is the market moving toward...

gtd.

joshtp wrote:

yeehaamcgee wrote:

hmm I suppose if you replace the damping medium, with a means of generating, then yeah.

nice idea that!

how about having a threaded rod, that the piston moves up and down, and in doing so turns the rod and turns a tiny dynamo.... with the correct thread it could work in place of a damper for rebound at least.. would be hard to adjust though, as you would (most likely) have to replace the rod and piston with a tighter/ more open thread. And for Compression it would likely add too much stiction to be useful for anything other than a heavy compression damp.... and speed sensitivity would be impossible.... thinking about it it would actually be really hard, and possibly only practicably for XC, marathon and touring. Still, its an idea...

I wonder if Audi's Magnetic suspension fluid stuff that used in the R8 could be put to use

Anonymous

joshtp wrote:

yeehaamcgee wrote:

hmm I suppose if you replace the damping medium, with a means of generating, then yeah.

nice idea that!

how about having a threaded rod, that the piston moves up and down, and in doing so turns the rod and turns a tiny dynamo.... with the correct thread it could work in place of a damper for rebound at least.. would be hard to adjust though, as you would (most likely) have to replace the rod and piston with a tighter/ more open thread. And for Compression it would likely add too much stiction to be useful for anything other than a heavy compression damp.... and speed sensitivity would be impossible.... thinking about it it would actually be really hard, and possibly only practicably for XC, marathon and touring. Still, its an idea...

OR.... you could just have a magnet on the piston, which moves up and down inside a coil. a Linear motor, being run backwards as a generator.

I think you're still missing the fact that the very act of turning movement into electricity creates a resistance to movement though.

joshtp

GTD. wrote:

joshtp wrote:

yeehaamcgee wrote:

hmm I suppose if you replace the damping medium, with a means of generating, then yeah.

nice idea that!

how about having a threaded rod, that the piston moves up and down, and in doing so turns the rod and turns a tiny dynamo.... with the correct thread it could work in place of a damper for rebound at least.. would be hard to adjust though, as you would (most likely) have to replace the rod and piston with a tighter/ more open thread. And for Compression it would likely add too much stiction to be useful for anything other than a heavy compression damp.... and speed sensitivity would be impossible.... thinking about it it would actually be really hard, and possibly only practicably for XC, marathon and touring. Still, its an idea...

I wonder if Audi's Magnetic suspension fluid stuff that used in the R8 could be put to use

thanks for reminding me about that... I have a very (very) clever mate who was going to help me build a damper for my forks using the same tech.... I'll give him a Buzz....

Andy!

remember your science classes guys: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenz's_law

Coil and magnet in a fork or shock could be very cool.

I would say any generation of electricity from drivetrain/wheels when pedalling is a no-no. It's just going to add drag and you want to try and store as much electricity from braking/suspension etc and only supplement it with added rider load if really needed - eg powering lights at night.

edit: url wont work because of the '

joshtp

yeehaamcgee wrote:

joshtp wrote:

yeehaamcgee wrote:

hmm I suppose if you replace the damping medium, with a means of generating, then yeah.

nice idea that!

how about having a threaded rod, that the piston moves up and down, and in doing so turns the rod and turns a tiny dynamo.... with the correct thread it could work in place of a damper for rebound at least.. would be hard to adjust though, as you would (most likely) have to replace the rod and piston with a tighter/ more open thread. And for Compression it would likely add too much stiction to be useful for anything other than a heavy compression damp.... and speed sensitivity would be impossible.... thinking about it it would actually be really hard, and possibly only practicably for XC, marathon and touring. Still, its an idea...

OR.... you could just have a magnet on the piston, which moves up and down inside a coil. a Linear motor, being run backwards as a generator.

I think you're still missing the fact that the very act of turning movement into electricity creates a resistance to movement though.

yes... the resistance is good!!! it acts as the damping! but your idea sounds way better... lighter, more tunable because it still uses oil damping and it should work really well.

Anonymous

Erm, yeah. That's one of the few things that being a qualified electrical engineer helps with

joshtp

yeehaamcgee wrote:

Erm, yeah. That's one of the few things that being a qualified electrical engineer helps with

Steve_F

I know what you're planning - a water wheel under the rider turned by their falling sweat, very interesting project!

This theory could be applied to the wheels so falling rain could turn a water wheel which is directly connected to the axels meaning in a downpour no pedalling required

Seriously though, good luck, hope you make it to the Den with this but if this is taking a commercially available product and hooking it up to a bike I'd be very surprised if it hadn't already been thought of.

I have no eletrical background but would something linked to the freehub be viable, it would definitely provide extra drag but that might be acceptable if it was onlywhen under no/little load (ie going downhill)?

pugaltitude

There is going to be a animal running wheel within a bike wheel.
Inside the running wheel there will be a hamster with mental capabilities of a large w**g.
Now thats how electricity is going to be produced!

Raymondavalon

cooldad wrote:

Glue magnets to the wheels and wind coils around the forks and you have a generator.

+ Potato!