Heavyweights

I'm toggling back to the flywheel bike idea now...after creating some massively heavy and inefficient contraptions like the tank bike, I'm interested in seeing if we'll be able to succeed in effectively using some extra weight to our advantage.

I got started off by just finding something heavy.  I was back home not too long ago, and brought up one of our old York free weight plates.  At 25 pounds, it fits our necessary qualifications of being heavy and round, as well as being steel should we need to weld to it.  

Now we have to come up with a way to mount it within the bike frame in such a way that it easily and smoothly spin while being driven by bike chain.  Roberto and I spent a while thinking and drawing up ways in which we could use a hub from a bike wheel to mount it to dropouts and drive it with a freewheel.

For the sake of time and ease, we eventually decided to try just fitting bearings on the inside of the hole in the plate and welding the freewheel directly to the side.  We might need to machine a piece to center the freewheel on the plate to assure that it's welded in the correct spot.  This configuration would effectively make the plate function as the hub itself, with the freewheel attached to the side.  I ordered some ball bearings on McMaster that should get here tomorrow so we can try it out.

I'm also still drawing up the exact layout for a belt-driven clutch system similar to the power take off in lawn mowers that would give the final connection between the flywheel and the rear wheel on the bike.  It should be fairly straight forward once we pick up a couple pulleys and some v-belt.