Manual Treadmills
 

Does anyone have any experience with manual treadmills?

I've been brainstorming about how I can keep my legs moving and generally be more active while I'm at work. I thought the idea of a huge electric treadmill would be a little cumbersome and noisy and I thought to myself that someone should invent a non-electric treadmill.

Much to my surprise, I discovered, via the wonder that is Google and Wikipedia, that manual treadmills have been in existence for quite some time.

After I stopped crying from the pain of realizing that I hadn't come up with an ingeniuous invention, I started searching and found several for about $30, used.

So, back to the question: Have any personal experience?
How noisy are they? How does that noise compare to the electric kind. I don't want to be disturbing everyone around me. They don't mind my moving around, but they probably wouldn't much care for moving around and hearing a constant "whir, whir, whir, whir" sound.

Also, I was thinking about installing a cheap-o bicycle crank on a triangle under my desk so that I can be pedaling while I sit. What can I use for resistance without having a chain/cog set up? I would ideally like to have nothing more than a crank with pedals. That would keep the noise level down to almost nothing.

Thanks

Attach it to a generator. Stepper motors make great generators for low speeds.

Yeah but what can I use it for while I'm in the office.

I have a small oscillating fan on my desk. Think the generator could power the fan?

Most likely. I have a small but powerful fan that only uses 0.8A at 12v.

I like where this idea is going but I don't know much about generators and electrics and stuff. Any leads you can give me? Examples? How-tos?

You'll never save more electricity with this than it takes to make the motor, wires, etc. See here. Basically, it's greener to just get the simplest exerciser you can.

I would recommend one of these.

I once read a magazine they reviewed a device that would turn off your computer monitor if you stopped pedaling for long enough. It didn't actually power it directly, just turned it on and off. Maybe you can find out more info about that.

The one I saw, you hooked up your TV input cable to it. When you slow down too much, the boob tube goes all staticy.

Use recycled parts to make it. Or load it with something that is mechanical in the first place, like an air compressor.

Ok, but being ecologically aware you would have re-used those parts for something else anyway, right? ;)

Even if you buy new parts, I wonder how much energy it actually takes to make a generator rated for something like 150w. I don't think it would be very much, easily gained back by using it. Probably less than an equivalent amount of solar panels, and we know those do indeed net an energy production in a surprisingly short time.

Or buy used and reuse something that has already been made.

Sorry, non-motorized treadmills suck. You can't just run on them. You have to press your mid section against a little padded thing so you don't just run off the front end. It is very unnatural. Not much like running at all. Feels more like pulling a plow or something.

What about one based on a flywheel?