Hi. I have a general question and was hoping someone could help me.
I am trying to make a simple power generator for Engineers Without Borders using a bicycle. The bike sits in a stand and the back wheel is hooked up to an actuator. I am working on bike stand but I've run into a problem.
I want to be able to pop the bike in and out fairly easily. The problem with this is that the original idea was to have a belt loop around the wheel and then hook up to the actuator. I can see this getting difficult and cumbersome for the residents and would like to avoid putting something around the wheel. I know you can put a small wheel on the outside of the bike wheel and then hook that up to the generator, but my concerns with this are different sized wheels and slippage. Are these valid concerns or is the friction high enough (even on extremely used bikes) that this won't be a problem? Also how can we account for different sized wheels and/or frames?
Thank you so much for your time and help!
Jess
Welcome to the forum. Take a look at these bike training rollers and see of you can get some ideas. The "actuator," could be permanently attached to the rollers then just run the bike up onto the rollers and start pedaling.
http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/SubCate..._202335_202382
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