Regenerative Braking System for bicycles
 

I invented a regenerative breaking system for bicycles. See video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxhyJAr-YCM

I'm thinking of offering it for sale on Kickstarter, but need to determine interest level.

So please tell me what you think?

Thank you
Paul

For me personally:

1.)my bike's already heavy enough, and uses almost no electricity, so what would I be regenerating?
2.)my brake usage is pretty light, also, so I wouldn't GET much use out of it.

I don't know anyone who'd benefit from it. Maybe others will.

EDIT: is this regen system storing propulsive energy, like a little 'spring-assist' to get rolling again, instead of electricity? Still wouldn't do much for me.....

Sounds interesting.
So the question would be, how much does it weight and how much energy is it capable of storing and releasing?

Regenerative braking works better in cars because the weight of the vehicle will recharge the battery a little to make it useful. However, a bicycle hub will not capture alot of energy and you'll expend more energy moving the heavy hub each time you start.

Hence my question. In the video the energy required to spin up a free standing wheel is close to nothing compared to what you need to make a difference on the road.

If this is just a simple spring, the braking force would rapidly increase as the spring tightens. What happens when it is fully tight? Hopefully not lockup the front wheel.

Lots of speculation here? I don't think the video showed anything about how it works or how well it works.

How does the braking force compare to that of a good rim brake? In what form is the energy stored? How is it released back to the bike to be reused? How efficient is it? Can it help me climb hills? By how much?

No, it uses a constant torque spring, and the wheel will not lock up when the spring is wound. It will revert to a normal braking at that point.

You are wrong. The percentage of energy reclaimed is the same per vehicle weight. Hub weight is eight pounds.

8 lbs, up to 90%

As stated, a light spring was used to in the video.
See competing design: (much heavier)
EPA, working with the University of Michigan
http://www.epa.gov/oms/technology/research/research-hhb.htm

One problem i see is that if you don't brake often you have 8 more pounds to carry for free.
Could be interesting to combine this system with other energy sources mechanical (piezoelectric), thermal, wind, solar, chemical or have your regenerative braking system work at different stages of the ride (going downhill, reaching a complete stop and whatever other stages you can find)

So whom do you have in mind that would want this product on their bike?

For racing it would probably be against the rules.
People that are riding for fitness are not interested in burning less calories.
People that are riding for fun or commuting don't care about being a few seconds faster on a 1hr ride.
For people that need a little extra help getting around on a bike this would not give enough of a push.

You have separated the brake unit from the hub with a mechanism that rotates a little as the spring compresses. How does this alter the reaction time of the brake for emergency use?
There are lots of places where regenerative braking can be useful but they are all heavy vehicles carrying a lot of momentum. Bicycles are too lightweight for the mass of the brake to be worth the effort saved.

In theory, this could be a help. But I'd imagine it's better for cargo bikes or bakfiets and used in flat places with a lot of stop and go riding. I'm not sure I'd want to add 8 lbs to my front wheel.

The video while it did show the braking was not really convincing. I'd like to see a longer shot of the bike coming to a stop and then starting up again without the rider pedaling, to show how much power was retained. It would be nice to get a better explaination of what is going on.

It is an interesting idea (things like this have been done before, but that doesn't mean that this isn't interesting). As Artkansas said, seeing it work on a real bike coming to a stop and starting up again is much more interesting. Putting together a web page that has a FAQ and more pictures and videos would help, too.

Some Electric hub motor bikes can do some, of the regenerative effect , the motor, turns generator.

anything else is approaching snake oil .. free lunch .

where are the peer reviewed engineering papers ?

looks like it is a rather weak brake response, in an urgent braking situation
it will be like steel rims in the rain , way too long a stopping distance,

someone will die.

when I grab the front brake lever I want it to make the bike to commence stopping

Is there a second disc brake on the wheel in this scheme, that actually works?

Electrical systems store engergy in a battery or capacitor. Purely mechanical systems can store energy in a number of ways, but flywheels and spring are common. The question is can a practical system that works well enough to be desirable be developed, and if desirable, is the market big enough to to justify manufacturing and marketing it. .

There ain't no damn way I'm putting 8 more pounds of weight on any of my bikes,esp my cargo bike.

This might be useful for e-bikes,but I'd never want it on a pedal bike.

Hi,

Absolutely clueless, in so many practical aspects.
There is no invention, just pretension here.

rgds, sreten.

Impressively heavy.

Sounds like a useless solution in search of a problem.