Flywheel that stores kinetic energy

[JourneyManDan]

Hey all... I found this today while looking around on the internet. Thought it would be cool to share with all you gear heads....http://www.sciencefriday.com/videos/watch/10400


Hmmmm

 

[motorbikemike45]

There were several cities that were trying out flywheel powered buses on city routes a few years ago. Every few stops it was necessary to plug in and re-power up the flywheel with a built in electric motor. The problems encountered were 3. The flywheel must be very very heavy to do the job. That kills it for bicycles. The flywheels worked best, most efficiently, in a deep vacuum. A vacuum is difficult to maintain when the casing it is in must have a shaft going through to put in/take out rotational momentum. The costs of the original buses were very high, but operating costs were fairly low. Riders did complain because the frequent stops made the buses slow to finish their routes. High costs to purchase new buses pretty much kills the idea in this poor economy, if all the other drawbacks didn't. I understand there may also have been problems caused by the gyroscopic effect, but I never quite figured out what those problems were. The heavy weight has a diminishing returns drawback. The heavier the flywheel the better it works, but it also takes more power to accelerate a heavier mass, so a heavier flywheel is needed, etc. etc. etc.

 

[Happy Valley]

There already are a number working examples of flywheel bikes I've seen, the flywheel only need be heavy enough for proscribed loading.

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1678410/...lywheel-helps-you-pedal-your-bike-to-tomorrow

He doesn't post here anymore but one of the most creative members to contribute here was working on a flywheel MAB at one point some years back, thread is probably still in the archives somewhere.