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I’m too lazy to design a new bike…hahaha

Thank you very much for your advice really. This is a proposal using existing technology for concil owned bike hire scheme for our near future. So one of my criteria is reto-fit exisiting public bike with components slightly different to standard ones, for example, Velib Paris. Then we may reduce the cost of energy for manufacturing and of investment. According to this, the less I change, the better. Thus everything I design is on the handlebar including the handlebar itself.

I might design a new bike if using Hydrogen as the energy form to be stored in the bike. Howeveer, the effuciency of the existing technology is still too low. So please kindly bear with the bike actually sponsored by Raleigh. Classic, isn’t it?

Excellent, votre initiative est un acte humaniste de haut niveau.Ce genre de projet, mérite notre considération citoyenne. Merci pour votre contribution!

Thank you for your appreciation. As energy we (as human being)can generate is just too small to deal with. How to gather? Where to apply? Every human power product on the market may share these two questions in common. Actually, I’m not really into energy issues. Just try to prove that designers can do something positive instead of only making green statement to raise social awareness when facing to environmental issues.

It probabaly depends on how we define the statement “Energy stored in the ultacap can move the bus’ motor”. If we can see the big picture, though one signle bike ride can’t contribute a lot, what about 50000 bike rides per day? I can see this project may not focus only on how much energy people can generate. (human power is nothing comparing the mass produced electricity)Instead, the benefit of the whole intergrated system through retro fitting basic infrastructures for public bike schemes might be significant. (energy plus + energy minus) Good combination of technology and design.

Thank you for your input. Please kindly have a look of my precious comment. This projest in only few products designed. It’s a system. Might be diffuclt for Mr. Editior to go more detail. The reason I plce bike station next to bus station is to have possbility to feed hybrid buses when passing by. But the enegy supply actually is not only from human power. Human power is just a top-up. By doing this, we may create the value for the energy cyclist generte through converting electricy into petrol.

Your suggestion is really good. Thank you.

Indeed, energy is engineering hardcore. Finding an application is far more diffuclt than generating. Thank you for your appreciation.

In the concept, human power tops up the energy supply of electricity vending machine(Bike Stand). It’s small really, but we are not expecting buses can run only by human power. The reason I apply this “bridge” is that the more energy we can pick from commuting from point A to point B, the more use of petrol we can reduce. And then we can reward users by the price of petrol they save. The title “Bus powering bike” is exaggerated by the editor.

“A jacket that charges mobile-phones and mp3-players put in a pocket when you walk.” In terms of market and usability, it may work. However, you may think the question you asked earlier, “What is the sense of spending 10Kwh to collect 0.1Kwh ?” What came to your mind when you question this issue?

The balance of energy input for manufacturing and energy output is acutually my first filter at very begining. Without this, this project may ends up with another fragile green statement. This is my MA project for my degree at RCA. A project can fit what people can expect to happen may not what I want to achieve, for example, designing a jacket for Nike to co-brand with I-POD.

Concering the energy balance, ideas like personal power generators are something that we need to eliminate. Human are not making regular movement for 12 hr/day. We need have a product that allows thousands and thousands people to use. “A Public Platform” is one of the design strategy.

What a designer can do when we face to environmental issues? What an engieer can contribute? What a polititian can do? This project is something that we all can refine and even come up something better. It is actually really good to discuss with experts like you. Please kindly give more comments if you feel like. Thanks.

Thanks for your question. I’ve roughly estimated the offset to determine if the incentive is enough for users. These paragraphs are part of my report. Please kindkly give me input if you feel something wrong. Thank you.

Hybrid 2 provides users energy credit offset when they return bicycles back to the docking point. These credits can be used for transferring other public transportation means or for the next hire.
In the actual experiment I’ve done with Mr. Halimi in Electronic Engineering, Imperial College, bicycle dynamo motors can deliver 233J to Maxwell ultra capacitors within 5 minutes at 15km/hr speed through best-performed circuit I’ve designed so far. This indicates that within 40 minutes, which is the maximum time for hire a single bike, an individual is able to generate approximate 1.8MJ. According to the report, The Route to Cleaner Buses 2003, made by Energy Saving Trust, all batteries on a hybrid power bus charged during peak time rates cost 0.045 British Pound per kilo-meter, and energy use per km of a hybrid bus is 1.59MJ. We can see every single bike ride can at least earn 5 pence if we only compare the human power with the electricity for hybrid power buses. We can imagine users may bring more benefits in terms of reducing petroleum used to power electric engines on hybrid buses.

The credit offset may encourage more potential users to involve Hybrid 2 and public transportation system and then reduce more energy from their original transportation means.