Building a Better Motorized Bicycle

toyotaboy writes "Saw this in 'design news' magazine. It's a bicycle using an engine that looks like something pulled off of an R/C airplane. He uses a gear reduction system as well as a overrunning clutch to keep the engine running while stopped. Claims to get 20 mile range from its 1/4 gallon gas tank (80mpg). If you figure most engines like that are 30k rpm with 1:100 gear reduction, and an average bike rim is 26", you should get potentially 1,458,000 inches per hour, or 23mph! He goes on to say that similar devices in electric form (segway) fail because of their heavy 80lb weight and limited 10-15 mile range (and where do you recharge?) This thing can be filled back up at any gas station."

Comments

Great

[sulli]

So not only you get to breathe everyone else's exhaust, you get to produce your own via a two-stroke engine directly under your nose? Yucko.

Re:Great

[frdmfghtr]

Agreed. Plus, a small engine that can be strapped to a bike for some power-assist is nothing new. Look in the back of any Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, or any similar type of magazine, and I bet you will find ads for this amongst the ads for do-it-yourself helicopters, hovercraft, and motorized wheelbarrows.

Two other thoughts come to mind...

(1) If you're going to go the distances that might make this useful, chances are that you're not a periodic, recreational biker. Thus, are you going to really want one of these on your bike in the first place?

(2) If you ride short distances (around a college campus or in the neighborhood) do you want to have to smell the fumes and listen to the high-pitched whine constantly? These small engines generally don't have much in the way of mufflers or emissions control, so there's that to consider as well.

When I flew model planes, the fuselage was covered with unburned fuel at the end of a flight. I would presume that noise and unburned fuel have been taken into account in this design, but it's still something to consider. The designer probably went further than taking a big R/C aircraft engine and bolt it to a clutch and drivetrain.

Personally, I like the exercise and peace & quiet that comes with a nice bike ride, but as always, YMMV.

Great idea

[x159]

But what about the sound - When I'm riding my bike, I don't want to listen to the constant loud, annoying drone of a motor.

Bad for the Environment?

[trotski]

Some may think that a super efficient small engine is a good thing. I argue that point.

Although a small 2-stroke may put out much less greenhouse gas than a car or motorcycle, a 2-stroke engine of any size is very damaging to the air quality. A 2-stroke engine (such as the one on this bike) must burn large amounts of oil, it's simply the way 2-strokes work. Therefore, a lot more soot, and other impurities are blown out the exhaust. This is the smelly blue smoke you always see out the back of scooters, motorboats, chainsaws and other devices with 2-stroke engines.

While this may be a more efficient form of transportation, if everyone who rides a bike road one of these our cities would be far more smoggy and smelly than they are today.

Any gas station?

[Darnit]

What about any electtical outlet for the Segway? The thing goes 10-12 miles on $0.10 USD. That bicycle goes 10-12 miles on $0.25 USD.

Have you seen the pollution in growing nations that have cities full of 2 cycle engines on motor scooters? Damn man talk about stinky horrible asthma causing pollution.

How about this one?

http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/427.html

This bike is probably a little bit better than some stinky ICE bike. It also has the same range. Go figure.

This is not the solution

[The Ape With No Name]

Two-stroke engines are great contributors to the incredible pollution of places like Dhaka or New Delhi. India is trying to get away from the ill-maintained motor scooters on gas/oil mixtures to hydrogen or, even more practical given the amount of animal manure available there, methanol. Discussion here with insight from a guy working in this problem. Fossil fuels just won't cut it because of the double headed monster of carbon fuel pollution and a multiplier effect of unmaintained equipment burning that same fuel.