If you’re milling your own grains for that next batch of beer you might be able to melt all of those extra calories away while you’re at it. [Eucherboy1] repurposed an unused exercise bike to power his grain mill. The propane tank is serving as a weight to hold the base of the mill in place; it’ll be used later when boiling the wort. A belt transfers power from the bike to a wheel replacing the hand crank on the mill. Check out the video after the break to see [Euchreboy1] working up a sweat. We think there’s much room for improving the gear ratio of the setup. Or he can just man up and push through the pain.
We’ve gotten used to seeing ways to power a bicycle, like using wood-fired steam, or even by incorporating a chainsaw. But the hacks that use a bike as a power source are a bit less common. Our local hackerspace made a bicycle blender a while back. Got any projects of your own that are bike powered? Send them our way!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_RghNYTPD8&w=470]
[Thanks Adam]
LOL this is great!
…or he could train 20 or 80 hamsters to get the job done.
@keenox
They’d end up eating all the grain…
Well, they could eat the mash after brewing was over –
What do you think is wrong with the gear ratio? That looks like a decent cadence to me.
More than the gear ratio, what he could improve is his position, his knees are going to explode pedaling in that position…
maybe a weighted wheel could help him keep the momentum -maybe-
This is a pretty awesome idea. Because of my back I have my two brewing buddies do all the heavy work. I should set something like this up for next time they come over to brew. See how long they stick around!
There is a perpetual motion joke somewhere in there.
This is cool, no doubt. But, if he _really_ wants to burn some calories he should try to boil the mash with human power! :)
This sounds like an interesting challenge. I’ve got some spare bike parts. Alternator and i’m sure I have something I could use as a heating element. Hmmm
@Metalwolf… I think he needs a brew in one hand for the perpetual motion to work. :)
@pod,
Yep, needs a flywheel.
Cole… I want to see a video with pedal power making a stove element glow ;)
Ok its definitely a challenge now. And I love a good challenge.
So any specific rules for the challenge.
Can I use something to store power to heat the element.
@Cole
I would say a power storage would be a necessity. I mean you’re talking 60 min mash and a 60 min boil at least…two hours of intense cardio while trying to transfer liquids, maintain temps, and such would be too much :-0
Thank you for all of the comments. This was a project which I had wanted to do for a long time.
The project actually consisted of 2 separate bicycles. 1. The exercycle and 2. a little girl’s bicycle.
I took the wheel off of the exercycle and replaced it with the rear wheel of the kid bike – because the small wheel seemed like it would hold a belt better. The real pain came from the fact that the axle on the kid wheel was too big to fit in the frame of the exercycle.
After some finagling, I was able to make it work by bending the original wheel supports on the exercycle. If you look close, you’ll see the kid wheel isn’t actually supported by anything more than a few twist ties and some zip ties. [I wish I knew how to weld! For now, everything in my house is held together with zip ties.]
When I finished (the first time) the wheel was somewhat off-centered and the chain would fall off repeatedly. I had to make some more adjustments to get the wheel – just right – before the chain would no longer fall off.
It’s sort of funny that this ended up on the beer forum, I’m a homebrewer, but I actually intended this setup to make flour. I can easily crack the amount of grain necessary (by hand crank) for a brew in a short amount of time, but it takes significantly longer to create a fine flour.
Oh, and just in case you’re wondering – the mill is a “Grainmaker” mill.
Well I started a page to post the progress I make. You can find it here
https://sites.google.com/site/coleshangout/home/pro/bike-powered-water-boiler