MyPowerbank hacks London’s Santander bikes so homeless can charge their phones

Central Saint Martins graduate Luke Talbot showed a portable charger at the London Design Festival that can be hooked up to the city’s ubiquitous rental bikes, allowing people experiencing homelessness to charge their phones for free. On display as part of the Design Transforms exhibition at CSM, MyPowerbank was designed to slot onto the chain of any Santander bicycle, parked in the 800 docking stations across the capital. The product takes advantage of the fact that, without having to pay to take out one of these bikes, their chain will still move when pedalling backwards, which in turn can power up the tiny pedal-powered generator contained in the portable charger. The electricity generated in the process is then stored in MyPowerbank’s internal batteries, with around 25 minutes of pedalling equating to one full phone charge. Read more on Dezeen: Watch next: Liam Young’s Planet City could tackle climate change by housing 10 bil