Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

I can’t say I’m as fond of snow as I was in my younger days, but it still provides the occasional opportunity for reckless fun that you just can’t have in the Summer time. Snowmobiles are a good example, but if you live in a climate that experiences all 4 seasons, they tend to sit unused in the back of your garage for the majority of the year. The RadiX kit however can easily convert a dirt bike into a snow-friendly thrill ride, allowing you to use it all year round. The front wheel is replaced with a single ski that can be adjusted for extra stability while trail riding, or sharp-turning for racing down hills, while the back wheel and suspension are replaced with a patented ‘curved-paddle’ track design that works equally well on packed or powder snow.

Installing the kit will take you about 2 1/2 hours, but learning to ride a snowmobike only takes a few minutes, particularly since the bikes can stand by themselves, making balancing easy. The company claims to have hit a top speed of about 92mph on a RadiX equipped bike, and because it comes with a high-end shock system, you should have no trouble making big jumps and busting limbs. All for just $4,250.

[ 2Moto RadiX ] VIA [ Gizmag ]

By Andrew Liszewski

In today’s uncertain financial climate (I’ve really no idea what that means, I just heard it on CNN this morning) it might not be the best time to buy that new car you’ve been dreaming of. But you’ve still got to get to work somehow right? Why not give the Auto Moto a shot? It falls somewhere between a motorcycle and a car, but thanks to its 150cc high performance GY6 engine, it gets somewhere in the neighborhood of 83mpg. And unlike a scooter, it comes with a windshield and wipers providing you with a bit of protection from the weather. (Though not the temperature.)

Given its compact wheelbase, I’m tempted to say that the Auto Moto looks like it’s ready to tip over at the slightest turn, but it features a unique tilting “rocker system” that ensures both rear wheels remain firmly planted on the road at all times. I was a bit skeptical of this claim, but the Auto Moto website features a video of it careening all over the road at relatively high speeds without it even coming close to tipping over. So I’m sold.

The Auto Moto will be available in the U.S. sometime in 2009, and since it’s technically not a motorcycle, you only need a standard drivers license in order to operate one. It also comes in your choice of nine different color schemes, features a sound system with MP3 player hookups and 4 speakers and has an MSRP of just $3,800.

[ The Auto Moto ] VIA [ Crave ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It may not be the electric car you were dreaming about, but the USurfers from Urbanmover provide another environmentally-friendly way to get around a crowded urban city center. While they both feature a skateboard deck, the UM71sx (pictured top left) has a set of nylon wheels while the UM70sx (pictured top right) has a set of larger rubber wheels that look suitable for off-road terrain.

They both take advantage of a 36V, 800W rare earth magnet electric motor that will run for about 4 to 6 hours on a single charge (with a top speed of about 20mph) with stepless acceleration provided by a wireless, pistol-grip style throttle. The USurfers even come with an electronic ABS regenerative braking system to harness the power from stopping and slowing to recharge the battery. Sadly, there doesn’t appear to be any pricing info for either model on the Urbanmover website, and the “Launch date May 2008″ message isn’t that encouraging either.

[ Urbanmover UM70sx & UM71sx USurfers ] VIA [ LikeCool ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Tokyo Times has a small collection of photos of Japanese bikes that are used to deliver soups and other sloshy/spillable food items. On the back of the bikes there’s a counterweighted tray contraption that ensures the food containers always remain perfectly horizontal no matter how haphazardly the driver is navigating the streets. Seems like a simple but clever hack, as long as you like your food shaken, but not stirred.

[ Tokyo Times - Dangerously delivered dinner ] VIA [ Wired Gadget Lab ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Those giant luxury motorhomes (McMotorhomes instead of McMansions?) that come complete with fold-out balconies and retracting flat screen TVs are nice and all, but you’re pretty limited to where you can actually take one. So for true flexibility when it comes to your next ‘camping’ trip you might want to check out the Private Explorer.

It’s basically a two-seater single-engine aircraft that doubles as a miniature cottage. While it doesn’t have anywhere near the luxuries of a bus-sized motorhome, it does manage to include a bed, a dining table, a fridge, a stove, a toilet, a shower, a water pump, and a heater making it considerably more comfortable than your standard tent. And since the Private Explorer comes with the option of adding floats, instead of just visiting the lake, you can use it as your actual runway. Understandably the Private Explorer will set you back about $102,000 ($130,000 CDN) which is pretty much what a well-equipped motorhome would run you. Though I’m not sure which one would have the higher gas bill.

[ Private Explorer ] VIA [ Born Rich ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Yesterday Schwinn unveiled their Tailwind eBike which uses Toshiba’s Super Charge ion Battery technology allowing it to be recharged using a standard residential outlet in just 30 minutes. Now I haven’t really been following the progress of electric bicycles, but Schwinn claims the 30 minute recharge time is about 1/8 the time needed for their competitor’s models, which if true is quite impressive. I also like the fact that if you didn’t know the Tailwind was a so-called eBike, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell if someone rode past you on one. (As long as they were pedaling that is.)

The electric motor is actually housed in the small hub on the front wheel, and the Plug N’ Drive battery pack is located on the rear bike rack making it easy to detach. So instead of having to run an extension cord to where your bike is, you can simply take the battery to the wall outlet. Depending on weather conditions, the wind and your course, the Tailwind is expected to get about 25 to 30 miles on a single charge, but a Shimano Nexus 8-speed internal geared hub allows you to switch over to pedal power should the battery die before you get home. In fact the only downside is the steep $3,199.99 price tag.

[ Schwinn Unveils the Tailwind Electric Bicycle at Interbike ] VIA [ Chip Chick ]

By Evan Ackerman

Finally, a practical reason to go somewhere on a bike. The OHM Personal Energy Device, designed by Xavier Unwin, is a little generator that siphons power from your bike’s wheels to charge your iPod or cell phone or anything else that can suck down 5 volts. All you have to do is clip some magnets to your spokes, align the charger with the magnets, and start to peddle. The unit’s internal 1200 mAh lithium battery gets charged inductively as the magnets move past it, and depending on how insane serious of a cyclist you are, you’ll be able to charge your cell phone in 45 minutes to an hour. This is a much more effective charge rate than some other portable chargers we’ve tested, with the trade-off being that you have to put work into this one. Consequently, it will certainly slow you down a little bit, but if you’re riding a bike, you can’t be in that much of a hurry anyway, right?

The OHM is currently in the concept stage, but I figured that it’s such a simple and straightforward idea that someone is bound to put it into production sometime soon.

VIA [ Yanko Design ]

By Andrew Liszewski

When someone mentions airbags, you usually think of the emergency safety devices that explode from the dashboard of your car when you get in an accident. But for many years now, NASA has been successfully using airbags to land their rovers on Mars. In a manner of speaking, the rovers basically crash onto the planet’s surface after a parachute descent, and it’s those large airbags that ensure they end up in full working order once they’ve touched down. So engineers at Bell Helicopter (makers of the famous Huey and other highly recognizable whirlybirds) figured that similar airbags could do the same thing for choppers forced to make a crash landing.

The airbags (and necessary inflation systems) would be mounted to the underside of the aircraft and would be automatically triggered before the helicopter hit the ground at a high velocity. (I assume the criteria for inflation will be a lot more complex than my brief summary.) And unlike the airbags used in a car which are pretty much useless after they’ve been triggered, the airbags on these helicopters will still be able to re-inflate after the initial deployment so they can serve as flotation devices should the crash occur in the water.

Also, why is it that so many images submitted with patent applications look like they were hand-sketched by Leonardo Da Vinci? You’d think by the time the patent application was submitted that most companies would already have complex 3D models and images already created. I guess it comes down to keeping their IP and what the final product will actually look like a closely guarded secret.

[ Bell Helicopter Patent - Crash Attenuation System For Aircraft ] VIA [ New Scientist Invention Blog ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It’s not uncommon for people who travel across the country in a large RV to tow a smaller car so that they can leave the RV parked at a campsite while still making day trips. The same problem exists for pilots who fly around the country, except that they have no choice but to leave their light planes at the local airport when they want to go into town. But finding a ride can be difficult since most small airports that cater to light planes don’t have car rental facilities. So if you’re a pilot who’s encountered this problem before, you might want to consider the MotoPOD which is basically a cargo pod that allows you to carry a street-legal motorcycle underneath your plane.

The motorcycle is a Yamaha XT225 which was selected because it was both economical and lightweight, and overall the pod and bike add about 500 pounds to an aircraft’s total weight. (Resulting in an airspeed cut of about 9 knots.) The bike does require a bit of assembly before it can be ridden, but the pod is easily lowered with a built-in powered winch and you can apparently be on the road just minutes after landing. The MotoPOD is expected to go on sale later this year with a price tag below $10,000 (including the motorcycle) but you can reserve one now for a fully-refundable $1,000.

[ MotoPOD ] VIA [ Gizmag ]