[langtitle=da]Varme på cyklen i de kolde dage![/langtitle]

[stepes]

[lang=da]Hi All,

I am a student at Copenhagen Business School and currently conducting research for a paper. The winter has hit Denmark hard this year and many bicyclists are often complaining about the cold weather. Therefore, I am trying to find different solutions for some sort of heating in the handlebars and bicycle seat. Thus, I need your help to find different solutions, referrals to existing solutions, or experts within the area. If you know of any creative visions I am very interested to hear about them.

Please note that I have no intentions of developing any of the ideas further, however it would be a great help for my paper.

Regards

Stephanie Espersen[/lang]

 

[Sharkey]

If you were to accept the considerable weight of a motorcycle battery you could use 12 volt heated gloves used by motorcyclists. And you could probably find a custom motorcycle seat builder to make a seat cover containing a 12 volt heating element as well. I would imagine (but haven't done the math) that one could expect maybe up to an hour of use before the battery voltage dropped below an effective level and needed to be recharge.

I've also used chemical heat packs while sailing to help keep my hands and feet warm. I don't know if you could fashion a cover to hold a couple of packs to the seat or not, but maybe. Whether they would be comfortable to sit on I have no idea. Just a thought. My experience is that these heat packs are effective for 3 or 4 hours and then you through them away.

 

[64Paramount]

I have a pair of hunting gloves that have heating elements in them. Each glove has a pouch on the back of the hand that holds a D cell battery. I don't know how long the battery would last as I never wore them more than an hour or so at one time. I'd put new batteries in them, wear them, then forget them. 2 weeks later when I wanted to use them again I'd have to put new batteries in.

I use Heat Factory brand chemical heat packs when I have to be outside in the winter now for any length of time. They last for 10 hours and I've found they work best with mittens if you're using them to warm your hands. (They make different sizes depending on whether you are using them for hands, torso, pockets, or feet etc.)

I got a pair of socks for Christmas that have a pouch sewn in by the toes that is designed to hold a heat pack, but I haven't tried them yet. Maybe they would work with a bicycling shoe to help keep your feet warm.

 

[dabac]

[Hi All,

I am a student at Copenhagen Business School and currently conducting research for a paper. The winter has hit Denmark hard this year and many bicyclists are often complaining about the cold weather. Therefore, I am trying to find different solutions for some sort of heating in the handlebars and bicycle seat.

I see no need for a heated seat at all, unless the saddle has become soaked with water and perhaps frozen.
Sure, it'll be cold to the touch at first, but it'll pass within minutes. The close proximity to muscles heavily involved in pedalling also contribute to making it quite easy to keep warm in that area anyhow.

Hands and feet are another issue though. If you're riding a flat bar bike and aren't too vain something like the hand guards found on motocross bikes can do wonders.

From the motorcycle community one can also try bar mitts

I think I'd feel a bit trapped by them though
If you want heating there are a couple of options available, electric or chemical.
You can buy handle bar heaters intended for snowmobiles and motorcycles, but they are fairly high power units, 15-20 W. If you want to power that from a battery you'll either have to tolerate big batteries or short runtimes.
Better then to run heated gloves or heated soles, lets you get away with using 25% of the power.
If your shoes can take an 8 mm thick insole you can actually have the battery in the sole as well, making for a really neat installation.
Personally I've been considering the materials in the grips, I think they could be made from materials with better heat insulating properties than what they currently are. I'd also like to get away from my aluminium brake levers.

 

[alienator]

I agree in that I don't see a need to heat the seat, but then I don't see the need to heat a car seat, either. The range of cold weather gloves and footwear available now to cyclists is impressive, and some of those items perform extremely well in cold conditions.

Bulk is a potential problem for cyclists, at least terms of gloves. Bulky gloves might decrease the ability to feel shifts and maneuver the hands around the brifters. Given this, I think the best solution for gloves, right now, are standard fare winter cycling gloves, ski gloves, or ice climbing gloves, all with chemical heat packs. I suspect very soon, if it hasn't happened already, that there will be a winter glove with electric heaters powered by a small watch battery on the glove. This already exists for heated insoles. In deep cold, a WP/BB barrier is likely an essential in gloves.

 

[stepes]

[lang=da]Tusind tak for alle svarene, det er helt sikkert noget jeg kan bruge til min opgave. Jeg synes i alle sammen har nogle gode ideer, så der absolut kan arbejdes videre med.

Tak[/lang]

 

[dabac]

... I suspect very soon, if it hasn't happened already, that there will be a winter glove with electric heaters powered by a small watch battery on the glove.

Well, it's not a watch battery, but otherwise check out heat-gx/hot-gx from zanier.

Small warning: the thumb isn't heated, and even the mitts have a glove liner.

They use the same battery pack as Therm-ic heated soles, which might be useful if you're looking into getting those as well.

There are other suppliers out there as well, but these are very well put together.

 

[frenchyge]

I'd try to find a solution which didn't involve throwing away batteries or chemical packets after every ride. Some possibilities could involve powering a system with a bicycle dynamo (existing products here) or a small wind turbine which would generate a small amount of electricity while moving. At the very least a rechargeable pack should be looked at.

Ears would be another good spot to have some warmth on a cold day. Good luck.

 

[Camilo]

metabolism and insulation

 

[dabac]

I'd try to find a solution which didn't involve throwing away batteries or chemical packets after every ride. Some possibilities could involve powering a system with a bicycle dynamo

Dynos are listed as 3W, and for a heated shoe you need about 3W in each sole to make a significant difference. Don't look doable to me.

... or a small wind turbine which would generate a small amount of electricity while moving.

Even worse in terms of efficiency and output power, but maybe you can park your bike someplace windy and have it recharged to the next ride?

....At the very least a rechargeable pack should be looked at..

That is highly doable. For people with short rides there are bladder like soles containing a saline solution which gives off heat once activated. Eventually it goes solid and cools off. It can be "recharged" by boiling it for a few minutes, leaving it ready for another go.
For longer rides rechargeable batteries are fairly well up to the task, I get about 3 hours out of my NiMH, and when I get around to building up some bigger Li-Po packs I'll get far more.

Ears would be another good spot to have some warmth on a cold day.

I don't see ears as much of a problem. I've got a pair of ear muffs much like these:

which do the job very well. Or there are those flaps "dog ears" that attach to the helmet straps.

 

[frenchyge]

Dynos are listed as 3W, and for a heated shoe you need about 3W in each sole to make a significant difference. Don't look doable to me.

Existing units are capable of putting out more than that, with the right circuit design. The OP could also spec a somewhat beefier design for the academic project at hand.

Even worse in terms of efficiency and output power, but maybe you can park your bike someplace windy and have it recharged to the next ride?

Efficiency, sure. Again, the OP could spec whatever output power was desired, as long as the input power was still within the range that the rider was able to produce.

I don't see ears as much of a problem. I've got a pair of ear muffs much like these:

which do the job very well. Or there are those flaps "dog ears" that attach to the helmet straps.

I don't see any of it as much of a problem, honestly, but apparently riders are wimpier down in Oz where the OP is designing this system.

Heated ear flaps wouldn't require a lot of power and would be simple to construct.

 

[teamgomez]

What temp range are you calling 'cold'? Are you talking comfort assist or flesh-damage prevention???

 

[dabac]

I don't see any of it as much of a problem, honestly, but apparently riders are wimpier down in Oz where the OP is designing this system.

If you hit "reply with quote" you'll see Australia change to Denmark, which is indeed getting more of winter than usual. Would make more sense WRT "Copenhagen business school" as well.
I've had some sort of automatic translation feature kick in on this site too, which might be what's happening. Don't ask me how or why though!

Heated ear flaps wouldn't require a lot of power and would be simple to construct.

My guess it that you'd be looking at about the same power rating there too, if not more. An ear is about the same surface area as your toes and forward pad, and since the location is much more exposed you probably need to push about that power to get a usefully elevated surface temperature.

The downside with the wind turbine option is that you'll encounter extra losses. Unless you're after the "recharge-while-parked" feature the power to spin the turbine would have to come from the rider anyhow. Better then to use a generator that can be driven with as small losses as possible, and pushing a wind turbine through the air isn't the answer to that.

 

[frenchyge]

If you hit "reply with quote" you'll see Australia change to Denmark, which is indeed getting more of winter than usual. Would make more sense WRT "Copenhagen business school" as well.
I've had some sort of automatic translation feature kick in on this site too, which might be what's happening. Don't ask me how or why though!

LOL... that's funny. I was wondering why the folks in Copenhagen were specifically targeting Aussies for this project. Good catch!