Hybrid bicycle using a bike engine for longer commutes.
(that would otherwise have been made with a car)

This was a project for a friend of ours, who wants to commute to work by bike for health and lower carbon footprint reasons, but just can't do that big hill, so a bit of internet searching later we came up with the bike engine. We would have wanted to go electric, but the weight is an issue. This engine is only about 14 Lbs, so you can still jump curbes with it. Since this is a gasser, we wanted the quitest and least polluting one.



Not an easy install for this particular new Mt bike, the spokes were wrong, needed 36, bike store gave the wrong wheel. Next challenge, a quick release axle, those things look weenie and are weenie since the engine fork won't fit over that, so we replaced that with the axle that came with the kit. Next challenge, protruding things above the axle, so the fork that holds the engine wouldn't fit, sawed and filed those off.

Above: The engine drives the kevlar belt that is connected to the grey plastic drive ring that fits on all the spokes facing it's side. Note the handle or lever with the black ball that tensions the belt for when you turn on the engine. There is very little drag when you untension it for just bicycling.

Note the extra muffler piece below. This only adds about 12 dollars. The sound on idle is very low, you can speak normally standing next to it and still hear others comfortably. Full throttle it is a bit more noise, but not bothersome at all.

Quick list of reasons to get this for this particular application:

• 250 Miles/Gallon if you ran it continuously (bicycling is very easy with it, so that should stretch your mileage and lower your carbon footprint per purchased gallon by a lot more, plus you can easily kill and start the engine while biking, so on downhills and flats you can just keep the thing off and just use it for assist going up a steep hill)
• No need to replace costly batteries every other year
• Emission wise very efficient, will post more data when I get a chance
• relatively quiet, nothing like a lawn mower

Bike purists most likely won't approve of this, and they have some good arguments, however, the thing to keep in mind is reducing our addiction to fossil fuel, carbon/resource and harm footprint, the size of a bike engine footprint versus a big 2-3 thousand pound car should be enough reason to encourage this commute alternative. Secondly, there is still pedaling needed, to get started, going up hills, it is hybrid, no moped.

Here is a nice electric bike with regenerative braking, at a steep price of 5K
http://www.metaefficient.com/archives/electric-bikes/the_mantra_ms1_electric_bike.html#more

The Big Green Bus Stops in Spokane




Yesterday at around 6:45 the Big Green Bus stopped in front of the almost finished Leed-Certified Saranac Community Building. There was a punk band inside who invited us over for Vegan cup cakes, after we finished transferring 45 gallons of waste vegetable oil over to their bus. Lucas and Merritt liked the filtered stuff and mentioned the only places with good oil so far they encountered were Taco Bell and Wendy's, they didn't like the stuff they found in McD.


They have a pretty good on-board filtering setup that allows them to just dip off the top of the grease bins, and filter through these in the rear.

Lucas shows the custom gauges and modifications, they have not needed to wire the Vegthems yet, as they maintain a nice and hot 180 degrees for the oil.

Esther shows off the floors inside, really nicely done by one of the sponsors, EcoTimber.

There were several bunk beds inside the bus. These 3 students were happy with the break from having to all be in this bus, there is not much room for 11 students. They enjoyed the quiet of Spokane, no big fanfare. Tomorrow they head off to Glacier, it was neat to visit with them and hopefully they will make lots of people think about energy and sustainability and then act upon this increased awareness. After all, like Edward Abbey said, "sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul".