>Hi,
>
>>>>Sounds good. I suppose though you have to brake a lot to build up potential, thus needing to replace the brakes more often, with the power it requires to make new brakes. Ain't no such thing as a free lunch :-)
>>>
>>>I think the opposite is true. You use the brakes less because the 'dynamo' itself acts as a brake. Same as riding a bycyle down hill with a dynamo - the dynamo slows you down.
>>
>>Sort of like engine breaking when you select a lower gear?
>
>Guess so. But in that situation, although you're using less braking, your engine isn't making any use of the power fed back to it (and probably sucking in fuel that is wasted...)
>
>>
>>I remeber those "fixed-wheel" bikes where you braked by retarding the peddling, esp. on those quads with the bench-seats that you hire at the seaside.
>>
>
>Hmmmm. Saving a bit of rubber on brake pads, but expending (your) energy when slowing down as well as when accelerating. Makes you hungrier; you eat more food - different waste of energy <g>

True, true. I've often though along those lines. Like I wonder how wee midges milling about in the air get enough energy to keep themselves up until a warm-blooded animal comes along and feeds them. AFter all, given their size, they can't carry that much back-up power. Maybe they just bounce off air molecules.