Crank drive system

[Artstu]

I have no idea if this idea has been tried or is even in production.

The chainring and smaller inner motor drive are fixed to each other on a crank that uses a freewheel pawl system like a rear cassette. also the drive sprocket on the motor has a freewheel system too. So you can have electric power without the need to turn the pedals, also pedal power without the motor turning, and of course a combination of the two.

It seems like a good idea to me? or am I missing something? I guess it would look similar to a sunstar system on the Dahon Boost.

 

[Artstu]

Just found this amazing machine
Endless-sphere.com • View topic - Miles' Project 1 [eMoulton]


It looks like the gearing on my idea might be a bit on the low side

 

[daniel.weck]

That e-Moulton is lovely. The folks at Endless-Sphere generally seem more interested in high-power direct-drive or geared hub motors. The Germans on their Pedelec forum are very prolific in building crank-driven e-bikes using small lightweight low-power motors like the Tongxin of Mini-FWF. My jaws drop looking at some of their elegant realizations ! The performance seems good too. I don't speak German but I use Google-Translate to browse their discussions.

Cheers, Dan

Pedelec-Forum