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I ride my bike around town a lot, and frequently would like to carry a laptop or similar with me, but worry about battery power, et cetera. I also find myself sitting and waiting upwards of 2 minutes for those stubborn "walk" lights or busy traffic, or stopping to talk to someone and not wanting to unclip
my toes.
Thus, on to the idea. add a small generator as an extra gear, so when the bike is at rest or cruising downhill even, the rider can shift to the "power" gear and charge a battery, which can later be used to power small, low-wattage devices (read: laptop at the largest).
Perhaps there could also be other percentage-geared gears, in which 75% of the power is transferred to the wheel, and 25% to the battery.
I looked and couldn't find this as baked; if you find it, buy me one for christmas.
edit
In response to annotations, I didn't consider balance; I would just lean on something, or have a symmetrical, moped- or motorcycle-style bottom-mounted kickstand rather than incorporate a gyroscopic flywheel, simply for ease of manufacture.
Generator powered bike light
http://www.aztlanbi...es-00123-lights.jpg
Start here. [Worldgineer, Nov 20 2005]
(?) Bicycle flywheel
Bicycle_20flywheel
Better acceleration and energy conservation in cycling [I think this is an under-rated idea (or at least under-annotated)] [xaviergisz, Nov 21 2005]
Touring with a bicycle and a laptop
http://www.kenkifer.../touring/laptop.htm
Q: Why don't you use a bicycle generator (dynamo) for power instead of a solar panel? [jutta, Nov 22 2005]
Short name, e.g., Bob's Coffee
Destination URL.
E.g., http://www.coffee.com/
Description (displayed with the short name and URL.)
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Sounds reasonable to me. They exist for bike lights, though the generator pulls power constantly rather than only in certain gears. I suppose you could have this always connected, but it only draws current (and therefore has significant friction) when you flip a switch. |
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I'm not sure how this works... do you keep peddling when the bike is at a standstill? and if so, how does the bike stay upright? perhaps a gyroscope on the same axis as the wheel (with similar rotational inertia). |
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What you're looking for here is a clutch, not a gear. |
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Just pedal backwards and attach the generator to the cog on the rear wheel. |
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