert inches to centimeters and enter the data, set the clock (24-hour or am-pm) and enter the time.
 
It took me enough time to fiddle with the tiny buttons that my son arrived just as I was sliding it into the little bracket on the handlebars.
 
Well, plenty of time to see if it works.
 
It occurs to me that the old set ways would work whether there were batteries or not. If distribution is ever interrupted in some disaster, natural or man-made, we would slide rapidly back to the pre-industrial world without a stop in the age of mechanical things.
 
Our little wireless devices, phones, speedos, watches  and stuff would blink and go blank as their batteries failed. At least the bike would still work, which would be more than anything else.
 
The bike has a lot more going for it than just being an exercise device. It could also be a means to get down to the farm, with eight full-functioning wireless displays all the way.
 
That beats the roller-blades all to hell.
 
Copyright 2010 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
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