Human Powered Appliances
 

Hi everyone,

I'm interested in finding or creating a machine that can be pedaled to power various appliances i.e. blender, juicer, grain mill, meat grinder, etc.

I've seen machines that are just a pedal powered juicer or pedal powered blender or pedal powered mixer, but never a pedal powered machine that can be used for all those uses plus more.

Here are a few examples:
http://www.geocities.com/juicycle/juicycle.html
http://www.justsoap.com/Bicycle.htm
http://www.xtracycle.com/html/news.php?id=36


Does anyone here know of a machine that does what all of those listed above can do?


If I end up designing my own machine it would have the following features:
-It will have a universal mount that will accept multiple appliances
-It will be designed so the rider can use both hands to work the appliance
-There will be a tabletop where the universal mount will come up through and an appliance will be locked down on. This tabletop will be located where handlebars would traditionally be.
-All the appliances will have to be modified to work with the universal mount
-The rider will accually power a horizonal mounted flywheel. The flywheel will give a more even power output. It will be mounted horizonally to reduce the amount of friction on its axel. Less friction means more efficency.
-The machine must be designed in a way that is comfortable enough for the rider to use it for at least an hour at a time


Does anyone have any input on flywheels?
Should the machine have gears?
Should it be a recumbent or a traditional pedaler?
-Recumbent will transfer more the rider's energy to the appliance and it will be more comfortable to use at an hour at a time, but it may be harder for the rider to reach and use the appliance.
-Traditional will allow the rider to reach and use the appliance easily, but it does not transfer as much of the rider's energy to the appliance and it will not be as comfortable to use at an hour at a time.

Will you help out?

Thanks
Wayneburg

Why not use the "bike" to power a generator and use off the shelf appliances? Some ideas:
http://users.erols.com/mshaver/bikegen.htm
http://www.los-gatos.ca.us/davidbu/pedgen.html

I once saw an excersize bike used to pump water from a well. Every morning the guy would pedal 10 minutes to fill up his storage tank which only held enough water for one day.

I have thought of using a generator also. It certainly would reduce the amount of work that would go into such a machine. I wouldn't have to modify every appliance before using it. However, I'm not exactly sure a generator would put out the same energy as is put into it. Isn't it more efficent to use mechanical energy directly from the rider rather than from a generator?

Yup, but then there's all the "mechanical energy" you have to expend to modify all the appliances.

Please create a coffee maker that works with pedalling! I'm about to go away again, and I'm going to die if I can't find a coffee shop along the way!

Koffee

You know what. It probably would be easier to have a bicycle powered generator to charge a battery and then use the stored energy in the battery. It would be easier to use the appliance without having to pedal at the same time. Probably safer too.


Guess I'll go recumbent for the efficency and comfort.

Except I think that's even less efficient than powering a generator.

The recumbent part? I thought recumbents were supposed to be more efficent than traditional pedalers.

well am with you on the generator to battery to inverter to appliance front, but shame about the ineffeciency. have got some links on english approaches to the genre- scrap orientated low efficency but very creative! I wanted to see how you've gotten on, whether you tried doing the recumbent thing, and if you thought of trying evenly spaced weights on the spokes instead of a flywheel....My ideal is for a stand you can just drop in any unmodified bike to and get rolling (as in the training roller guy), with an open circuit for 1-4 bikes to combine their power(s). Good luck with it all!

<http://www.stewardwood.org/resources/DIYcyclepower.htm>. theres another pedal powered cinema project by a group called lifecycles but it seems to be off the web at the mo.