Is it me or has no one invented the wind up bicycle?

Question

You pedal on the flats and the pedaling power is stored and so on uphills the power is used electrically to power the bike uphill, surely this has been invented and if not why not?

Answer 1

I like the braking idea. You can already buy lights powered by your pedaling, although they generally turn off when you stop, unless you've got a battery. Here's a cool one.  

http://www.freelights.co.uk/

I suspect that the reason a wind up system is not available, though, is the weight needed for power storage system, either a spring, battery, or flywheel (which would be highly impractical on a bike). It takes a lot of energy to travel uphill: my car's mileage is something like 4-6 times better on a flat than traveling uphill.

But if you're seriously interested, start researching the engineering issues of storing the power.  It could be that there's a solution out there that no one has thought to apply to bikes yet.

Answer 2

You can store energy in a wind-up spring, but it has to come from somewhere. That means you have to divert some of the energy from forward motion, slowing you down on the flats. Nothing is 100% efficient, so the amount of energy that you could get out of storage would be less than you put in. Finally, a wind-up spring large enough to store significant energy would likely weigh more than the bike and rider combined.

Sorry to burst the bubble. You're just going to have to gear down, pedal hard, breathe hard, and sweat up the hills just like the rest of us.

HTH

Answer 3

no would be no good for ex you know the wind up spring alarm clocks you or someone has to EVERYDAY wind it up for it to power and unwind  so for a wind up bike to go you still have to wind it  for it to go so therfore you still got to work  and if you are in the mountains or a very large hill the spring would do no good they do make a electirc motor for a bike for up hill it will carry up 3 hours up a hill at 10 mph I think but you have to carry a heavy battery with you

Answer 4

Aahhhh pleasure ! Another dreamer like me. So few of us left.

Good idea and great answers. I would not know if it could be feasible though-

I often have wonder about a sail bike! Could kill you too, but can you imaging surfing the tarmac on a gusty day! Similar to a wind surf on water.  That will be the day.

<Enjoy!

Answer 5

Sorry, bud, wont work. A bicycle, properly tuned, is 98% efficient in energy transfer. There's no excess to store on the flats.

Answer 6

Sorry to disagree with everyone else but I think this is a great question. Phrased a little differently you might ask why a hybrid concept wouldn't work on a bike. Store energy from braking (not the flats, sorry) and retrieve it when needed.

You could store the energy kinetically (not electrically) like a watch spring and drive the wheels directly from the hub. Surely there must be some kind of high tech, super elastic, lightweight material that wouldn't weigh so much that could be used as a coiled spring?

Don't be discouraged so easily. It's questions like this that generate great answers. I've wondered about this for years.

Answer 7

go for it! you could make millions..

Answer 8

They have these little motors you have on your bike in Holland if you so desire(not that there are any hills there!)