The new Pedal & Power, developed by a UK inventor, is now being used by the US Vice President, whose office in the White House phoned to thank BLC Corp, the company that imports the product into the US. “BLC Corp were taken by surprise by the call but quickly realised someone had the foresight to send Cheney a Pedal and Power device, which was only launched in the US two months ago,” said Kieron Loy, of Ikon Global Ltd, inventor of the device.

“Lets hope Dick Cheney not only proves to the world that he’s fit to be second in command, but is environmentally aware and in contact, even when out cycling to stay fit,” said Loy.

The idea for the device came to Loy whilst he was travelling around the world, and invariably finding himself in places where the electricity supply was unpredictable. With around 715 million mobile phones around the world, “that’s a lot of juice to charge and recharge phones”, said Loy.

The device can completely charge a phone from no power to full power in around one hour, Loy told edie. “The average cycle speed around cities is 12 miles per hour (19kph), at this speed the Pedal & Power dynamo has an output around three watts, 500 milli amps,” he said. “Just divide the size of the battery by 500 to get time required for full charge. Short trips are ideal for topping batteries up, longer trips for full charge.”

Pedal & Power is available from Ikon Global.

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