Extra Power Device

[AngusMac]

Hi,

As Part of a University Project I have come up with the concept of a system which provides a cyclist with extra power when high power is required during cycling such as pushing off at traffic lights or on steep gradients.

The system shoud give around 20-30% of the total power required and will be delivered in short bursts. It works by the rider loading a spring system using a lever on the handle bars.

I was just wondering what cyclists thought of it and if it was commercially available would you buy it. Any feedback would be great.

Cheers

*If this post is in the wrong area please direct me where to post it

 

[gaz]

What are the differences between your idea and electric motors?
What levels of maintenance are needed to keep it working?
How difficult is it to use?
What are the implications of fitting it to any bike?

 

[Browser]

Picture or schematic required before Browser can offer an opinion (he only works in pictures, never really progressed past those sorts of books as a child )

 

[automatic_jon]

Extra power when pushing off at lights? An extra right leg would do the trick I think. 32" inseam and you can deliver it to work, thanks.

 

[MLC]

Presume that this is some kind of mechanical assistance (like an electric bike) but only when the cyclist specifically needs it.

Whilst your idea in principle is a good one and I do not want to put you off innovative thinking you should really look at the whole essence of why people cycle.

Most (not all) do it for recreation, fun and fitness some combine this with a way of getting from A-B and most want to improve their cycling e.g longer, faster, quicker so they would look to improve their leg function to provide extra power that being the whole point of why they cycle or at least why they want to improve.

Granted those doing it for getting to A-B may want to invest but I would guess that your market would be limited. another thing to think about is that I have seen threads on other forums where people are hotly debating the merits of not taking a water bottle on a TT to save weight and whether or not to leave the cage on the bike or not ! so this product of yours should also weigh a maximum of 0.00001 gram

Having a look at Electric Bike sales and getting to know your target market should also figure in your project research.

If you want to know what our response is to your actual product could you let us all have a bit more info what does it do ? how does it do it where does it go what does it weigh etc etc

Thanks

 

[Hilldodger]

I'd be asking myself why, when the safety bicycle has been around for over 120 years, this kind of idea hasn't gone in to production before.

 

[dan_bo]

I'd be asking myself why, when the safety bicycle has been around for over 120 years, this kind of idea hasn't gone in to production before.

Glad you said that instead of me.

 

[AngusMac]

What are the differences between your idea and electric motors?
What levels of maintenance are needed to keep it working?
How difficult is it to use?
What are the implications of fitting it to any bike?

Well it wont need recharging as its powered by the cyclist but wiont give as much power as an electric system so will only be delivered when cycling become harder. Its not a replacement for an electric motor but simply a 'boost button'

Should have no maintaince requirenments as its a purely mechanical system, so really just keeping it clean and oil the joints.

Should be relatively easy to use as all that is required of the rider is to pull a lever on the handlebars to compress the spring then release it.

The spring part will be mounted on a rear luggage rack and the lever will be mounted on the handlebars similar to a brake lever.


Ive attached an image. the section shown would sit on the rear luggage rack and power the rear wheel

 

[Browser]

I can see the merits of it, but I would have thought that unless the mechanical advantage of the charging lever is right, to compress a spring of the adequater rate to power a device like this would require arms like Hercules. What you really need is some kind of regenerative braking system where slowing the bike down charges this system, as you need a device to get rid of the forward speed and might as well use the energy transfer to charge this system up.

 

[AngusMac]

Thanks for the feebback

The project set was to investigate the viability of mechanical energy recovery on a bicycle so this design is constrianed by that. I know the design is far from perfect but i am just trying to get the best results within the set critera.

 

[upsidedown]

Not wishing to discourage, just a few thoughts...

Energy recovery implies (to me) recovering braking energy that would otherwise be converted to heat and sound. That would require a battery or mechanical means of storing and releasing the energy. The rider priming the system isn't using recovered energy, it's using energy converted from food.

Any weight penalty to the bike would have to be less than the benefit offered.

A significant improvement in acceleration could be acheived by a variable gear system; starts off easy and automatically moves to a higher gear as soon as the wheels are moving. No idea how it would work though.

Keep at it though, the next big thing is out there somewhere.

 

[2Loose]

Sounds a bit like a very basic KERS system used in F1. As people have said, capture that braking energy to make this more worthwhileseamless.

As the diagram shows, you will need a long spring for any meaningful boost, or some kind of spring to sprocket gearing system.