Anyone ever tried to implement regenerative braking?

[Peter.Bridge]

You, if we take that at face value, could be the next downhill world champion,

This is my lunchtime ride yesterday


The big opportunity for regen is that 1.2 mile downhill stretch "Clay Bank", but I can pretty much get down it without touching my brakes - the Roadies seem to go down it no problem with no brakes

Clay Bank from Great Broughton

Distance 1.2 miles Max Gradient 8% Where do you find it? Take the B1257 signposted Great Broughton/Helmsley at the roundabout near Stokesley. The climb starts about a mile after going through Great…

clevelandwheelers.com

"....The surface is good, if a little heavy and as a descent it is one of the best in the area, one where you can just let the brakes off, not worry about junctions or sharp bends and just concentrate on picking a smooth line and getting aero. In fact it is quite easy to maintain this all the way to Great Broughton with minimal pedalling effort. The heavy surface which seems to drag a little against your tyres on the ascent gives reassuring grip while going down..."

I certainly don't "get aero" !

 

[Sturmey]

The weight transfer from the tilt is substantial, which is why you do wheelies trying to pedal up steep hills, where the weight distribution becomes 0% and 100% on the two wheels. You can't get higher than that. The reverse happens going downhill, except the torque from the pedalling is replaced by the braking torque.

I have looked and measured the effect of this in detail for my own case. (using bathroom scales and wide books as spacers).
My total weight rider + bike = 105Kg.
On level ground, front=40Kg, rear = 65Kg.
At 1 in 10 or 10%, front=52, rear= 53Kg. (4.25 inch rise at 42 inch wheelbase approx)
At 16%, front=60, rear=45 Kg.

The bike is a hybrid with handlebars/seating upright.
In my case, the hills are typical as on my avatar with maximum of 16% for short stretches but most is under 10% over the 280 meter drop, so for most of my downhill riding, their will be more weight on the back wheel than on the front provided I stay at a constant speed and there is no deceleration, as would or could be the case when using the brakes ( regen) to control the speed.

 

[saneagle]

I certainly don't "get aero" !

Time to start practising.

 

[mr_ed]

This is my lunchtime ride yesterday
View attachment 58144

The big opportunity for regen is that 1.2 mile downhill stretch "Clay Bank", but I can pretty much get down it without touching my brakes - the Roadies seem to go down it no problem with no brakes

Could be interesting to put your route in the regen sim and see what it says.... One of the grin videos about regen makes an interesting point which is that unless you're in a race, you are wasting a lot of energy by going doing hills as fast as you can because overcoming the wind-resistance takes an amount of kinetic energy that increases exponentially with speed. Depending on your priorities, you might prefer to program your regen to limit your speed to 15/20mph and consume the remaining kinetic energy into the battery.

 

[AntonyC]

I already told you, I'm building exactly that for my next project, seriously. I have the perfect generator, so now I need to attach it to the perfect turbine. I'm probably going to go with Ugrinsky type.

You have to try things to see if they work.

I was rather hoping you'd let us know which kind works best

"Revolving Wing Vertical Axis Wind Turbine is a new alternative to existing Darrieus, Savonius, Gorlov, Tokai, Ugrinsky, Giromill, Eccentric-Disc, Helix, Folding Vertical Sail and H-Rotor type VAWT designs"

 

[lenny]

 

[lenny]

 

[notsoguilty]

Some aftermarket regen kits are also available that can be added to certain hub motors. Examples include the Grin Technologies Satiator module or M2S Regenpro. These clamp onto the motor to recapture braking energy.