Hills too hard? You need powered pedals!

One could probably spend hours debating the physics and still not come to a conclusion everyone accepted. As there is a prototype and road.cc hope to try it out, let's wait for the report. Given what I have read so far, I think it could well be effective - if this is not so, it doesn't say much for all the assessments its undergone so far.

I also think Sir Steve Redgrave should consider endorsing these now after his recent cycling catastrophe, they would definately speed up his return to cycling and a full recovery.

Well Iam going to take this as a fantastic idea, and ignore all the would be engineers trying to sound intelligent, if it was that naff it wouldnt have got this far. My Mother is disabled at the hip due to an accident, but loves a workout on the old cycling machine as she used to love cycling, but wont go out on a bike with my Dad in case they go too far and she cant get back. I think the little extra power offered by these pedals is just the ticket for cyclists who may have given up through injuries and ailments and are too proud to take out a tricycle, a recumbant or heavy electric bike (which dont look cool) slap these pedals on one of those Scott Contessas and I bet my Ma would be straight out into the wilderness with the wind in her hair, give this inventer dude a chance, I think there are plenty folk out there stuck in the house who would benefit from these pedals, give them all a chance. Vote yes, anyone who can invent anything to do with a bicycle in this day and age has my vote.

A lot of people on here don't seem to be grasping that he's actually built the pedals. presumably if they didn't work at all he wouldn't be pursuing it.

This is utter, utter nonsense. A motor powering your pedals around their axles cannot offer any power assistance. Surely there are more sound ideas out there worthy of £50K!! Come on Stephen, think about it!!!

Sadly, a patent application doesn't necessarily mean something isn't a crackpot idea. For every genuine invention there are dozens of half-cocked attempts to get funding or put a stake in the ground in the hopes of being able to sue someone for infringement at a later date. Whether genuinely intended or not, you cannot impart any turning force on a crank by spinning something attached to the end of it. Best you could do is somehow sense dead spots in the rider's pedaling action and rotate the pedal a bit stimulate more power output from their legs. It might feel something was being added, especially if accompanied by the sort of electric motor whine you get with a Gruber Assist. Sorry, but in the words of Duncan Bannatyne, when he has finished the physical act of love, "I'm out."

Further information can be found in UK patent application GB2466318A (co-incidentally (?) published today!). I have not yet had a chance to read this properly, but at first sight it looks as if drafted by a competent professional (as well as being an electric bike enthusiast, I am a UK patent attorney - although I have no connection with this invention)

The pedal axel makes one revolution for each turn of the crank. The motor drives this. The pedal body uses the foot as a platform to drive against. The foot also rotates the crank with the pedal. RPM and force sensors will measure the cyclists input and feed into a micro controller to work out how much power and torque to give the motor. The motor wont kick in till above say 20rpm. So if you cadence drops below this, no pedal power. If you slow or take you foot off, no pedal spin

When you use a cordless screwdriver, it is easier to put a screw in, though you still have to resist the back force. This is exactly the same, but your foot can resist a large back force. And will turn the pedal at the same time. If you apply a pressure and the pedals match your force, then you can double your output, or put in half the effort.

Look at li-po batteries and BLDC motors from model shops, this is available technology.

The prototype shows the concept well. It needs full development for commercialisation, hence the competition. A patent has been filed.

The product has the backing of, CommercialSE, SEEDA, University of Brighton, I have a business mentor and the support of a member of the I Mech Eng.

Some competitions:-

http://www.commercialise.org.uk/newsandevents/index.asp?id=97

http://www.eastsussexhub.co.uk/news/hub/Jul/The-Hub-finds-new-innovation...

All the best,
Stephen Britt.

Trying to be positive about this:

If your foot resists the spinning pedal, then the rotational torque will act like a planet gear and cause a rotation in the bottom bracket. I think...

Not clear how you would carry that energy in a pedal sized unit though. I think the additional rotating mass in the pedal would negate the energy saving from having an electric bike.

If you popped the motor down the seat tube then that might work!

Strangely enough, all you "engineers" might be wrong. I think that it might almost work. Using just the weight of your legs, the force of gravity holds the pedal down and prevents it from rotating. The reaction from the motor must put a torque onto the crank which will turn it.

Where it does fail is that any battery small enough to fit on a pedal will not have enough power or range to do anything useful.

If it were possible to generate enough power then unless you put effort into putting pressure onto the pedals they are likely to throw your feet off. So you end up using your own power anyway.

Overall, I rate this idea a "fail".

Surely any energy that the pedal exerts will need to be matched by equal input from the rider? so for every watt it puts out to the crank, the rider would have to exert the same wattage to prevent the pedal spinning? Seems like a zero sum game to me.

I believe similiar technology has already been applied to provide power-assistance to pedestrians. The Racewalking community has been rocked by allegations of mechanical doping.

Lift a foot off a powered pedal and it will spin like a anemometer. (Sorry for the lame simile; I was trying to think of something really spinny.)

Seems like a crap idea to me. The first question is how can you get enough energy storage in there? With current battery technology, I don't believe it's possible. No I haven't done the maths, but I suspect this is the killer. That is aside from the mechanical concerns.

Decades ago , there was a different but still crap idea about bent crank arms.

The scam idea was that you could magically increase the leverage [for free] by having bent cranks. All it achieved was increased mass, plus profits, if they sold enough units. I never saw them in the 'flesh', but it was in the pre internet days, so there wasn't a means of easy information.

I even saw them on the front of a magazine. Apparently they sold, but presumably not well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crankset#Bent_crankarms

As an engineer, I can't see how this will work. The force applied by a cyclist is downwards, not rotational. You can apply torque to the pedal spindle, but the torque coming from your feet will have to be nearly equal, so how would it be able to deliver 200 Watts? Also, 200 Watt from such a small battery?
In his pitch he doesn't explain how it works either. If I were to invest money I would like to know how this would work first!
I hope there will be some explanation somewhere, cause if it works it is brilliant!

As there already are dynamos in hubs for headlamps, wouldn't it be better to change this round so you'd just have to change a front wheel? Or even the electric regeneration system as been used in Formula one? Charge the battery when braking or going down hill.

Hmmm, maybe I need to pitch for one of these ideas

Might want to check the Swiss patents office first

Or sprain every ligament in the rider's feet.

Is this a summer solstice fool or something? You don't power a bike along by rotating the pedals. The only way this could work would be if they were filled with mercury, with a pipe running down the cranks and through the bottom bracket, and a pump to transfer the weight from one pedal each time it reaches the low point in its circle, quickly enough to add weight to the opposite pedal in time for gravity to help pull it down! That or some other Heath Robinson contraption.