Motorized Cruzbike
- Thread starter John Tolhurst
- Start date
John Tolhurst
Zen MBB Master
Petrol will soon hit $10 a liter, but no worries, you are already prepared. :mrgreen:
John Tolhurst
Zen MBB Master
Well, that was a little tongue in cheek, Petrol here is $1.55 liter presently with the AU dollar at about 96cents US. But this is my projection:
Demand for oil is increasing exponentially at above 5% per year, available oil to be pumped is decreasing exponentially at about the same rate. Oil price now is $125, and will at least double in price each 3 years from now on. So in 6 years it will be $1000 a barrel, or $10 liter in Australia. The reason I think it can go so high is that just a little bit of petrol in a truely efficient vehicle will take you a very long way, and the economies competing with the US (and Australia) for the purchase of oil I think are positioned to use it many times more usefully in much smaller more efficient vehicles.
I would like to develop a bicycle that could travel 30kph on sunlight alone. 40kph if you pedaled along too; that gave reasonable weather protection and had good load carrying ability.
Peder Torgersen
Guru
The gas price here in Norway is $2.60 for a litre of gas and diesel is even more expensive. Norway’s production peak of oil was around 2001 so production of oil is going down. Norway does produce and export oil but they also have extra tax on gas for the consumers here. The government also uses a lot of money on health care and welfare. It is a good thing that some people are creative new inventions and improvement of existing cars and bikes will come in the near future. I am lucky I only have 4 km to work one way so the Sofrider works good for me. But many people have a long distance to travel. So it will be interesting to se what will be on the roads in the near future. :roll:
Peder
Peder
John.........I saw an extrawheel trailer close up this past month. I think it would be possiable to develope a motorized trailer that would hook to the back of any bike and run on either gas or electic motor. Taken off you would still have a regular bike to ride.........but for covering great distance it could double the speed of the standard bike. Motor on the inside and batteries or tanks on the outside. A gas motor could push someone all the way across the U.s. on just a few gallons. Use gas going up and your standard bike going down. It would be a perfect adaption for a cruz bike........comfort plus distance. My uncle rode home on a mtorized bike at the end of World War II from the coast to Oklahoma...........on three gallons of gas.
There was a wheel on one of our TV channels the other night that had the motor inside the wheel itself.........I thought how cool that would be on the back of a front wheel drive bike.
Moose
There was a wheel on one of our TV channels the other night that had the motor inside the wheel itself.........I thought how cool that would be on the back of a front wheel drive bike.
Moose
John Tolhurst
Zen MBB Master
I think you are right Moose.
http://revopower.com/the_wheel.html
850 watts, should be enough for 60 kph on a faired bent, but wouldn't have the gearing.
http://world.honda.com/history/limitlessdreams/encounter/text01/index.html
Been there before, we have.
http://revopower.com/the_wheel.html
850 watts, should be enough for 60 kph on a faired bent, but wouldn't have the gearing.
http://world.honda.com/history/limitlessdreams/encounter/text01/index.html
Been there before, we have.
MrSteve
Zen MBB Master
The Revopower concept immediately brought to mind some early motorcycles...at least one marque
had a small rotary engine inside a wheel, powering the wheel.
Which, in turn, reminds me of the Sopwith Camel:
also powered by a rotating rotary engine.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Soichiro Honda is one of my idols.
I really admire the products the company he founded makes.
had a small rotary engine inside a wheel, powering the wheel.
Which, in turn, reminds me of the Sopwith Camel:
also powered by a rotating rotary engine.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Soichiro Honda is one of my idols.
I really admire the products the company he founded makes.
John Tolhurst
Zen MBB Master
But, could sleeve down the bore to run it in the sweet spot for a nice 40 kph ride on a faired bike.
That was the wheel I saw. You had to move before the motor would ingage. Looks like a perfect match for a Cruzbike. The range would be fantastic for this type of set up. Maybe 350 to 400 miles per gallon by using it on inclines only. That would drive the cost of gas down to one cent per mile for the American around town use. A touring cyleist could do 200 a day on a comfortable bike. Very cool!
Moose
Moose
MailSeanBell
Active Member
This is from a friends blog "http://aquestioningfaith.blogspot.com/":
"Yesterday I heard about a company called Nanosolar (http://www.nanosolar.com). If their claims are correct they can produce solar systems at the price of $1-2 per watt of generation capacity. What is so significant about this is that coal cost on average $2.1 per watt of generation capacity."
Maybe we'll see more solar?
Doesn't solve the problem of all the dead batteries but... imagine the world going electric?
"Yesterday I heard about a company called Nanosolar (http://www.nanosolar.com). If their claims are correct they can produce solar systems at the price of $1-2 per watt of generation capacity. What is so significant about this is that coal cost on average $2.1 per watt of generation capacity."
Maybe we'll see more solar?
Doesn't solve the problem of all the dead batteries but... imagine the world going electric?
$1/watt is about what you can get for a "real time" solar system for with no battery backup. Useful if you have a power company that supports backfeeding the grid which lets your meter run backwards if you are generating more solar than you need and takes power from the grid at night or whenever you need it.
Coal costs? I'd guess some things hidden in there that would reduce that price if a rational approach was used. For one thing, simply upgrading the existing plants to more efficient modern standards (less polluting too) would be nice.
Peder Torgersen
Guru
John might be right the fuel prises are still going up one reason is the big demand in Asia.
Here is a car that that runs on water. One liter water charges the batteries and you can drive 80 km. It might be possible to power a Cruzbike with a smaller power plant?
http://www.fuelcelltoday.com/online/news/articles/2008-06/Genepax-unveils-water-energy-fuel-cell
http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2008/06/13/538137.html
Peder
Here is a car that that runs on water. One liter water charges the batteries and you can drive 80 km. It might be possible to power a Cruzbike with a smaller power plant?
http://www.fuelcelltoday.com/online/news/articles/2008-06/Genepax-unveils-water-energy-fuel-cell
http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2008/06/13/538137.html
Peder
It would have to be a delta trike I think, that is a lot of gear in the back of the car. Cost prohibitive though, like most of the "solutions" to fuel prices. Gasoline is just so efficient as a way of "storing" energy and retrieving it.
I think a better bet would be investing in modern external combustion (steam) cars, nuclear power, solar power and utilize the existing demand for better batteries. You have to get stuff down to the hobbyist level (where I can go build one myself) before you can even think about industrializing without massive government intervention. Of course, most of the current "solutions" are hobbyist level tech that is being forced into industrial use, like ethanol and biofuel production in the States. Great stuff if someone wants to fiddle with it in their backyard, but big trouble in large scale production.
