The Big Rig is a large work desk and stationary bike combo that also happens to be a kinetic generator, producing power from your pedaling motions that you can use to charge gadgets, power laptops and electrocute yourself for whatever reason it might serve you. Sure, you may laugh at someone who chooses to torture themselves with bicycling endlessly just to create trickles of power, but when the apocalypse happens and the power grid goes down, whoever owns one of these things will end up the one laughing at your face.
Created by Pedal Power, the contraption features a sufficiently large desk that looks spacious enough to hold two laptops and an extra 30-plus-inch display, so you can use it to read emails, update spreadsheets, or play games while pedaling on the bike mechanism. It features an adjustable seat for accommodating users of various heights, although the desk itself is fixed. The creators claim it delivers the exact same feel as riding a bike, so you can be using it without much conscious thought if you frequently take to the streets on a pedaled two-wheeler.
Armed with its own electric generator kit and battery pack, the Big Rig can supposedly produce around 75 watts of power on average. And by average, they mean if someone bikes continuously at a reasonable pace, instead of stopping every few minutes after being distracted by cat pictures on Facebook. Regardless, they add that much power should be enough to juice a laptop for up to 6 hours (it can be halved depending on usage) and a smartphone for up to 40 hours (again, depending on usage), which sounds pretty swell for a two-hour endeavor (it sounds horrible when compared with how much 75 watts will cost from the utility company, though, which is very cheap).
You can order a Big Rig from Pedal Power’s Kickstarter campaign, priced at $2,550 for a full set that includes the machine, an electric generator, and a battery pack. Oh yeah, expect to add another $500 or so for shipping (because the thing weighs over 140 pounds).