Pleasant Revolution 2010

The Pleasant Revolution Pedal Power System
The Pleasant Revolution is a bicycle music festival tour and is the vision of its leader, Kipchoge Spencer. Kipchoge is also the leader of the original bicycle tour band, the Ginger Ninjas, and a founder of the bicycle cargo extension company, Xtracycle.

The PR system used on the Pleasant Revolution Bicycle Music Festival World Tour: Europe 2010 was composed of a few basic components:


 * Generator
 * Rectifier
 * Capacitor
 * Diode
 * Inverter (optional, see DC Direct)

Generator
The PR crew had 4 generator bikes. 3 had small 36V 3 phase AC generators, (BLWR234S-36V-4000, from [AnaheimAutomation.com, that rubbed on the sidewalls of the rear wheel and could be selectively engaged or disengaged.  The 4th used a StokeMonkey electric bike motor that was pedaled backwards to generate electricity.

All 4 generators/motors were 36V 3 phase AC In order to use this energy, it was converted to DC using a Rectifier

On previous tours, we used 12V DC motors from McMaster-Carr, part number: 6331K13.

Rectifier
The rectifiers used on the Europe tour were a basic all-in-one 6 diode component. We used a Vishay 36MT40, but any similar part that has a current rating in range of 35A is good. Another option to reduce voltage drop would be to make a 3 phase full wave diode bridge rectifier using Schottky diodes, which have a lower voltage drop than a regular diode.

Capacitor
We used one Maxwell/Tecate PBD-58 16V 58F ultra capacitor per generator bike.

Diode
In order to prevent one bike from charging up all the capacitors on every other bike, a Schottky diode was placed in series between each capacitor and the inverter. We used one capable of 45V 35A, NTE 6084, which was sufficient to handle peak current surges from the caps.

Inverter
The Ginger Ninjas have been touring with a Xantrex Pro 1800 for YEARS. It just keeps on going. However, it's not pure sine wave, which is usually better for sensitive electronics. In the future, a good replacement would be a PROsine 1800.