When you think of a bicycle and an Eddy, you’d be forgiven for thinking first of Eddy Merckx, one of the most successful competitive cyclists to ever live. But this bicycle, modified by Tom Stanton as shown in the video below the break, has been modified by ditching its direct drive gearing in favor of using the friction-like eddy currents between magnets and copper to transfer power to the wheel.
Before even beginning to construct a mechanism for powering the bicycle, Tom had to figure out the basics: What kind of materials could be used for a metal disk? The answer, after much testing: Copper. What kind of magnets work best, and in what formation? Expensive high grade, aligned North to South pole for added eddy-dragging goodness. Would the mechanism work with any efficiency?
To find out, Tom would need a custom freewheel type of assembly that simply doesn’t exist, where a sprocket would drive a circular plate, and the plate would spin next to a copper disk, and… well just watch the video for a demonstration.
The end result is interesting to watch, and it’s not exactly as you’d have expected. Yes, eddy currents drive the copper hub, but at a 100rpm difference. Where does all of that energy go? Hint: Not to the wheel, and certainly not into propelling the bicycle. All in all it’s a fantastic experiment with unpredictable results.
If bicycle based bumbling about bakes your biscuits, you might appreciate this tennis-ball-enhanced ride too.
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