So like regenerative breaking for e-bikes? Except that such a thing already exists.
this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2025
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Apparently regenerative breaking efficiency in bikes is rather limited (small motors / generators, high friction). It still increases the range a fair bit (enough to be a better investment than bigger batteries), but efficiency is still not as high in bikes as in bigger vehicles which can drive more kinetic energy into bigger generators with better individual wheel control
Some paper says ~25% extra range in bikes at the high end vs ~50% energy savings in Japanese trains. Different units for those numbers, but you can infer that trains has much more efficient regenerative breaking because that number indicate a doubled range for the same amount of energy used.
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Does he have a fundme or patreon page? I think it's worth supporting his research if it can be applied to cars and trains one day.
If somebody is an airplane engineer, is it possible to do something like that with planes? It would be great if planes could become environmentally friendly with such technologies.
Hello, I am the owner of a large investment fund and I am willing to offer 1 billion dollars to develop this young man’s technology
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I am not well versed in modern electric bikes. Do they offer regenerative braking yet?
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Unironically, I would enjoy a bike that I could pedal at a constant speed, charging the battery all the while. Give me a display that indicates my pedaling speed so that I can tailor my exercise and you’ve created a moving stationary bike. I hate having to stop at lights and whatnot, so a rotation-based stabilizer would be nice at speeds below 10 km/h as I pedal the equivalent of 30.
Really, it’s just unfortunate that the engineering doesn't work out for momentum->chemical energy unless you’re biking at a professional level and willing to cruise slowly or charging the battery at home. Bleh
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At this point just cut the middle man and have battery 1 directly charge battery 2, then reverse it when it's done. Same results with way less hassle
You could harvest energy from going down hills and braking, but that’s probably not work the weight.
For each second of using regenerative braking, you can accelerate for 0.7 seconds.
But how much do you actually brake when riding a bicycle? That's completely neglectable (at least for me).
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Unrelated, but the pedaling cadence people have on ebikes bothers me. I'm always seeing folks in a high gear slowly pedaling. I'm like dude you're sacrificing watts! Pedal faster on a lower gear, you'll use the same energy but go faster.
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🤦♂️
A mechanical engineering student that doesn't know the law of energy conservation?
I cannot facepalm any harder. Dude that's some 8yr old question shit
He must quickly Patent it and get venture capital funding for this brilliant idea!
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I mean... regenerative braking is a thing.
My hybrid Prius C had this, and yes, you actually can build up some useful amount of charge from just rolling down a decently large or long hill, and you can also run the car on pure EV mode, though you're probably not gonna top 20 mph on a flat road.
Obviously this does not create an over unity situation or perpetual motion machine, but, if this guy can figure out a way to put a regenerative braking type device onto an E-Bike, or maybe motorcycle/moped, in a way that isn't stupid expensive...
That could increase overall range, and I think it would be neat.
Though I... don't really know why you wouldn't just use one battery for the whole system, just have a modulation/regulation system for it.
I had this idea 30 years ago lol. Bicycling in headwinds in windy and flat Denmark gives you a lot of time to think of dumb shit like that, like what if I put small wind turbines on my bike which generated electricity to give me a boost?
We've had windmills as part of the landscape here for a long time after all, so it wasn't exactly rocket science to think that one up.
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