Stationary Bike Pedal Generator

About a year ago I was contacted by a teacher who ran across my blog and was looking for help building a pedal generator.  I learned that she was planning to bring the pedal generator on a mission to Haiti with a group of students from her school.  I was happy to help but soon realized I could help with more than just guidance on her noble mission.  Since I had many of the parts on hand, I…

Mountain Bike to Beach Cruiser Conversion “FrankenCruzer”

Now that summer is here, I spend less time on the pedal generator and more time on my mountain bike and going for casual rides with family.  I’ve found that the more aggressive forward leaning position of the mountain bike isn’t the most comfortable for just tooling down the canal path or open road when I’m out with the family, so decided to make a beach cruiser of sorts out of an old mountain…

The cheap old bastards guide to shaving

This pandemic has given all of us an opportunity to try something new or explore an idea that we would have otherwise not had time to do.  Thanks to being stuck at home, here’s what I decided to do with my new found time.  For many years I’ve been had an interest in human powered electricity, and my first adventures pursuing those interests resulted in my pedal generator designs (exercise bike,…

If you’re looking a way to build a pedal charger, you’ve come to the right place. When comparing bike generator plans, here are some things you may be wondering:

How much will it cost to build?

What tools will I need?

How hard will this be to build?

Where can I get all of the components?

Will this bike generator be efficient?

Will I have to take my bike apart? Can I still ride my bike when not…

Why would anyone want to build a pedal generator?  There are many reasons.

To be prepared for the next hurricane that takes power out for days, weeks or longer

To supplement your off-grid system

To have one of the coolest interactive science fair projects

To be more environmentally friendly and create a smaller carbon footprint

To have a backup plan should terrorists or nation states take out…

Build a spin bike pedal generator

Here you will find everything you need to for an easy to build, powerful, quiet stationary spin bike pedal generator. I’ll cover tools and parts needed, along with diagrams for wiring and things I’ve learned along the way that can make your build a success. Let me start by saying that I am not an electrical engineer, nor a mechanical engineer, this was just something I was interested in and…

Direct charge, grid tie or battery bank?

What is the best use of your pedaling time on a pedal generator? There are 3 typical avenues you could direct your watts:

Direct charge: Directly use the watts coming out of your pedal generator, once converted to useful 12 volt current, and charge your devices using car chargers.

Grid Tie: Use a grid tie inverter to send all your pedaling effort into the nearest wall outlet.

Battery bank:Charge…

Wall Charger Verses 12v Car Charger Efficiency

Have you ever wondered which kind of charger is more efficient?  Are wall chargers we use to charge our devices just as efficient as 12v car chargers?  In this blog post, you’ll find out!

I grabbed 3 quality wall chargers and 3 quality car chargers with the intent to see how many watts each consumed, and how many they actually put into an Apple iPad Mini.  To find these measurements, I used a wall…

Comparing USB chargers for charging the iPhone 7 Plus

Getting the most watts into my devices helps me make the most of my pedaling time. A typical 1 amp charger adds about 5 watts to the charge load, but will take several hours to charge even the smallest device battery. In this post, I’ll compare the output of several chargers and how many watts they can put into my iPhone 7 Plus.

Chargers included in this test: 1. Original Apple 5 watt wall charger