Inspired, most likely, by the always very hard to ride unicycles seen at the circus, the eniCycle excludes the pedaling part from the equation and brings in an electric 1000 watt hub motor that is set into motion by simply leaning your body forward.
It relies on mini-gyroscopes (that measure your vertical angle 100 times a second) and on an embedded processor to keep things balanced at all times and that’s what makes it so easy to ride. In fact, Slovenian designer Aleksander Polutnik claims it only takes people about 15 minutes to master the eniCycle.
Polutnik is planning to mass produce the small and funky vehicle as soon as he finds himself a business partner. He has already built two prototypes, but it will take more to make a global unicycle phenomenon out of it.
Hit the jump to see the action video.
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The Ghost motorcycle concept was created by Imran Othman, a designer living in Singapore and who was inspired by the famous adrenaline junkie known as “Ghost Rider”, but also by a flying falcon. Given the first source of inspiration, we reckon this concept bike is extremely fast, while the overall shape does share a few aerodynamic parts with the mentioned hawk, which is very cool.
Offering a very aggressive riding position and an appealing look, the Ghost concept most likely looks tempting even to “Ghost Rider” itself, but will this bike end up a fact or is this just one of those situations in which “Now you see it... and now you don’t...”?
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We’re quite familiar with unusual motorcycles here at TopSpeed, but this cigarette-shaped motorcycle shows we haven’t seen it all. The strange creation belongs to a man called MK Sudakar, who is an inventor and environmental activist living in India and who developed this for his country’s recent public smoking ban – “Break the Habit”.
Apparently, this isn’t the man’s first strange invention. He is also the inventor of a motorized suitcase and a motorized toilet. I wonder: part of which campaign those creations were?
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Inspired by the fact that Puma now also produces motorcycle clothing, but also by the actual items, Karl Sanders put to work his designer skills to create the Puma Motorcycle Project. Featuring a unique style and belonging completely to the anticipative designer, the project brought Karl the honor of being the Best CAD modeler at the Coventry University Degree Show 2009, which was voted by Autodesk.
As unique as the concept’s style might appear to be, it still reminds us of the Brammo Enertia and it isn’t even supposed to be an electric bike. Still, we have to give the designer, which also played the roles of modeler, visualizer and animator, credit for the idea of extending Puma’s range of activity at such extremes.
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The BMW Halbo concept looks like the kind of bike you can take with you in vacation. Yes, it is small and this makes it fun, efficient, but also very dangerous to ride, at least from where I’m sitting now. Actually, designer Pierre Yohanes Lubis claims it only takes up half as much space as your average bike.
That is due to some innovative construction methods such as the engine being an integrated part of the full-sized front wheel. At the back, you get a whole different scenario: the tiny spherical wheel is mounted on a moving arm that is supposed to balance the bike.
Addressed to "eco-minded young individuals," we can suppose it features
an electric motor, but why would anyone want to hit the streets on such a bike? Sure, it can be efficient at work places where you have to move a lot (and where workers currently use bicycles) as long as companies are willing to pay the price (currently unknown), but it looks too risky for the streets.
Designer Dario Caroselli has recently come up with a very aggressive naked motorcycle concept based on the Aprilia Shiver 750, a veritable Italian naked built around a V-twin engine. Called simply Aprilia Naked, the concept bike features compact bodywork and solo seat, while being defined by the lines and color schemes of the original bike.
We’re quite impressed by this concept although we must admit that it isn’t quite in strict accordance with the naked style, but simply a production bike taken to the extreme.
Maarten Timmer is a Delft design graduate that seems to have discovered the perfect recipe to really promote electric motorcycles. The whole idea is to drift further away from petrol-fed motorcycles as a result of using a dynamic look, which is incomparable to that of the, indeed, much cheaper and faster gas burners.
His project is called VertiGO and is anything but regular. There’s a space where the tank would normally be on a classic supersport motorcycle and the seat is suspended, allowing this electric bike to stand out as a unique alternative in a world of fairly similar two-wheelers.
Although not completely radical, the bike’s slightly futuristic and yet totally realizable design is allowed by the small battery packs and motors that can be placed very low in the chassis, achieving a favorable center of gravity as well as a feet-forward riding position.
While we’re aware of the fact that electric bikes are gaining more and more terrain on the market, the "bang for the buck" still makes the rules in this industry and that’s why we are not witnessing an amazing growth of the electric segment just yet.
This is a very plausible concept that could enlarge BMW’s middleweight lineup in the future.
Based on the 800cc parallel-twin engine powering both models in the F800 range (the F800GS and F800R), the BMW HP2-800S was sketched by industrial designer Roberto Redaelli in strict accordance with BMW’s demands.
Apart from the 90bhp engine, the HP2 800S would use a lightweight aluminum frame and carbon-fiber bodywork. Overall weight is supposed to be of 385.8 pounds.
We have to admit that this concept looks very interesting and it stands honest chances to become reality given the fact that the most important aspects prior to production have been realistically thought at.
According to Solomoto30, Honda is about to launch the street version of the EVO 6 concept bike, the “supernaked” that was first presented at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show.
Bassically, this is a muscle bike powered by a retuned version of the six-cylinder boxer engine behind the Goldwing 1800.
In what concerns the Yamaha VMAX and the BMW K 1300 R, they’re now facing a new challenger.
This is the zero-emissions transportation vehicle that is supposed to offer the best green power-to-weight ratio in the near future. It is called the BMW X bike (althought the fact that it has three wheels qualifies it as a trike) and it was designed by Jacobus Marx, who’s inspiration came from BMW’s “efficient dynamic” theme (I guess we can supposed he’s at least fan of the German brand).
Electricity is the key to powering the X bike from zero to 60 in only 4 seconds and to a top speed of more than 150 mph. Two 80KW in-wheel electric motors with regenerative properties are supposed to be used and fed by ceramic batteries that recharge fast and weigh very little.
We must admit that this sound like a plausible concept and can’t help not being impressed by the interactive suspension that is sure to allow filtering through traffic with great ease.
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