Eventhough the Peugeot Ped-L-Vu does generate electricity, it gets harder the faster it turns. I hooked up a multi-meter across the positive and negative terminals on the battery to measure the voltage. When pedaling, once the voltage aproached 13.0V, it became very hard to pedal and I couldn't get much higher than that for any productive length of time.

I've read about others making similar bikes with automobile alternators, but I need to figure out why this one is so hard to pedal. I'm sure it has something to do with the wiring inside the alternator. I'll have to visit the auto wrecking yard and get an alternator that I don't want to re-install in my FJ40, take it apart and do some additional testing.

Also, since my first project fell through two months into the semester (Solar PV System maintenance manual), It would have helped to start on this sooner and to have worked on it all semester. The toughest part of the project was locating the various parts. When relying on used materials, it’s all about timing. So to have more time to browse the various thrift and second-hand stores, newspaper ads, etc. for materials would have helped.

I also now know where to find exercise bikes – thrift stores rarely take them anymore because they’re hard to get rid of and the stores end up sending them to the dump. Next time I would go directly to the dump or just call around to the stores that have larger storage areas (like the store I found this bike at).

I never really found a good place to get used DC generators. The ones I did find were either not powerful enough or way oversized.