Seems like satire to me. Pretty funny too.

This guy is only telling us part of the truth. You actually need three batteries. The third battery is hooked up to a solar and wind generator. Only then can you achieve true energy independence.

Techbros rediscovering old principles, a tale as old as....well, since the tech industry.

don't forget to add quantum tunneling between the batteries for extra efficiency

So you're on your ebike, going 15mph. Using 140w or so. You're spending 15-20w on the drivetrain, and the remainder is entirely aerodynamic drag. You're putting 120-125w into making wind move. You're also losing 5-10 watts to the drive electronics and dashboard. So your total power use is 150w.

If you're going to recharge a battery. In the same time it takes to ride, you need to get at least 150w of power into another battery. Sadly, batteries don't actually "just cleanly charge" there are some losses, but since we're going to take an hour to charge it, lets call it 5%. So to fill up that battery we need 157watts of input power.

Your bike, moving at a steady speed, is absorbing 150w of power. If we want another 155w of power, where is that going to come from? If we take it from.. say.. the front wheel, we are now absorbing another 155w of power. So to maintain the same speed, we now need to push the bike along with 305w of power. And.. now we need a bike that makes 305w of power, to go the same speed we were going with 150w. .... And we're only generating 155w.

There is no free lunch. If you're doing work, you need to get that power from somewhere.

So like regenerative breaking for e-bikes? Except that such a thing already exists.

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.

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

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.

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.

I am not well versed in modern electric bikes. Do they offer regenerative braking yet?