Robert Foster

We often speculate as to the direction life will take if oil becomes too hard to get and people have to give up ICE powered vehicles. I have at times suggested total EVs but MSN put this up and I found it more than interesting.

https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38723900...ion/?GT1=43001

A Human powered EV/Hybrid that can transport more than one person and climb hills like a cat one racer isn't bad.

Roody

Kid Rock and Fred Durst had a lot of fun with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl3Wd...eature=related

Robert Foster

It was an interesting concept and even if it is about 4 times more expensive than my road bike it is still close to a reasonable price for a vehicle. If they ever started mass production the price should come down. The only real trouble I see is there are a lot of sub compact cars that cost less.

gerv 

Probably wouldn't work for winter driving though... unless you could row fast enough to work up a sweat.

Also wouldn't it be more useful to develop a two-seater with an enclosure (think "cage" ..) for bad weather driving.

Be interesting to see if this kind of car ever hits prime time.

bgary

Instead of electric power, I have wondered about a pedal car with a flywheel to store reserve power and wasted braking energy. I'm thinking I would use leg power instead of hand cranks, too.

Robert Foster

I gather it works a bit like a hand cranked radio or flashlight. It seems as if you only need to row if you want more power but if you notice to take off you row a few strokes first and then shift into forward.

It looks like they also have a covered one for bad weather. But the part I liked the best is that with more people you can climb better. Face it the bad thing about a tandem is going uphill.

sevenhills

[QUOTE=bgary;11341969]Instead of electric power, I have wondered about a pedal car with a flywheel to store reserve power and wasted braking energy. QUOTE]

I think the same way, perhaps a flywheel or large spring to store energy would be lighter than batteries.

Roody

[QUOTE=sevenhills;11343133]I'm not sure the energy stored would compensate for the increased weight of the flywheel. Those suckers are heavy!

bgary

[QUOTE=Roody;11345057]I don't remember the details, but I read quite a few years ago about flywheels spinning at some ridiculous RPM for energy storage. That was for cars, couldn't say if it would be workable for HPV's.