THE POWER WHEELS are two bicycle-powered generators used to power amplified music, and to educate our community about its environmental impact. The Power Wheels can power up to 2500 watts of musical equipment, including PA systems, amps, guitars and other instruments. We can power a show of roughly two to two and a half hours playing time.

We staff each event with one or two tabling volunteers that assist with operation of the bikes and answer questions about how they work. We also have pamphlets on how to build your own bike generator available for sale.

Make.Shift requests a small donation for Power Wheel events. Contact powerwheel (at) makeshiftproject.com to request a the bikes for your event. We ask that you give us two weeks advance notice; requests are first come first served.

Power Wheel FAQ

Q. How much energy can one person produce using the Power Wheel?
A. An average person pedaling comfortably can produce about 150 watts per half hour.

Q. So what kind of appliances can you power by bike?
A. You could conceivably power virtually anything by bike, if you stored enough electricity ahead of time. But if you’re talking efficiency, bike power makes the most sense with low-watt appliances. A laptop computer (around 300 watts) takes an hour of pedaling for an hour of use (remember, we can produce 150 watts per half hour). Higher watt appliances would require storage of electricity ahead of time. If you want to power your microwave (around 4,500 watts) you’ll have to do a heck of a lot of pedaling.

Q. What’s an example of a real-life application for bike power?
A. One WWU student who attended our workshop on how to build a bike generator uses a bike to create enough energy to power the LED lighting system, small refrigerator and stereo system in the VW van he lives in. He also charges his laptop and cell phone by bike.

Q. How do you store the energy created by the Power Wheel?
A. We use 12-volt deep-cycle marine batteries salvaged from an electric vehicle. The batteries store the energy produced by pedaling. That allows us to charge the batteries ahead of time in order to power high watt items like live music equipment.

Q. Don’t batteries lose their charge eventually?
A. Like a car battery, our batteries will slowly lose some of their charge over time. Since we use them frequently, we waste virtually none of the energy we store.

Q. How long does it take to charge one battery?
A. Anywhere from 6 to 8 hours from dead to full. To extend the life of our batteries we don’t allow them to hit the empty mark.

Q. That’s a long time! How do you do it?
A. Lots of awesome volunteers! Contact us if you want to volunteer to help us pedal!

Q. How many batteries does it take to power a live concert?
A. We charge up three batteries per two-hour show. We don’t actually use all of that energy; some of that charge provides a buffer that prevents the voltage drop from the instruments being played from bottoming out the batteries.

Q. Why didn’t you use a car alternator instead of a permanent-magnet DC motor?
A. A car alternator could be used in a system like this. But alternators only have a wattage rating of 50 watts, so they’re actually less efficient than what your body can produce.

Q. Why not use solar power instead?
A. Solar power is certainly more efficient than bike power. We hope to add a solar panel to the Power Wheel to help recharge the batteries more efficiently.