posted 5 years ago
It seems to waste a lot of energy just for producing heat. It's better to transform the bike to do a specific job. For example: attach it to a lightbulb - I've seen it in one theatre as part of stage design, the cycling actor had quite a workout during entire show! Or make it into a flour mill (my friends have it; they only buy grain and produce their own flour from it). This way you will use the energy better. If you just want to produce electricity and then plug something in to use that electricity for lighting the bulb or grinding the flour, you will waste a lot more of it.
I have also seen treadmills with usb which can charge a mobile phone, on display in one gallery, but it takes a really really long time to charge it.
There are also manual generators but their efficiency also seems rather low...?