whilst cycling through france I became interested in how I could utilise
my energy to power another resource whilst moving. by designing a
system that would use the energy that I made whilst cycling, I
could power laptops, photocopiers, scanners, printers; a mobile
information system. I wanted to explore the concept of requiring
something, not gaining it through monetary means, but through
physical exchange, opening the facility to a whole range of people.

sharing information through physical exchange has been a fundamental
element of the bike library. the bike generator provides a resource for
audience to interact and to collect information from different resources;
books, internet and word of mouth. the bike generator provides a focus
for the users of the library as they not only spend time reading through
the books that are there, but also bringing there own information,
pedaling, copying and distributing. the information available ranges
from the history of bicycle design to travel stories by bike.

the bike generator has been made using reclaimed materials, the
alternator is salvaged from a wind turbine with magnets set into a
resin disk creating a constant motion through a positive and negative
charge. the generator is mounted on the back wheel of a bike, as it
moves it turns the alternator. from here an AC (alternating current)
is passed down to a rectifier and then converted to DC (direct current)
which is connected to a caravan battery and then to an inverter. from
the inverter you can power a lap-top, photocopier, scanner, lighting
and a sound system.

there is a l.e.d meter mounted on the handle bars of the bike to show
the cyclist the amount of energy that they are creating and what is
needed to power the tool that they are using.

working along side the bike trailer and as an instillation in the
bike library, the bike generator is a portable system to be used by
people in communities all over the world. Through its own use and
information shared on the internet the bike generator can be used as
a model to be made from reclaimed materials producing a system
to share informative literature.

the rinky dink sound system is well worth having a look at:
the link is at the bottom of the page