We worked together with Magnificent Revolution to build a 12-bike Pedal Powered Cinema for a collective in Brussels, Belgium.
Control Regulators
The output from all pedal generators is variable so the must be something to regulate the pedal generator.
The boring, but essential, piece of kit to do that is the control regulator. We provide robust and reliable control regulators built to a very high specification. Here are the various options available the we provide ‘off the shelf’ – please get in touch for bespoke systems
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Energy Bike
The Energy Bike is an educational tool to help explain the concepts of power and energy, along with the energy efficiency message.
Pedal Powered Water Cannons
With summer here and sun every so often shining through, we have recently been involved with loads of pedal powered activities. One recent event was pedal powered water cannons which was run as part of the Celebrate Cycling event at Nottingham University Jubilee Campus which was part of a larger programme of events celebrating 125 years of Raleigh Bicycles.
We set up two pedal powered water pistols which were used to know down environmentally themed targets, such as a coal fired power station or a fat-cat banker. At the same time a sound system kept energy levels up. We also rigged up a children’s bike with a bubble machine for the smaller children. While the weather was not so kind to us, the water cannons were in constant use throughout the day.
There were loads of bicycle related activities – making spiral drawings from bike parts, tall bikes, wind powered bikes and a slow bike race. There was also a performance of ‘lifetime guarantee’, a specially commissioned performance from Hanby and Barrett
If you are interested in any of our pedal powered activities, or think we could help at your event, then please get in touch.
Cycle Powered Cinema in Milton Keynes
Last Friday saw the Magnificent Revolution 20 bike cycle-in cinema being set up for the Milton Keynes Fringe Festival for an event organised by Independent Cinema MK.
The event attracted loads of keen cyclists, both young and old. Team MK were there and pedalling for the whole 3 hours. We even had power generated by the Mayor and a number of local MPs.
The event ran throughout the day and showed a number of interesting family-friendly animations, chosen by local animator, Tim Searle.
We have been involved with Magnificent Revolution for a number of years now and were involved with the design and build of the 20-bike generator and electrical system. We have worked together for a number of other pedal-powered projects including the giant power monitor at the Arcola Theatre.
Arcola Theatre Energy Bike Display
Bespoke Gear was comissioned to build the display system for an energy bike at the Arcola Theatre in Hackney, London. The energy bike is in the front-of-house at the theatre to help demonstrate and educate on energy consumption and efficiency.
This display system fitted to a pedal generator built by Magnificent Revolution. It has a bar-graph read out of the power and an actual value in Watts.
The system also worked as a voltage regulator, limiting the output voltage to 12V DC and shunting away the excess as heat, so that devices, such as phone chargers, can be plugged in for demonstration. The display is fully powered by the generator.
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Pedal powered cinema in Sydney
A few months ago we helped Magnificent Revolution Australia build their 8-bike pedal powered cinema.They recently used the pedal generator for a high-profile event in the heart of Sydney. More photos from the event are on their website here. It looked like a great event.
This followed the general design used for the Magnificent Revolution 20-bike generator, which I was involved with building a year ago. A blog post on the design and build is here.
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Pedal smoothie bike for London BikeHub
A year or so ago I was asked to build a pedal powered generator and pedal powered smoothie machine for London Bike Hub. Recently they asked me to build another smoothie bike for their events promoting cycling in London and beyond. This time I thought I’d take a few photos of it before I deliver it.
If you would like to build your own, I have created an instructable with details of making your own smoothie bike. My new version is a bit different as I now have access to a metal lathe.
If you would like to hire a pedal powered sound system or smoothie bike in the London area then drop London Bike Hub a line. Read on to see some photos of their new smoothie machine…
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Pedal Power for Magnificent Revolution Australia
Re-innovation was asked by Magnificent Revolution to help build an 8-bike pedal powered generator for use over in Australia. Greer Allen has started up Magnificent Revolution Australia and has been working with Magnificent Revolution in London. She will be taking the generator over to Australia for a cinema event in Sydney.
She came up to Nottingham to build the main power equipment and wire it all up and test it. We had a fun week crimping, drilling and waiting for packages to arrive. She kept a great blog with photos here. [Read more…]
Nottingham Carnival of Cycling
Renewable energy innovation has an active program of renewable energy promotion. We have a number of pedal generators and solar PV system which can be used to interactively engage the public, helping to explain the concepts of power and energy and promote renewable energy sources and energy efficiency.
We created our pedal powered water cannons to do exactly that. Use water cannons to knock down environmentally themed targets with an upbeat soul soundtrack – all powered by human pedal power. We were asked to exhibit at Nottingham Carnival of Cycling, a Sustrans event to promote cycling in all its forms. Loads of activities and demonstrations were provided and we promoted pedal power alongside Junk4Funk, who helped keep the beat with recycled musical instruments.
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