bike mods and alternative power?

trae · Post by **trae** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 4:47 pm

seems the best place to put this post, so here it is. if theres a better place, lemme know?

i had no bike this year, which gave me plenty of time to think of how much i wanted one, and what i could do with(/to) it. then i get back, and see next years theme is the green man, and the rest of the idea comes. but none of this is my areas of specialty, so i ask here for guidance.

remember those little generators that lit up a light on your bike when you were a kid? those crappy ones that didnt light up much? thats similar. i basically just am trying to figure out a rig that will generate and store power from pedalling around all day. LEDs require a lot less power then those old lights, so i should be able to get those rather bright, but how much power does ELwire need?

ive found a couple similar ideas, but with stationary bikes. they seem to output about 100 watts an hour. not sure if the power output would be the same, but would that give me a decent light time? even if it was just equal time pedal-to-light that would work out well enough. LEDs might be the way to go anyways, but ELwire would work better. the more power i can get from it, the more i can do with it :)

these are the stationary bike generator setups i found, think they would work to be modified, or am i starting from scratch? the bike being able to be used as a bike AND power geneator at the same time just seems like such a better idea then just the excercise bike, i dont know why these were set up this way other then it just wouldnt work out...

http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_ex ... cycle.html
http://www.econvergence.net/electro.htm

thanks!
-trae

Dork · Post by **Dork** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 5:00 pm

There are off the shelf systems that do what you're looking to do. They have a little generator built into the hub. I know one of REI's city bikes comes with this.

You would want some sort of battery to store the charge so you can leave the lights off while you aren't actually riding at full speed, and so you can turn the generator off while you're too tired to power it but still need to get around. Keep in mind that 100 watts is from pedaling hard under ideal conditions, which you might not always be up for.

EL wire uses very little power. So little that many setups last the whole week on 8-AA batteries or less.

One alternative to carrying all that weight around would be to set up a stationary bike in your camp and use it for other things, like charging batteries or powering marker lights.

unjonharley · Post by **unjonharley** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 6:00 pm

If your going to stick with Ewire and LED you will find it takes very little power. Those step down coverters will eat your juice. Better to go with the right size battery. Anything with a motor will eat a lot. Playing a disc player 3.5 volts steped down from a 12 volt battery. This will take 40% right off the top of the 12volt and waste it in resistance heat. The way around this is Ipod With small battery. Amp off a 12volt battery with some amped speakers from a computer. This amount of power is so small, You can hook a little trickle charger solor panel to help keep up. With a 32 LED light over night it took a 12volt storage pack from 13.75 down to 12.3. Dork steered you right. You can recharge aaa,aa,c,d,& 9volt with a 14$ solor panel. Most small batteries require 5 hours charge time. As do deep cell storage bateries. Can't see you pedeling 5 hours.

trae · Post by **trae** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 6:29 pm

im looking at solar panelling for other things, just thought this would be a cool idea.

though, if 5 hours pedalling recharges batteries that would power light enough for all week, it would indeed by efficient enough for my needs. figure even an hour a day around during the day... though the slower speeds on playa would prolly take it down quite a bit. *shrug* a portable, simple, useful generator still sounds like a good idea for off-playa life.

will look into the REI thing, it isnt one of those dynamo things is it? heard those didnt produce much power at all.

Dork · Post by **Dork** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 8:00 pm

The speed of the bike doesn't matter so much since you're building it from scratch and can gear it however you want. It's more about how hard you want to be pedaling.

The thing I mentioned might be a dynamo - I didn't really look into it, it was just something I came across while looking for a new bike.

One thing that popped into my head is to have standard lighting good enough to keep the bike visible, then some sort of a display that turns on while you're powering the generator. If you're handy with custom circuits you could even have it get brighter or have more elements turn on as you generate more. It could look cool and be more obvious that you're the one powering it.

trae · Post by **trae** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 11:23 pm

alright well, the idea is... and im drunk and so please exuse spelling or grammer... having a bike ride across the playa with the appearance of a horse, (each side is two legs, with a flash point or two making the legs move) each side independant of the other... i am assuming only two appearances per side, with the wheels creating the flip switch, so when i go faster, the legs go faster. this is what i want to do, with no other power source, what do i have to do? the power i create pedaling the bike should do it for what i need in light, even if i use baterries. straight power to the ELwire is the best option, but maybe LEDs?

pinemom · Post by **pinemom** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 9:59 am

trae...just do a rig on the center of the wheels...kinda like an outside sprocket. so when the wheels go round and round the horse appears to giddy up!

MikeVDS · Post by **MikeVDS** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 12:33 pm

LEDs require very little power. I suspect it would not take much more peddaling power to light up a headlight for your bike. Remember it's not free. The more you want to light up the harder you will work all day powering your bike.

So a normal healthy human is probably using about 0.1 horsepower riding their bike around. I usually ride around at a pace that I can sustain for 8 hours. At most I'd want to make my bike 25% harder to ride, so 0.025hp. That's roughly 18 watts. LED bulbs ranging from 15 to 20 watts produce about as much light as a standard household 100 watt lightbulb. You could run 4 of those but it will probably make riding your bike about twice as difficult as a normal ride without your generator.

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 7:02 am

You could also experiment with reflective materials that use ZERO power. Some of the high-end reflectives are really cool, but a little pricey.

I'd love to come up with a humanpowered generator system. I just missed out on a free stationary bike the other day- A scrap steel guy beat me to the curb. Maybe a multisource array, combining a bunch of solar cells, a wind dyno and handcrank/pedal power...

Nomenature · Post by **Nomenature** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 1:52 pm

These are pricey, but they are a cool idea...

Hand or foot pedaled generator:

http://www.gaiam.com/retail/product/17330

Bicycle powererd generator:

http://www.gaiam.com/retail/product/47-0103

bike mods and alternative power?

bike mods and alternative power?

The human electric generator