Superwheel - how does this work ?

[cycleruk]

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/prod ... tzNWJKu_8w

or does it

[Boring_Username]

The inventor seems to think you can convert a reactive force - one component of a set of two forces that are necessarily in balance (in this case, weight and ground reaction)- into "energy". You can't.

In theory you could convert some energy currently lost into more usable energy - regenerative braking for example - but apart from air resistance and body heat, which are hard to convert, most energy losses on a bike are tiny.

[Mick F]

Perpetual motion?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50Aag0J0Qe4

[Brucey]

it is clear that the springs only get compressed/extended in the way described by virtue of the wheel centre moving upwards wrt to the bike. On a smooth surface this can't possibly do anything useful except waste energy in whatever friction exists in the mechanism, i.e. it will be like riding slightly uphill.

However what happens exactly when you hit a bump? This isn't so clear to me; there may be something less harmful going on.

cheers

[hamster]

Shame on the academic institutions who backed this idiocy and failed to realise its conception is perpetual motion.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Don't you think by now someone would've come up with some marketable machine?
Bhaskara’s Machine was around in idea from 1150.
But of course with most the stuff the energy you get out is never quite what you put in and of course the cost in making it in the first place.
I will admit it's an ingenious neat trick.
More here-
https://listverse.com/2015/09/11/10-att ... echnology/

[james01]

A reasonably intelligent relation of mine asked why they don't put dynohubs on electric bikes so you could charge the battery as you ride along.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Define intelligence?

[soapbox]

A reasonably intelligent relation of mine asked why they don't put dynohubs on electric bikes so you could charge the battery as you ride along.

I'd consider myself a reasonably intelligent person, with a distant background in mechanical engineering, but I wouldn't know the answer to that question because like many people, electricity is something that I've never been interested in and just don't understand.

[simonhill]

When I first saw this, I thought it had a big spring that you somehow wound at home. It then powered you much like an old clockwork train.


Soapbox - to put it simply, you use (loose) a bit of energy at each stage of the battery charging and using process. Therefore you put in more than would come out, eg pedal 5 times to get 4 pedals of energy.

[rjb]

Someone tried a wind powered cart where the wind mill charged a battery driving an electric motor. Total failure - Newton's law of conservation of energy would preclude this from working. As an aside this wheel reminded me of an attachment to keep your tyres inflated. It relied upon a spring loaded ball in a brass tube which as it bounced along and rotated with the wheel would compress air and inflate your tyres. It was widely advertised in the "comic" in the 1960's. It fell by the wayside pretty rapidly. Anyone recall this device, about the size of a 2 inch pencil.

[mercalia]

square wheels for me

[youtube]InZ6Ylc68uM[/youtube]

[axel_knutt]

A reasonably intelligent relation of mine asked why they don't put dynohubs on electric bikes so you could charge the battery as you ride along.

I invented that scheme for my go-kart when I was about eight. I had the nagging feeling it wouldn't work, but couldn't quite put my finger on why at that age.

I'd consider myself a reasonably intelligent person, with a distant background in mechanical engineering, but I wouldn't know the answer to that question because like many people, electricity is something that I've never been interested in and just don't understand.

The answer has nothing to do with electricity, and everything to do with the fact that all perpetual motion machines don't and can't work, regardless of whether they're electrical, mechanical, or any other ical.

[531colin]

A reasonably intelligent relation of mine asked why they don't put dynohubs on electric bikes so you could charge the battery as you ride along.

It amuses me that E bikes have dynamo lighting. (but that may be to do with vehicle lighting regulations)

[Brucey]

Someone tried a wind powered cart where the wind mill charged a battery driving an electric motor. Total failure - Newton's law of conservation of energy would preclude this from working...

actually that is not the case; in a crosswind it could work and even in a headwind you ought to be able to make forward progress, just not as fast. A bigger problem is the sheer efficiency of the whole arrangement; probably every one of about seven stages might at best be around 90-95% efficient, making for a total efficiency of about 50%.

As an aside this wheel reminded me of an attachment to keep your tyres inflated. It relied upon a spring loaded ball in a brass tube which as it bounced along and rotated with the wheel would compress air and inflate your tyres. It was widely advertised in the "comic" in the 1960's. It fell by the wayside pretty rapidly. Anyone recall this device, about the size of a 2 inch pencil.

I've heard tell of such things but never seen one in the flesh or know anyone that has actually used one.

cheers