bicycle powered well pump

Does anyone out there have any first hand experience with bicycle powered well pumps? Or know anyone who has? Please email me directly at yellowsunfarm@hotmail.com - I would really appreciate it!

We have a DC / solar powered Simple Pump (which I do not recommend under any circumstances) which has given us a whole lot of trouble. Now the motor is leaking oil and we are wanting to power the thing ourselves. I have seen a couple videos i YouTube, but we would really like to talk to someone who knows something about it. Our static water is at about 70 feet and flows at 2 gallons a minute - we also pump it up to a cistern located about 50 feet up a hill in elevation.

I dont have the experience but I have the similar idea. Your application sounds like having to replace windmill drive components with a direct chain drive from the bicycle.
If you had the windmill to pump maybe your bicycle drive would be for emergency or to cover your needs when its not windy.

Another thought; you have the DC solar pump I would consider the bicycle to drive an alternator. Its also possible to drive a fly wheel as well.

If you live in a very hot area you might consider a solar steam powered pump or a sterling engine. Using a parabolic dish or some other collector of course.

Try building a syphoning system....your pump is a syphone constantly pulling water into a tank and tank is uphill from your home providing needed water pressure...i have seen people go uphill to dig well and use large culvert going down the hill to syphon the water out the well....u can build a structure to simulate this or use a tree.....but why? What about a fog fence? Or using your grwwn house as a fog fense....the best water is in the air.....there are lots of awesome ways to pump water.

Im thinking of building a bicycle powered washing machine.

Have you had any luck? Check water pumping windmill suppliers online. They will have the submersible cylinder pumps with leathers and a pump rod.

Back in the day people converted their windmill/ hand pump set ups to be driven with a gasoline / or electric engine as that technology became more accessible. They used something called a 'pump jack' which was a mechanical arrangement for converting the rotary output of a motor to the reciprocating up and down motion of the pump rod. I think it's still possible to buy them at a price, but they come up at farm auctions fairly often. I don't see why one couldn't be adapted easily to be driven off a stationary bike.

Here's a page with a drawing of a new dempster pump jack. Expensive but gives you an idea of what it looks like. The price of it would go quite a way towards just getting a windmill.

At the commune I lived in years ago, I helped build a bike-powered pump using an old weedeater engine! We plugged up the fuel inlet and exhaust ports with two-part epoxy, and put a hose Y connector on the spark plug hole, with two one-way valves on this, one pointing in and the other out. We attached the cranksaft to a bike sprocket, and the whole to a stationary bike. Using ordinary garden hoses, we sucked water 6 feet up to the pump and then pushed it another 50 feet up and 200 feet away to the tank. The yield was a 55 gallon barrel full per about 20 minutes of strenuous pedaling. It worked well when we used it every day, but once we let it sit for a few weeks, the piston rings, etc. rusted up and that was the end of it. I wonder how long it would have worked if we used it every day.....

Rob Roy has used one for years. Here's his website: http://www.cordwoodmasonry.com/index.html# I don't think you'll find info on the pump but you'll find contact info there and I'm fairly certain he does consulting as well. Good luck!