# Crank & Pedal Power



## Shin (Mar 25, 2014)

Anyone here have any experience trying out one of those bicycle pedal or hand crank powered generators?

I've always been curious about those.

I wonder what it'd be like to hook one of those up, alone or with something else like a solar panel.


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

I always got a large chuckle at the bicycle power display at energy fairs.
A control panel allowed switching on "more load"-----light bulbs.........
Eventually along would come "Bubba" with the attitude "Ha thats a piece of cake"
Well once the operator "switched on" a fifty or hundred watt light bulb Bubba's peddling speed was greatly reduced . . . . . .beads of sweat would form . . . . .And in very short order he would hop off and quickly disappear into the crowd . . muttering to him self.

Bottom line . . . . .sure it works . . .but with limited amount of power produced.
Once you dread getting on the *bike* than it is useless. 
Only very dedicated bike people can rely on getting much of any useable power.

You can do wonderful things with PV panels


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