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At one point in my life I had grand plans build a flywheel into a four wheeled bicycle. I could replicate regenerative breaking, I could spin up the flywheel at
by danteembermage 17y ago
At one point in my life I had grand plans build a flywheel into a four wheeled bicycle. I could replicate regenerative breaking, I could spin up the flywheel at stop lights, it was going to be great. I mentioned this idea to a civil engineer friend of mine, who pointed out that I could probably get better power density with a battery. When I realized I'd reinvented a heavier version of the electric bike I wasn't so excited about the project.
- aarongough 17y agoWell that all depends on how light the flywheel is and how fast it's spinning. I'm sure a 1kg flywheel spinning at 20K RPM would hold plenty of power, and it's certainly not too much extra weight. That aside, I still agree that it's impractical :-p
- evgen 17y agoTry to take a corner on that particular bike and you will get a short and unpleasant lesson in angular momentum and the gyroscope effect...
- Luc 17y agoNot if you keep it level enough, which should be feasible on a four-wheeler. I mean, the gyrobus shows that it's not a infeasible concept - they still let people ride it sometimes here in Antwerp, as a curiosity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrobus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrobus