2023-07-03 00:37 | [practical-power-cycling]
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This is part of my bicycle generator project originally posted on hackaday.io
Stop me if you've seen this old viral video before:
Would you have guessed it was faked? By that I mean that the bicycle was not electrical, it was just a normal resistance bike. They generated an equivalent amount of mechanical power; they did not actually power the toaster, it was powered from the wall. Maybe I'm being too harsh, as nowhere in the description or video does it say that they are actually powering the toaster with the bicycle, but that's the impression I (and most of the comments under the video) get.
Here's another challenger doing the same thing in a more transparent way.
Since I have the equipment to do the challenge properly (although not the Olympic physique), I gave it a try. Thanks to the super-capacitors, I was able to maintain an average power of 100 watts, and managed to darken a bagel over 40 minutes. That one was good enough to make a proper video.