Recharging

[Whitemare]

Okay, there's probably a law preventing it, but.....
One bike, one motor, one battery.
To recharge the battery, one must connect it to a mains supply, well, the one we have needs to be.
But.... since a motor works both ways, why can't the motor be used to recharge the battery when on the move? When tonning down a hill, for example? Insert a triple switch with options for 'on' 'off' and 'recharge'?
One of the best places for us to go cycling -or it would be if I could only do hills - is about seven miles distant and is very hilly. I could easily use the battery up and have no assist left to get me home again. Home, incidentally, is uphill & it's a grinder.
Yeah, foolish question.

 

[danielrlee]

You can, it's called regenerative braking. It's only really available on direct drive motors that don't freewheel and energy re-capture is generally no better than 10%, but it also has the side-effect of reducing brake maintenance requirements to *almost* zero.

 

[oldtom]

But.... since a motor works both ways, why can't the motor be used to recharge the battery when on the move? When tonning down a hill, for example? Insert a triple switch with options for 'on' 'off' and 'recharge'?

As danielrlee has already stated, regenerative braking has been available on some machines for quite a while now. I use it lots but not for the recharging element; it's brake-saving feature is of more use in my local terrain and although brake blocks are inexpensive consumables, the system is on my bike so I make use of it. If my battery should receive enough energy for a further 50 yards of assistance as a consequence, then whoopee!

Tom