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Buy Your Own Tron Lightcycle For $35,000
ElectricSteve writes "The lightcycle scene was probably the most memorable part of an absolutely jaw-dropping movie when Tron was released in 1982. One of the first films to use the kinds of computer-generated special effects that later become commonplace, it was a glimpse into a whole new world that left an indelible impression on most who saw it. Now, as Disney prepares to release Tron Legacy, a sequel some 28 years after the original, the lightcycles are back and looking meaner than ever. Built by the same guys who did the memorable Batpod replica, the new lightcycles feature massive dual hubless wheels, carbon fiber/fiberglass bodies, and all the lashings of neon that you'd expect. And there will be five running models built — all of which are now up for sale on eBay for a cool $35,000."
...can it be compressed down to just a handle, as seen in the (fucking amazing) Tron Legacy trailer?
Living With a Nerd
...can it make an instantaneous 90-degree turn?
I want one.
Now.
..ooOO(Imagines taking this on the downtown connector area in Atlanta)
1331461 is only semiprime *sigh* Alas - I am just short of 1337.
The first version I remember being panned as something of a plotless dud. It was an excuse to to show off then-new special effects, including limited CGI. Even that wasn't all that impressive.
Why anyone would remake the movie is beyond me. And why anyone would want one of those cycles boggles the imagination.
Lets hope Tron will be better as the A-team remake...
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
I want one, but I don't want the hospital bills from doing 90 degree turns at 200 mph.
I am trying hard not to picture it being ridden by a fat middle aged geek wearing a skin tight spandex body suit.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
The day time photo of the country boy with reversed baseball cap and ill fitting jeans is slightly less impressive....
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Custom-Built-Motorcycles-Pro-Street-LightCycle-Tron-Lightcycle-Light-Cycle-Bike-Full-Size-Running-/220627957724?cmd=ViewItem&pt=US_motorcycles&hash=item335e7377dc#v4-39
I'm quite impressed by the fact that it's a "Tron Lightcycle Honda Yamaha Kawasaki Suzuki Harley" though!
Your UID suggests you should get off my lawn. :D
Those of us who were kids when it came out loved it, and the sequel (not a remake) seems well timed, to me. The movie was not a plotless dud, it was a kinda-confusing people-didn't-get-it (and a couple of plot holes didn't help) dud in the box office. TRON was redeemed by cable TV, VHS, and DVD.
And the cycles kick ass. So, get off my lawn :D
I don't know about you, but my servers run on the power of cotton candy and happy thoughts. -Anonymous Coward
... lessons on how to ride it? This doesn't look like it would work quite the same as a typical street bike.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I was a 16 year old geek when Tron came out. It bored me to tears and I forgot about it as soon as I walked out of the theater. The new Tron Legacy trailer looks every bit as dumb. What am I missing here?
The most rabid believers in American Exceptionalism are the exact same people whose policies are destroying it.
The summary was a unclear to me -- these weren't built for or affiliated with the movie in any way, these were simply built based on the specs of the models built for the movie.
Can we get some custom mowers that short when they're not mowing every second, and try to box each other into mowed lines on your lawn?
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Just got my class M license last weekend and CEO asked me what kind of bike I was getting; time to discuss a pay raise!
The only bike I want is Kaneda's bike.
The more important question is will they leave in the sex scene this time?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Anybody remember a TV show called Automan. He had a car that did 90 degree turns "like pacman" but it was hard on the human occupant...
After getting one of these cycles, pick up a Tron suit and you'll be really hot with the babes, honest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automan
Seriously, with all the plot issues of Tron, it was still light years ahead of that...
0x09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
Awesome.. This is the must-have motorcycle for the Daft Punk set.. Do Want
Tron had very little computer generated graphics.
From the Ebay listing it says these bikes are designed for everyday street use. If that's the case, how the hell is that bike supposed to turn? There appears to be no way for the front wheel to steer. Anyone have any idea how the hell this would work?
Authority questions you. Return the favor.
You fuckers; why did you have to point that out and make me feel so old.
Nullius in verba
Automan. A terrible show, but I watched it. I was just getting into programming and found the representations to be laughable (esp. cursor). But the 90 degree full speed corners in his car were a lot of fun.
If only five of these bikes are ever going to be sold, it sounds like a good investment. There's always the chance that Tron: Legacy is a terrible movie and you end up with a replica of something from a terrible movie no one cares about, but hey, investments are gambles, right?
Actually on a real bike you dont "steer" that much, you turn by tilting your body.
Steering a bike like you would a car equals a bad crash.
Most racing bikes have a very limited steering angle.
From the Ebay listing it says these bikes are designed for everyday street use. If that's the case, how the hell is that bike supposed to turn? There appears to be no way for the front wheel to steer. Anyone have any idea how the hell this would work?
The Ebay listing is a testament to one part wishful thinking, one part overconfidence, and two parts willful fraud.
The photos is the listing are of the non-functional movie promo prop, not anything these guys are selling, or even OWN.
For the bikes to be street legal, then by definition can't look anything like the movie bikes because they need things like headlights, turn signals, etc.
The best part is the claim that the bikes will be ready in 6-8 weeks...RIGHT!!
I'll believe these guys aren't trying to outright steal from gullible people as soon as they can show a photo of something they didn't just scrape from Tron movie promotions.
Close.
Motorcycles are counter steered at speed. You turn the bars opposite to the direction you wish to turn, then lean into the corner. Keith Code (Keith Code superbike school) had to take a bike and weld the steering head in place to prove this to people who kept insisting your statement was true.
You are correct in that racing bikes have a limited steering angle, but it's in the neighborhood of 35 degrees in either direction (depending on the bike, my Ducati 900ss was notorious for needing 3-point turns in parking lots, the 1098 I have now has more but the stops are adjustable).
Obligatory Cred to back up my statement:
WERA 2000 Lightweight Superbike regional champion
USGPRU and FUSA Pro racer 2000 - 2005
How the hell does this thing drive? Also,I can't imagine the astronomical tire replacement costs, but it looks like getting a new tire on there would be even worse.
Twitter.com/TrentonHyatt
The appeal to me has been being behind the screen and the view from there. Having them in the real world takes the appeal of the bikes away. Besides there is no real way they can build them to let me turn on the walls when someone is tailgating me good. >_>
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
Ummm.....they probably turn like all motorcycles ... using the handlebars. I don't think they could turn very tightly when parking since your hands are next to the wheels, but at speeds above 25mph you don't really turn the handlebars anyway. Google 'motorcycle countersteer' for more information, or visit Wikipedia.
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
The concept drawings make the "pilot" look like part of the frame. This would make the real pilot appear to be in the bitch seat, although the head would at least be higher than two feet off the ground.
If you don't think you turn the handlebars, I encourage you to take Keith Code's superbike school and attempt to turn the motorcycle he created to disprove this notion (the steering head is welded in place).
You actually counter steer quite a bit, especially at full lean at high speed.
I thought the Battlestar Galactica movie (which I saw for the first time only a couple years ago) is actually pretty good.
The enemies of Democracy are
You don't use the front wheel to steer, except when going very slow, or backing up. You lean a bike. The object is to not use the steering wheel at all, but lean the bike around the corner, much like how it's shown in the previews for the movie.
In my experience (not as credible as yours, but 20yrs on the street including a stint as a messenger in DC), the amount of counter-steer needed is minimal. Often just a whisper of pressure on the inside hand will induce a turn. I totally believe, though haven't tried, the welded headset trick works fine, but probably requires more pressure to actually force the lean..
From my observations, the counter steering is just to move the front wheel out from under the center of gravity thus inducing lean and subsequent turning where the CG moves back over the wheel. The inside pressure makes the front wheel move slightly in the opposite direction, unbalancing the system and allowing the lean.
very much my anecdotal observations... but it's fun to play with little tiny countersteer pressures and see the results.
man, I feel like mold.
TRON was completely lame when it debuted. That was not only my opinion but the opinion of many contemporary, professional movie reviewers. In part it's because of a lame plot, slow pace, and the effects being largely cartooned, not extensively CGI. I don't understand the modern day resurgence, unless people now promoting it were too young at the time to understand just how lame it was.
Yeah, I remember the show. My geeky teenage self liked it and was disappointed when it got quickly canceled.
De gustibus et coloribus non est disputandum
...Is it me, or whenever Hollywood artists try to 'reinvent' some feature of a story or movie in a sequel, they overdo it and fail? This bike looks like ASS compared to the original tron bikes. What was so wrong with the original design that they had to re-do it?
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Wiki even has an article on it. I loved it, and was about 14 at the time.
The point of the welded steering head at his school is that you can't turn the motorcycle without turning the front wheel. The only way it turns is if you decrease speed enough that it's basically trying to fall over.
As you lean, the position of the front wheel in relation to the frame is not constant - you're still counter-steering, but in a less efficient manor.
The reason he created the exercise was to show people that focusing on putting input into the handlebars is the way to turn a motorcycle - everything else takes more of your time, energy, and attention which at high speed, is limited.
His books are really about the physics of riding a motorcycle, and quite interesting to read. I took all four levels of his school when I first started racing in the '90s.
While this is cool, this article just looks like a simple advertisement to sell their bikes. How is this newsworthy? It's not like this is a website with designs on how to make your own, or how to pimp your existing bike, or even about the cool technology put into the bike. It's a simple like to buy one on Ebay.
Those images look shopped!
Seriously, are these images of actual hardware, or 3D models?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Am I the only one who thinks that $35k for a custom built, dual hubless wheel, running, riding motorcycle is an absolute bargain? If I were a potential customer, I would be worried that these guys could actually deliver the finished product at that price.
Remake with shakey cam? No thanks.
$350k would be more believable (as a reference, West Coast Choppers charges well over $100,000 for one of their bikes and they've got a production line going for most of the parts).
Either they're doing it at a massive loss just to get famous or the thing you end up with will look nothing like the pics (more likely).
No sig today...
In the US you have this rd/st system with roads crisscrossing at right angles.
In Europe, most cities grew as defensive fortresses, with new layers of city walls, and later beltways added as more rings around the center, with roads to/from the old city market and in circle around it.
So unless someone's gonna upgrade the light cycle firmware to run on polar coordinates vs cartesian, they won't do much good in Europe.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
From the Ebay listing it says these bikes are designed for everyday street use. If that's the case, how the hell is that bike supposed to turn? There appears to be no way for the front wheel to steer. Anyone have any idea how the hell this would work?
It's hard to tell from the photos but my guess would be that the bike has an articulated frame (not a new concept in bike building). Someone previously mentioned the size of the tires affecting handling. This is not entirely correct, a MUCH more important factor is the trail of the bike (a mathematical relationship between the rake of the steering neck and triple trees and the location of the front axle). Too much trail and your bike "flops", imagine one of those modern choppers with the very long front ends. They don't steer well unless the builder has monkeyed with the rake of the front trees, and even then turning a bike with geometry like that can be a chore. Too little trail and your bike get's "squirrely" at high speeds (can be remediated with steering dampeners but those are generally considered hacks for street bikes. On bikes with articulated frames dialing in the right trail can be tricky but again, I'm assuming a certain frame design.
BTW, those bikes as pictured are NOT street legal in all 50 states. Certainly not legal in Illinois.
Brian, have you ever raced at Road America? If so I've probably seen you race.
From the looks of the wheels, they don't appear to have a very good turn radius. There isn't much clearance between the bottom of the wheel and the outer shell. There will be no taking to the twisties on these guys....
1982? Sorry, but that's not true at all. Not just computers but personal computers were a hugely hyped consumer product in 1982, and had been for years. The first portables were already out and turning obsolete. DOS was out. Commodore 64 was out. Apple ][e was announced for release next year; the Apple][ was already well established.
Computer movie effects had been massively hyped in the mainstream media since the 1977 smash hit of Star Wars. The big new genre of Music Video was nearly trademarked by gratuitous use of computer effects and editing.
In 1982 Tron was riding the end of the /second/ generation of computer game consoles. Donkey Kong was out already. The Atari 2600 was huge.
No offense intended; you're remembering through the eyes of a 6 year old. I was twenty. Tron was just Disney milking a well-established cow.
Science Fiction in keeping with the science part is confined to scientific rules. Were is the science to fantasy?
Only once, about 10 years ago ... I think it was a combined CCS and FUSA event.
We were based out of DE, so that was a long haul for us. I've raced just about everywhere else East of the Mississippi.
Tron did indeed showcase "the kinds of computer-generated special effects that later become commonplace," but in a sense the light cycles did not. As sequence designer Ken Perlin, now of NYU, has remarked, after Tron polygon-based 3d graphics became the new hotness, with the light cycle sequence as its acme. The trouble was, they didn't use polygons. The light cycles were actually constructed out of volumetric primitives using boolean operations (AND, OR, NOT). True curves like NURBs and Hash patches wouldn't have really been practical on the systems they were working with. (Nor had they -- you know -- been invented yet.) Most of what you seen on movie screens to this day are approximated hollow polygon shells that immitate curved solids. CAD makes common use of boolean primitives, but the light cycle sequence was less the ancestor of modern film CGI than an all but extinct evolutionary branch. Tron was the Burgess Shale of computer animation.
I know reading the article and doing a couple google searches is challenging, but these are the same guys who built a working facsimile of the Dark Knight 'Bat Pod'.
This isn't their first rodeo. They also build custom "normal" motorcycles.
As for your assessment on what makes it road legal, laws vary by State and custom manufacture has different rules than mass-produced. For example, all states I've lived in have required a headlight and taillight on motorcycles, but not turn signals. VA has a bizarre law that says signals are not required, but if present they much be functional.
But yes, feel free to believe what you want.
Official Heretic from the "Church of Global Warming". Proven right thanks to whistle blowers. AGW = Flat Earth Theory
You have a very novel definition for "proven".
I know reading the article and doing a couple google searches is challenging
agreed, but I suggest you try it anyway. Find a state where a motorcycle fitted as the movie lightcycles would be "street legal", I will hold my breath while you do so.
This isn't their first rodeo. They also build custom "normal" motorcycles.
If you knew anything about the custom motorcycle business, you'd know that it's almost synonymous with mismanagement, fraud, overconfidence, overpromising and underdelivering. And by all accounts, this IS their "first time at the rodeo" building anything remotely like this.
Tell you what, I'll come back to this thread in 8 weeks, the amount of time they claim to be shipping 5 of these bikes in. If anything that will even ROLL exists, I will take it all back. Otherwise, we'll just consider you a bit gullible.