i don't think the bicycle overrunning clutch would work. i have broken a few on various bicycles i have had.. depending the electric motor used, you could easily have over 1000lbs/ft of torque on a motor that is less than 20hp..
a farm style sprag clutch for a pto or 3pt hitch could work well..
Quote:
Originally Posted by IndyIan
You might get away with using 1 or 2 good bicycle free wheels, my rough calcs say one deals with 400ft/lbs of torque quite well. Me at 220lb mashing down one pedal while pulling up on the bars must be around 400lbs of force, doubled by the crank arm diameter vs the sprocket diameter into an equal rear sprocket diameter, heck maybe its 800 ft/lbs but that sounds a bit high.
Do all of your torque multiplication after the freewheel and you should be ok. They might not like high rpm though, bike wheels are big and don't see 50mph very often. If you can't find a heavy duty free wheel right away these might be good enough for proof of concept anyways.
Cool idea!
Ian
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