Can an electric trolling motor power a bicycle?

Question

Wondering if the thrust, rpm, and heat would work within the range useful to powering a bicycle.

I have been searching but have been unable to find any designs on the web. Links to any you might know would be helpful.

Answer 1

Isn't a bicycle supposed to be human powered? Sort of defeats the purpose of the bike to slap an electric motor on it.

Answer 2

There are electrically-assisted bicycles, but I don't think they were a mighty success.  I saw them in Europe in 2002 or so, but when we went back there again, nobody at the stores that had sold them would say anything about them except to curse in Italian.  

Tell ya the truth, you're probably better off with a very small gasoline engine.  The power-to-weight ratio, which is critical on any sort of bike, is vastly better than that motor, mainly because you don't need a lead-acid battery to power the fool thing.  

I've been fooling with the idea of using a string-trimmer-sized engine to power a ten-speed bike through its own gear train, which means that there'd have to be a free-wheel device between the sprocket and the pedals so you don't spin your feet off whilst riding the silly thing.  But there are a bunch of other designs that use the same sort of engine with a friction drive against the front or rear tire.  I'd begin with one of these.  

Again, the problem with electric vehicles of any sort always comes down to the battery.  Phooey, but that's the way the technology is at present.

Answer 3

I'm sure that you could gear in low enough that the motor could turn it. You might not go very fast. There are electic and gas motors made that can be put on a bike.

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/205084...

Or

http://nycewheels.com/conversionkits.htm...

Or

http://nycewheels.com/conversionkits.htm...

You should be able to search these manufacturers and find out more detailed specs.

Answer 4

Just get a motor that is meant to work for a bicycle.  It'll probably give you less of a headache than trying to figure out how to make a trolling motor work.   The hub motors seem to work quite well.