Tag: Watts

The bicycle was introduced in the 19th century in Europe by German Inventor Karl von Drais. He is credited with developing the first bicycle. He introduced it to the people in Paris in 1818. It is supposed to originate from the human-powered vehicle called Draisines. Drais invented a walking machine that would help him get around the royal gardens faster. It was known by many names, including the “velocipede,” “dandy horse,” “hobby-horse,” “draisine” and “running machine. It had no pedals and its frame was a wooden beam. It had two same-size in-line wheels with the front one steerable and mounted in a frame which was straddled. In 1839, Kirkpatrick MacMillan, a Scottish blacksmith, allegedly completed construction of a pedal driven…

Named after Scottish inventor and all-round brainiac James Watt, the ‘Watt’ is an internationally recognised unit of power. When Mr Watt was tinkering with steam in the mid-1700s he wouldn’t have dreamt that his surname would become the standard rating for all electrical devices around 200 years later. But here we are in the age of electricity, and everything from the humble toaster to the latest electric bike has a watt (or W) rating. Although this might seem a bit like a school physics lesson, understanding the Watt vis-à-vis electric bikes is a good idea before buying an electric bike. This guide aims to help understand what the Watt rating refers to when it comes to an electric bike before…