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Old 09-05-2009, 12:14 PM   #1
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Excersise Bicycle Battery Charger..

I have been thinking about building a excersise bike powered battery charger. At first I was thinking just using a cheap alternator attached to the bike, but after reading these pages, I think it can be done very nice.

http://scienceshareware.com/bicycle-generator-faq.htm
http://www.instructables.com/id/Turn...n-energy-bike/
http://www.pedalpowergenerator.com/P...controller.htm

Anyone ever use anything like this or have any thoughts on it? I am thinking it might be a good thing to have in a boondock bus.

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Old 09-05-2009, 03:38 PM   #2
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Re: Excersise Bicycle Battery Charger..

yes this has been done,ed in cal power his is things at home also his electric car,so yes it works, i know you seen test car on the test track with the little wheel on the back,i made one for my bus to pull with an alt that chrages my battery for my 12 volt lighting,so when i stop for the night,my battery is chrage and the battery i chrage is one big one from our fire truck 12''x32'' truck battery.....so 8 hrs on the road= two days of battery power.

the tire i use is from a motor bike and the fofks
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Old 09-09-2009, 03:59 AM   #3
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Re: Excersise Bicycle Battery Charger..

Thats a good idea too!
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Old 09-09-2009, 09:31 PM   #4
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Re: Excersise Bicycle Battery Charger..

I like the outside wheel idea. As for the bike thing, It would be like the other bikes I've bought my wife. So my batt's would never be charged.LOL
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Old 09-10-2009, 12:02 AM   #5
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Re: Excersise Bicycle Battery Charger..

Are you talking about dragging a wheel on the ground and using that to turn an alternator? Why would you do this instead of just belt driving it off the engine?
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Old 09-10-2009, 09:11 PM   #6
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Re: Excersise Bicycle Battery Charger..

Why not just put small wheels on the generating device and spring mount it in the wheel wells on the back tires like they do for dynamo driven bike lights.
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Old 09-11-2009, 06:28 AM   #7
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Re: Excersise Bicycle Battery Charger..

I still don't understand why we are driving an alternator off of anything but belts on the engine?
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Old 09-11-2009, 07:31 AM   #8
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Re: Excersise Bicycle Battery Charger..

Quote:
Originally Posted by the_experience03
I still don't understand why we are driving an alternator off of anything but belts on the engine?
I think because there is already an alternator on the engine, dragging a wheel or harnessing the power at the wheels with mounted alternaters, should produce more elec per hour of drive time than just the main alt would.

As for a pedal charger I think it might be a good thing to convert excersice into a bit of power.
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Old 09-11-2009, 03:19 PM   #9
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Re: Excersise Bicycle Battery Charger..

Quote:
Originally Posted by Thundarfoot
Quote:
Originally Posted by the_experience03
I still don't understand why we are driving an alternator off of anything but belts on the engine?
I think because there is already an alternator on the engine, dragging a wheel or harnessing the power at the wheels with mounted alternaters, should produce more elec per hour of drive time than just the main alt would.

As for a pedal charger I think it might be a good thing to convert excersice into a bit of power.
But you can have TWO alternators on an engine. Heck, you can have as many as you can arrange belts and pulleys for. Not only that, but a belt driven alternator will be more efficient (i.e. make more power for net fuel input) than something rigged to run from power further down the driveline.
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Old 09-12-2009, 08:15 PM   #10
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Re: Excersise Bicycle Battery Charger..

[quote=the_experience03]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thundarfoot
Quote:
Originally Posted by "the_experience03":kqa4o265
But you can have TWO alternators on an engine. Heck, you can have as many as you can arrange belts and pulleys for. Not only that, but a belt driven alternator will be more efficient (i.e. make more power for net fuel input) than something rigged to run from power further down the driveline.
[/quote:kqa4o265]

Agreed!
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Old 09-13-2009, 01:23 AM   #11
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Re: Excersise Bicycle Battery Charger..

Quote:
Originally Posted by the_experience03
But you can have TWO alternators on an engine. Heck, you can have as many as you can arrange belts and pulleys for. Not only that, but a belt driven alternator will be more efficient (i.e. make more power for net fuel input) than something rigged to run from power further down the driveline.
Yeah but after you have two alternators or whatever you can fit under the hood hooked up to harness the power most efficiently. Adding more alternators further down the driveline, while not being as efficient as the first two, should still add an increase to your total power production...
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