guide | Working Bikes

We are the Bike Machine design team of the Working Bikes Cooperative. Please share your progress with us and, remember, there are no dumb questions!

As promised we are providing instructions and parts lists for some of the machines that we take to energy fairs, green festivals and street fairs.

Photos will soon follow but please start acquiring the parts. You will need: Schwinn exercise bike or 26" wheel mountain bike, DC permanent magnet motor (generator), sheave and V-belt.

Look at some of the cool things that can be done with pedal power ...

Forklifts:
http://www.momentumplanet.com/blog/ronrich/pedal-powered-forklifts

Multi-tool:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cjmAt96WEI&feature=related

Water filter and transporter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U-mvfjyiao

Three innovations are discussed in this section:
1. Using a mountain bike or Schwinn Exercycle to power appliances,
2. Using a Nordic Track to power appliances and
3. Charging a cell phone, smart phone, iPod, MP3 player or any 5 volt USB device using the 6 watt bottle dynamo on a bicycle.

Even though it's DC, this generator can be used to power AC appliances such as compact fluorescent lamps, tube fluorescent lamps, sewing machines, blenders, coffee grinders, food processors, juicers etc.

We use the same generator (dc permanent magnet motor) as we did in the 120 Volts DC Bike Generator but instead of using a sheave and V-belt we press the cast iron fan of the generator against the rear wheel. The fan looks like a flywheel and came with your generator.

Our design is not original but is open source, as are all our machines.

Before embarking on making a UV water sterilizer read the following Philips Lighting brochure about germicidal lamps: visit the Philips Lighting site, then search for the "PHI5998 UV Purification Tech Upd.qxd" document.

Water Cycle" Parts List

This is the pump we use:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=1479

We use the pump to run a fountain at fairs and festivals. Remove the cooling fan to expose the shaft. Put on a sheave (pulley) on the shaft. Elevate the rear wheel of the bike off the ground. Put a v-belt around the rear wheel of the bike. Put the v-belt around the sheave on the pump.