Hello Dear SuperForest
This evening, I am a woman with a mission (many missions! but one in particular right now!) and I’d like to share it with you:
My plan is to build a bicycle powered generator, before the summer, from my own bicycle – to create in my home as much as I can of the electricity I consume, using physics, tools and the SUPERFORESTY POWER OF MY LEGS! And I’d like to document the experience with you, every Tuesday, until it’s up and running. I hope that in sharing the steps of the process with you, we can gain ideas and insight from each other – a two-way bicycle lane yo!
(picture from Magnificent Revolution)
It’s an idea I’ve been mulling over (and talking about) for a little while now: last autumn I was lucky enough to attend a bicycle generator workshop run by the fine, inspiring folk at Magnificent Revolution. Magnificent Revolution are a diverse group of artists, musicians, designers, ecologists and engineers that
uses bicycle power generators as educational tools in schools, colleges and communities. By showing people how many bikes it takes to power household appliances, we help people to understand energy in an enjoyable and engaging way. MR also equips people with knowledge and skills needed to actively participate in building a sustainable world by teaching them how to build their own miniature power stations
by putting on workshops as well as a super cool travelling bike-powered cinema and sound systems.
I came away from the day with a notebook full of electricity theory (diagrams of circuits the like of which I haven’t drawn since my Physics A-level!), technical and safety facts, hands-on practice at hooking it all up and, more than anything, an enthusiasm for doing it for myself and the realisation that, with some time, thinking and equipment, it is eminently doable. We get to build and learn and exercise and, hopefully, I can make at least some of my energy consumption more sustainable and I think that by understanding my consumption more I can reduce it. Fun!
I’m starting really from square one. I’m neither an experienced engineer nor cyclist and don’t, as yet, quite have a bicycle (the first step!). In fact, right now, all I have is some excellent knowhow from Magnificent Revolution, a keen desire to build and share with you AND a t-shirt with a picture of a bicycle on it:
(all t-shirt self-portraits require hooping)
But the beginning seems like a fine place to start.
To the bicycles!
Love
P
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