Nothing beats cycling for building up a ferocious appetite. And what better during a long ride in the countryside than to replenish one's energy with a well-earned hot-dog. But, oh dear! The nearest snack van is miles away! What are we to do?

No need to worry, because, located a couple of inches beneath your bottom, a little contraption has been converting a small portion of your pedal power into energy for cooking your favourite offal-based snack.

The cooker is a piece of steel pipe, long enough, and with a sufficient bore, to hold a single frankfurter sausage. One end is closed and the other has a screw cap - a bit like a cigar tube.

A small rubber drive wheel, which runs against the rim of the bicycle's rear wheel, is connected by a shaft to a wide pulley wheel. This pulley wheel drives a fabric belt which is looped loosely around the steel pipe.

As the bicycle moves, the pulley drives the belt which slides round the pipe and the friction generates heat which cooks the sausage inside. This whole arrangement is attached to the bicycle frame on a spring-loaded hinge so that the drive wheel can be engaged or disengaged as required.

A version with a slightly fatter tube for heating fluids (soup, tea, coffee, horlicks, fish broth) would also be available.

After a few miles of pedaling the sausage will be cooked to perfection ... or, at least it will be slightly warmer than the ambient temperature.
-- 7ennyn, Jul 29 2006

Tea Tandem Roving_20Tea_20Tandem
Tea with that? [skinflaps, Jul 30 2006]

What about the bun?
-- Gallus, Jul 29 2006


You could replace the foam padding on the handlebars of your 1980s BMX with a bread-like substance. Your frame-mounted air pump could be converted into a ketchup dispenser.
-- 7ennyn, Jul 30 2006


Very good idea, but would fabric rubbing on metal really create enough heat to cook a dog? Maybe a wheel-powered generator like the ones used for headlights could provide energy for a small grill.
-- jellydoughnut, Aug 03 2006


:-) [+]
-- monojohnny, Aug 03 2006


//...but would fabric rubbing on metal really create enough heat to cook a dog?...// - Maybe 'cook' is too strong a word!

It would be foolhardy to try and cook a raw butcher's sausage using this device. It would only really be suitable for pre-cooked, smoked or cured continental style sausages (e.g. a frankfurter).
-- 7ennyn, Aug 03 2006


I prefer to keep steel bars, hot dogs, and anything else I plan on eathing quite a bit more than a few inches from my bottom. Perhaps an alternate location near the front tire would be possible for finicky people such as myself?
-- ye_river_xiv, Aug 03 2006


[ye_river_xiv] - Wow! You eat steel bars? Have you ever considered a career in the circus?
-- 7ennyn, Aug 03 2006


I see what you mean now [7ennyn]. Maybe if the steel tube what closed at both ends, tied to a string and let to drag on the ground, there would be enough friction to cook a raw one.
-- jellydoughnut, Aug 04 2006



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