Bicycle Evolution

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Xsmoker
The constantly variable speed bike would use belt drive and a torque converter like that of a snowmobile. The converter is made up of two disks that are dished on the inside. The converter is driven off the crankshaft and the belt rides between the disks. As engine rpms increase the disks close up causing the belt to move to the OD of the converter where the rotational speed is greater, thus propelling the snowmobile faster. On a bicycle the converter could be placed on the rear wheel and work the opposite, opening as rpms increase, allowing the belt to move to the ID of the converter similar to shifting to the smaller cogs.

That was a mouthful:eek: yawn.......

thanks a lot. i am sure that makes sense but i still "can't fully get my head around the engineering". please take into account i am stupid when explaining stuff to me. 🙂

Now, now, don't be so hard on yourself...

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by jacobxray
thanks a lot. i am sure that makes sense but i still "can't fully get my head around the engineering". please take into account i am stupid when explaining stuff to me. 🙂

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by less'go
Now, now, don't be so hard on yourself...

i am guessing you understood what he was on about as you'r e so clever 😉

Of course I understood. Elementary, my dear Watson.

Put some duct tape on it and ride, ride ride...

Sara

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Duckwah
They already have continually variable transmissions on some heavy equipment and trucks.

Its been known for decades that a recumbent is more aero efficient than a traditional frame but the UCI mandates the current shape and also a lower weight limit on road bikes of 6.7kg

As for doing any human to electric to wheel drive that would kill the efficiency of the bike and make it worthless,

The energy transfer from kinetic to stored electrical energy to kinetic energy would be so inefficient you would be lucky to get up any hills at all

Working in the energy conversion field for over 30 years I would suggest that you may not realize just how efficient the conversion could be. Efficiency from motion to electric to electric motor is in excess of 90%. In addition, there are gains when breaking for the motor goes into regen mode and would pump current back into the storage device.

There are devices called super capacitors that would be an ideal storage device for a bike.

That said, an invovation like that could be very viable. Imagine coasting down a hill and having stored energy to help you up the next incline. A bike like that could improve average speeds quite a bit opening up the possibility of making a true commuter bicycle that could be a viable alternative to the automobile.

I also see a possible improvement going to a direct drive configuration rather than using a chain and cogs. With composite advances the strength of the drive shaft and gearing would be adequate with little or no weight penality over a tradition chain/deraileur setup.

All this is speculation. Who knows? I think the bicycle as piece of fitness or fun equipment for the average person will always be a market segment that manufacturers will try their best to appeal to.

Ok if we assume the conversion from kinetic to electrical energy is 90% then the conversion back should be similar
so therefore

kinetic to electrical to kinetic = 1x0.9x0.9 x100= 81% of input energy being returned to the road

add to that the extra weight of a bike with that sort of gear on it (i'd be guessing it would double the weight of a decent bike) and i'd say that it would just about kill any gains in efficiency

It might smooth out the high and low speeds but i know i wouldn't be lining up for a bike like that !!

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Insight Driver
Working in the energy conversion field for over 30 years I would suggest that you may not realize just how efficient the conversion could be. Efficiency from motion to electric to electric motor is in excess of 90%. In addition, there are gains when breaking for the motor goes into regen mode and would pump current back into the storage device.

There are devices called super capacitors that would be an ideal storage device for a bike.

That said, an invovation like that could be very viable. Imagine coasting down a hill and having stored energy to help you up the next incline. A bike like that could improve average speeds quite a bit opening up the possibility of making a true commuter bicycle that could be a viable alternative to the automobile.

I also see a possible improvement going to a direct drive configuration rather than using a chain and cogs. With composite advances the strength of the drive shaft and gearing would be adequate with little or no weight penality over a tradition chain/deraileur setup.

All this is speculation. Who knows? I think the bicycle as piece of fitness or fun equipment for the average person will always be a market segment that manufacturers will try their best to appeal to.

It has struck me that the recumbent would benefit from a drive shaft and from front wheel drive, particularly if it is a three wheeler with two of the wheels in the front. That would eliminate the enormous length of chain going all the way to the back wheel. It seems that they have stretched it way back there because that is the way it has always been done on uprights. You would of course need to consider how much weight over the front drive wheel you have, but if you use a 3 wheeler, you could have the front 2 wheels close to your vertical center of gravity with respect to direction of linear motion. This way, you would still have power on the uphill. With materials weights going down so much and strengths going up, it seems like it might even be feasible now.

Consider what the future will hold if they ever solve the problems and get nanotechnology into the production phase. We may then see bicycle weights, even for recumbents, go well below 5 lbs and the strength of the entire "vehicle" go way up too. If that's the case, we may be pedalling something looking almost like an aerodynamic small car which you could easily lift and carry.

I think the next 100 years will show more changes in the bicycle than we have seen in the past 100, even if it takes 50 years to perfect nanotechnology. This development may be closer than we realize.

http://www.rowbike.com/

I've seen that one already. The disappointing thing is that although they claim you exert much more energy on this bike than a conventional pedal bike, you go slower. It would be nice for cross training though.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Geonz
http://www.rowbike.com/

ha ha ha.lol

that's just silly! it looks really hard to ride. hard to steer and 'pedal' at the same time

I was thinking about incorporating arm pedaling and foot pedaling - wonder if that would help increase speed?

What about the large capacitor to store energy while going down hills. Here is norcal that would be great.

My bike commute is 25mi ea. way and was going to build an electric bike, but found that advanced hi-capacity batteries still have not reached the mass market.

What is nanotechnology?

Teff

Nano technology is real future dreaming stuff at the moment

basically its building machines that have moving parts that are single molecules of a chemical compound and thus their dimensions are measured in nano metres (10 to the -9 power)

the idea is to create millions of little nano robots that can do stuff like fix broken machinery just by pouring them in etc

as i said its really cutting edge sort of stuff and i'd say that real working applications are years away but it can be done, as a matter of fact every living cell acts like a little nano factory to convert energy to movement etc

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by teffo
I was thinking about incorporating arm pedaling and foot pedaling - wonder if that would help increase speed?

What about the large capacitor to store energy while going down hills. Here is norcal that would be great.

My bike commute is 25mi ea. way and was going to build an electric bike, but found that advanced hi-capacity batteries still have not reached the mass market.

What is nanotechnology?

Teff

If you want to get into more detail, go to this website: http://www.zyvex.com/nano/

Briefly, nanotechnology addresses and cures the rather low tech manufacturing processes we use to produce rather high tech products. It is similar to trying to put together LEGO blocks wearing a pair of boxing gloves to describe how manufacturing works now. With nanotechnology, it's like taking off the gloves so that you can easily snap the pieces together. This is the simplistic way of describing a process which is occuring on a very small scale (less than 1,000 nanometers). This is why it's called nanotechnology, because of the scale. The atoms would be stacked individually. Objects would be manufactured not to close tolerances, one almost exactly like the other as they are today. Instead, they would actually be exactly like each other, down to the atoms and molecules. They hope to perfect self replication as well (products that replicate themselves).

If (or when) they figure these processes out, the production costs go way down, materials strengths go way up per unit of mass if that's desired.

Do you remember the microwave-like boxes on Star Trek where they order the food by pushing a few buttons, and then it appears? This is where they get the idea--from nanotechnology research. They have been at it for at least 60 years, maybe more. Now do you see how pervasive this technology might be? It's not just about bike parts.

Yeah nano tech is very impressive stuff

I actually got to do some research work on nano tech at University, synthesizing tiny "wheels" to put on tiny axles in an attempt to make a tiny paddle wheel that turned when other chemicals or electricity was added to a solution of the little nano machines

Being that carbon fiber composite technology is constantly being improved incrementally I suspect that composite construction would take over steel and aluminum frames. The cost would go down until the entry level bikes have composite frames.