Peter Svancarek
100 µW
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2020
- Messages
- 9
2old said:You're a lot braver than I am since I wouldn't ride a recumbent or trike in socal; too many SUV's with drivers that are distracted. Probably no safer on a 26" bike but it feels like I have better vision and visibility. May just be me though. I'm riding less on the road and more off road.
Maybe I'm stupider?
Anyway, there is not that many SUVs in Europe, especially in middle and east one. My experience tells me, that you aren't safer because you are on bigger bicycle. You are safer if you are on something unusual. When I'm on recumbent, drivers are slowing down, making me more space- most probably because they want to see what I'm driving Recumbent bike is easier to handle, when out of seat- it is much easier to get it through such obstacles as stairs at subway... but trike has superior stability, handling and driving characteristics on all surfaces. It is heavier, over 25kg since I built it from 2mm steel(limitations of my hobby equipment and welding capabilities) but still I managed to get it through critical subway even with about 15kg of groceries. Alone, I didn't want help of other people even if they offered- If I couldn't do it alone, then I would need to find different way to store I usually visit.
Anyway, the pedal electric(or series hybrid) transmission tricycle is dream of mine for more than 20 years. I saw presentation of Andreas Fuchs and video of his tricycle. the video is impossible to find on Youtube, but there are some articles about it. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/302328785_Assessment_of_the_interest_of_series_hybridisation_for_a_human-powered_vehicle_Electric_pedal_generator_pre-sizing https://myownhybrid.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/seriesdrivehybridvelomobiles.pdf https://www.hupi.org/HPeJ/0015/0015.html and many other. At that time there was nothing allowing amateur building of this system. Then a year or two ago I again accidentally found this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hfClQh3rxM I wasn't sure about making my own motor, and I didn't look on pages with electric motors for bicycles... just this year I was looking on motors for middrives and I accidentally got redirected on direct drive motor of Leaf 14"/ 1000W where unbelievable peak efficiency of over 90% is stated. regen ability. reverse drive ability... The dream looked much more real after that.
There is still the problem of making generator- if I would like to reach higher efficiency then I would probably need to build core-less(iron-less) axial flux generator with Litz wire wave form winding... but what was used in video I mentioned here it was solved using 250W geared hub... the efficiency would be probably only about 80%.