Supplement Your Home’s Power With a Bicycle Generator

By The Mother Earth News Editors
Published on March 1, 1981
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Yes, you can use a bicycle generator to provide electricity to a TV!
Yes, you can use a bicycle generator to provide electricity to a TV!
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Schematic for the bicycle generator.
Schematic for the bicycle generator.

We’ve shown you how to turn a bicycle into a stable mechanical power source that could readily be connected to a number of different tools, and then we proceeded to describe how you might hook the unit to a water pump. Now, as promised in that installment, we’re going to tell you how to combine the cycle-power chassis and an automotive alternator into a bicycle generator.

More Pedal Power

As is often the case in research, while we were busy designing the new package, our team made a few improvements to the original setup. Foremost was the addition of a flywheel, which has helped to stabilize the pulses that are produced by the thrusts of the rider’s legs.

We decided to use a junked Volkswagen flywheel for a number of different reasons: First, we had one lying around the shop; second, it has a flat surface, next to the ring gear, upon which a belt can ride; and third, the unit’s one-piece construction (which includes a nondetachable ring gear) and recessed face make the VW bug part nearly impossible to repair, a fact that has made numbers of used flywheels available for next to nothing.

To install the steel disk, we simply welded it–centered–on our Raleigh’s rear hub. Then, in order to provide clearance for the flywheel, we had to relocate the rear frame braces. The upper 19 1/2″ conduit crosspiece was moved 5 inches–to a point 24 1/2 inches up the frame tubes–and we added two braces, which run between the axle ends and the bolts that connect the horizontal and vertical frame members. The combination has increased the chassis’s rigidity.

Furthermore, the roughly 12″-diameter disk allows for a greater ratio increase than did the old chain and 6″ pulley system. In fact–after experimenting with different drive pulley sizes on the alternator–we’ve found that our new flywheel, teamed with the stock 3″ pulley, seems to provide a close-to-ideal ratio.

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