Alt Bike Culture - The Clockwork Motorcycle Project

National Geographic's Mad Scientists TV show challenged me to make a clockwork motorcycle in 48 hours.

http://www.clockworkmotorcycle.org/wag1.jpg
http://www.clockworkmotorcycle.org/wag2.jpg
http://www.clockworkmotorcycle.org/wag3.jpg

www.clockworkmotorcycle.org

http://www.clockworkmotorcycle.org/worldsweirdestbike.avi.torrent

Quite an interesting project. Well done.

That could be a thrilling ride without a rachet to limit the power, if you could keep the wheels from spinning.

Quite an interesting project. Well done.

That could be a thrilling ride without a rachet to limit the power, if you could keep the wheels from spinning.

That's my next step... I need to put a big fat wheel on the back to give it some traction, and then step down the gearing a bit. On the show we had to toss the escapement because it was taking too long to work out... Da Vinci just used a metal flap to limit the release.

This is *Really * interesting to me, I've been toying with this idea for a couple years. My thought was to use a flat-wound spring in a custom hub. That way you can use the spring as a brake, which also rewinds it. YOu wouldn't get a ton of range out of it, my thought was just as hill-help or to launch across an intersection.

Be an interesting drag bike. Some spring powered movements use a small fan as a speed limiter. Maybe a propeller on back could moderate the spring while provide some propulsion. Are those overhead door springs?

This is *Really * interesting to me, I've been toying with this idea for a couple years. My thought was to use a flat-wound spring in a custom hub. That way you can use the spring as a brake, which also rewinds it. YOu wouldn't get a ton of range out of it, my thought was just as hill-help or to launch across an intersection.

That's how the idea came about, as regenerative braking. Really you could just use a flat leaf that bent as it stored energy, because you'd constantly be "charging" and "draining" your "battery". This is the concept that eludes most people- yeah, it's inefficient, and has a low storage capacity, but you're using waste power, and you only need enough to start at the red lights.

However, what I found by pursuing this in with three methods- flywheel, compressed air, and springs- is that the flywheel is vastly superior for this purpose. However, I still think the springs have potential for, say, a pedal-charged tiller or plow, things normally too energy-greedy for human propulsion. That, and short-track drag racing.

There was a Dutch invention that let you charge 4km of riding by pedaling for 1km:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=891mBTW28wM&feature=player_embedded

In the end I think it didn't catch on because you're using first-hand, not second-hand energy. To me this is all about waste power. Imagine charging up a tank of air with your brakes, then every day when you get to the shop you load that into the main tank, and everybody does it, and you run your tools off of it...

I did consider using a fan, since most of my designs came from music boxes and clocks (not too much else that's clockwork anymore, just some toys). However, I built a "verge and foliot" escapement for the motorcycle, which was left off in the rush to complete the bike in 48 hours. Those are indeed overhead door springs, I got 1200 lbs of lift for that equivalent amount of force.

Johnny, that is fantastic. Well done.

really impressive

Neato!

Payphone its Astro, KLN springfield! how have you been? This is an awesome machine. i hope i get an opportunity to see this in person one day. Good to see your alive and well!

Amazing lovely and wonderful work!

I love it : )

But the torrent's dead : (

Are there any remaining filesharing sites that would be of use?

www.clockworkmotorcycle.org/worldsweirdestbike.avi

holy **** that is awesome!

That thing scares me. If the spring ever got loose....