The "Humanoid Synergy System" combines the most efficient basic vehicle--the bicycle--with the combined propulsion of the humanoid and an electric motor. The components of the system are: The efficiency of the Humanoid Synergy System was measured by recording the kilowatts required to recharge the battery after trips of different lengths. (That is, a "wall to wheel" estimate of energy consumption). For two different riders and two different bicycles using this system, the average MPGe was over 3,000 and the results for all trips were as follows: I think this is very close to a sustainable, near-zero carbon footprint form of transportation. Does anyone else have similar data?
Have you followed the stuff BionX has been selling for several years? Pretty cool, especially the regen. Even more than a car, I always wanted to see regen in a bike, so after doing all that work to get up the hill, you get to keep some of it on the way down. Pricey, though, IMHO ... have watched them for years but never pulled the trigger yet. -Chap
Chap, as I understand it, the systems offering the regen option are front or rear wheel hub motors, and I think the direct drive versions rather than the geared hub motors. I was not aware of a regen option offered on a mid-drive bike , which these two bikes are with the Bafang retrofit mid-drive kit. I owned both front wheel and real wheel hub motor ebikes in Germany, and neither had a regen option, but the endurance of those systems was at LEAST 4 hours and 50-55 kilometers, because that's when the humanoid part wore out. I will extend the test distances of these bikes to see if I can determine a maximum range, but even without regen I suspect the range of the motor and battery is again greater than our endurance in the saddle. Germany and Denmark have free, public ebike charging stations, so if one plans carefully, you can plug it in and get a decent charge while you have lunch at the local pub/cafe .
Absolutely correct. The best estimates I can get for moderate human effort suggest that the humanoid energy input is a small fraction of the total motive power produced by this system. And although the human body is relatively efficient at converting food calories to motive power, the "farm-to-table" loop in modern agriculture is estimated to be only about 10% efficient, that is, delivering only about 10 food calories for each 100 calories invested in the farming of the food. That said, eating a Big Mac is probably a lot less efficient for the human motive power than carbo-loading with say corn and potatoes, but the Big Mac is so much more tasty!
