I have seen an advertisement somewhere about a bicycle rigged to charge batteries and now that I can use one I cannot find the ad. I think it was a company here in my home state of VT. Can anyone help?

-- Stephen Tracy (oleoacresvt@yahoo.com), September 06, 2001

Answers

I don't know about the company in Vermont, but I think a company in California sells military battery rechargers like you describe. This one does NOT look like a bike though, it is basically a tripod with two arms looking like bike pedals, only you sat on a nearby object and cranked with your arms. Cost about $125.00 from what I remember. The company was named Major Surplus and Survival. They have an email address but I don't know it. You might be interested, military stuff is built to last.

-- j.r. guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), September 07, 2001.

HomePower magazine has had a couple of articles about bicycle recharging of batteries. Maybe their archives or the CD-ROM.

j

-- j (jw_hsv@yahoo.com), September 07, 2001.

I'ld take an alternator out of a car and hook it up to the rear wheel. Careful not to get one of the alternators that need to be going at a speed fast enough to generate 12v dc to generate anything.

-- Evan Sangaline (navarchy@yahoo.com), September 08, 2001.

A 12 volt generator (not alternator) from an older VW Beetle (probably pre-1974 or so) seems to work well. I've seen a number of pedal powered generators using a bicycle and a VW genreator.

Jim

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), September 10, 2001.

AaaaH early Vee Dubyahs had a 6v system so you need to know how to operate that at 12 volts.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), September 10, 2001.