I've been mentally toying with the idea of implementing HSD in a human powered bicycle. Instead of a gas engine, it would be foot power I remember reading somewhere that a human can dump out something like 1kW peak. 50-100W peak electric assist should be sufficent as a bike is nowhere near as heavy as a car. For an idea of how much power this really is, Just letting go of the brake pedal and 'creeping' is approx 200W. The main benefit to this would be absolutely no shifting required. AND a deeper understanding of how our cars work. Seems like someone has already created a somewhat suitable platform for implementing this. Parallel hybrid bike Imagine puting HSD into that!
I'd like to buy a touring bike with HSD. If you try to discuss the idea in rec.bicycles.tech expect to get lots of posts saying that it's pointless because it's less efficient than a derailleur drive (it is indeed less efficient but maximizing efficiency is not the goal).
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(_echo @ Aug 6 2006, 03:01 AM) [snapback]298557[/snapback]</div> My son built his Hybrid Electric Bike With a 500 watt engine and it went into overload (20 amps at 24 volts) on steep hills. The motor was directly coupled to the rear wheel using friction drive. If you want an automatic transmission for the pedals, such things are available for bicycles. Automatic Transmission JeffD
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jdenenberg @ Aug 6 2006, 09:41 AM) [snapback]298598[/snapback]</div> An HSD would be a lot simpler.
In Japan, there are a lot of plug-in bikes for electric assist type with Li-ion. http://www.panabyc.co.jp/en/product_eb.htm Ken@Japan
