Gyroscopic electric "motorcycle" -ish

[Brammofan]

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/lit-motors-unveils-fully-enclosed-electric-motorcycle-that-wont-fall-down/



Pretty cool looking vehicle.  Hard to see, though, through all the vapor.

[Richard230]

I give people that design vehicles like this a lot of credit for thinking out-of-the-box. Needless to say, unfortunately, there is absolutely no market for this type of vehicle - as BMW found out with their much less innovative C1 semi-enclosed IC motor scooter that was sold in Europe about 8 years ago - and flopped. Plus, the cost of building something like this would be very high and the price would be much higher than anyone would want to pay.

If they are trolling for venture capital and/or government grants, good luck with that after what Solandra has done to the "green" start-up business. What a mess that is.   

[FreepZ]

Wow, the video on that website was painful to watch -- the vapor must have been getting to my head. I wonder where they are planning to put their 150 - 200 miles of battery power, or even the gyroscopes. Their prototype had a rather significant bulk to it and it was pretty small. I can't possibly see how they can fit the full sized version in the 2 inch floor of their model. Perhaps they will, some day, be able to deliver that machine, but not in the next couple of years.
 

[Gavin]

a "solution" looking for a problem...

a motorcycle should be a motorcycle.

a car should be a car.

you can make small cars for city driving.

large bikes for touring.

you can make 3 wheeled cars and 3 wheeled motorcycles...one will still be a car, the other a motorcycle.

hell, you can make convertible cars that give the benefits of both (and the downside of both )...I hear they actually sell fairly well.

but i've never understood an enclosed motorcycle...it's an oxymoron....emphasis on moron...

Gavin

[protomech]

You can get most of the benefits from a fully enclosed motorcycle in a fully faired bike - save the weather protection.

The decrease in drag is not insubstantial, but there's also a significant increase in weight and cost. The 1350 lb E-Tracer enclosed electric bike that won the automotive x-prize a year or so ago claimed 100 wh/mile at a steady 62 mph - try the same on a 320 lb enertia and you'll probably see 150 wh/mile.

The only way enclosed bikes would make sense would be for energy costs to significantly increase (say, 3-4x) or for autobahn-style unlimited-speed travel. Both are unlikely to happen.

[HighlanderMWC]

I'd imagine my Enertia would pull a lot more than 150 Wh/mi at 62 mph although just running # it seems to make sense, wonder if the batteries sag too much...hmm anybody getting 20 miles range at 60mph?

Looking at it from the other direction to get 100 wH/mi on my Enertia I'd probably have to keep it at 35mph steady, or real world more like 20mph.

[protomech]

I would guess @ 9kw the Enertia's batteries would give out well under 20 minutes - maybe as little as 15. The Enertia Plus and Empulse should be more sturdy under a 9+ kw draw.

[Phantom]

hmm anybody getting 20 miles range at 60mph?

Probably not, but I would expect to be able to go 20 miles @ 50 mph on a warm day.