Can we make exercise bikes able to produce electricity?

Question

Can we make exercise bikes able to produce electricity?

Answer 1

A lot of the exercise bike conversion platforms use electronic resistance breaking to create a workout.  I always thought this was stupid to waste the energy, rather than using it to generate electricity.  Yes, you can use your bike to run a generator (see link) and people do it.  It doesn't make very much power, but you could run a light or TV on it.  I don't have a TV right now and I vowed to only get one if I hook it to a bike.  Especially if I have kids.  Imagine what that would do to our obesity problem if every parent insisted that kids power their own televisions.  We wouldn't have an obesity problem.  We would still have energy issues because a bike would be such a small slice of your daily power needs; nothing compared to all the fossil fuels that you require for your daily stuff.

Answer 2

You could hook them up easily. However you can't generate a decent amount of electricity for a reasonable length of time.

Don't forget there are bicycle tire driven generators that keep a bike headlight on. But that's not much power.

Answer 3

A person in very good shape, peddling for 8 straight hours, can generate about 2kW-hours of electricity, which is worth about 10 cents.

Answer 4

Sure.  Hook it up to a magnet that will spin when you cycle.  It doesn't generate very much though.