Skip to main content

Norwegian Bicycle Hotel makes wheel travel easy

Norway is already considered one of the most bicycle-friendly places on earth, but one city there is making that ring even more true. Thanks to the Bicycle Hotel (or sykkel hotell), traveling on two wheels has never been more convenient.

Located next to the train station in Lillestrøm, the Bicycle Hotel was built to make commuting by bike a much more attractive choice. As a public place, it offers more than 5,000 square feet for storing bikes. Better yet, you don’t have to worry about a wet seat since the storage area is completely enclosed. Bicycle Hotels like this are being commissioned by the Norwegian National Railways as a public space. They have been popping up near railway stations throughout the nation.

Thanks to its modern design, the structure is friendly to both bikers and the general public. It was designed by Various Architects AS to be deceptively simple. The construction features beautiful, transparent glass walls and a freeform wooden roof. The walls fill the space with natural light during the day and glow from the interior lights at night. Thin gaps are purposely placed between the glass panels to allow natural ventilation.

Such a structure could have easily stopped there, but the designers wanted this Bicycle Hotel to send a message. By taking a set of stairs, you can enjoy a green rooftop with sloping ramps and benches. There, people are free to sit down to enjoy the rooftop view of the city.

Thanks to the green design, the building has incredibly low energy consumption. The green sedum on the roof absorbs rainwater to provide natural insulation from extreme heat and cold.  In combination with the ventilated glass walls, the result is a structure that only requires a small amount of energy to illuminate the lights at night.

The wonderful Bicycle Hotel officially opened its doors just last month, offering a safe place to store your bike for a small charge. Hopefully, other areas will learn from its success. With many cities looking for ways to reduce greenhouse gasses and cut down on traffic, Norway demonstrates an elegant solution.

Garrett Hulfish
Garrett is the kind of guy who tells you about all the tech you haven't heard of yet. He also knows too much about other…
The best hurricane trackers for Android and iOS in 2024
Best hurricane tracking apps.

The hurricane season instills fear in those who find themselves in the paths of these storms, and in their loved ones who are concerned for their safety. A hurricane app is essential if you’ve stayed up all night worrying about a family member who's alone during a destructive storm.

Many hurricane trackers are available to help you prepare for these dangerous events, monitor their progress, and assist in recovery. We’ve compiled a list of the best apps for tracking storms, predicting their paths, and providing on-the-ground suggetsions for shelters and emergency services. Most of these apps are free to download and supported by ads. Premium versions are available to remove ads and add extra features.

Read more
Best lawn mower deals: Cordless, gas, electric and robotic
A robot lawn mower in a backyard while a family relaxes.

Mowing a lawn can be very therapeutic unless you have an older lawnmower, which makes life difficult and constantly causes you frustration. Luckily, you can snag a new lawnmower for a pretty good price, and even the more budget-oriented options have a lot of quality-of-life features that you wouldn't find on lawnmowers ten or even five years ago. To that end, we've gone about and collected some of our favorite lawnmower deals across the board, including some great robot lawn mowers that are worth checking out.
Litheli Cordless Lawn Mower U20 Handy+ -- $120, was $140

If you want a solid lawn mower, this offering from Litheli has a 13-inch cutting width, which is pretty good for the deal that you're getting. Even better, you get a 30L grass bag so you're not having to clean up after yourself, and you can mow for longer without having to stop. You also get 5 height adjustments so you can hone in the length of your grass to the perfect height, plus you get a 4.0Ah portable battery included.

Read more
Juiced Bikes offers 20% off on all e-bikes amid signs of bankruptcy
Juiced Bikes Scrambler ebike

A “20% off sitewide” banner on top of a company’s website should normally be cause for glee among customers. Except if you’re a fan of that company’s products and its executives remain silent amid mounting signs that said company might be on the brink of bankruptcy.That’s what’s happening with Juiced Bikes, the San Diego-based maker of e-bikes.According to numerous customer reports, Juiced Bikes has completely stopped responding to customer inquiries for some time, while its website is out of stock on all products. There are also numerous testimonies of layoffs at the company.Even more worrying signs are also piling up: The company’s assets, including its existing inventory of products, is appearing as listed for sale on an auction website used by companies that go out of business.In addition, a court case has been filed in New York against parent company Juiced Inc. and Juiced Bike founder Tora Harris, according to Trellis, a state trial court legal research platform.Founded in 2009 by Harris, a U.S. high-jump Olympian, Juiced Bikes was one of the early pioneers of the direct-to-consumer e-bike brands in the U.S. market.The company’s e-bikes developed a loyal fandom through the years. Last year, Digital Trends named the Juiced Bikes Scorpion X2 as the best moped-style e-bike for 2023, citing its versatility, rich feature set, and performance.The company has so far stayed silent amid all the reports. But should its bankruptcy be confirmed, it could legitimately be attributed to the post-pandemic whiplash experienced by the e-bike industry over the past few years. The Covid-19 pandemic had led to a huge spike in demand for e-bikes just as supply chains became heavily constrained. This led to a ramp-up of e-bike production to match the high demand. But when consumer demand dropped after the pandemic, e-bike makers were left with large stock surpluses.The good news is that the downturn phase might soon be over just as the industry is experiencing a wave of mergers and acquisitions, according to a report by Houlihan Lokey.This may mean that even if Juiced Bikes is indeed going under, the brand and its products might find a buyer and show up again on streets and trails.

Read more