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It's Not a Car, It's a Self-Balancing Electric Motorcycle (Video)
Two gyros under the seat keep this vehicle standing up at a stop, which is easier on the driver's legs than putting a foot down the way you do while riding most motorcycles. And no vroom-vroom sound, either. This is an electric motorcycle. The prototype you see in the video gets up to around 20 MPH, but production models are supposed to hit 100 MPH, and go as far as a Tesla S on 1/6 the juice. So little tiny batteries are all the Lit C-1 needs to drive (up to) 200 miles with the gyros spinning merrily away -- keeping the C-1 upright even in crashes, as a simulation in this Lit Motors YouTube video shows. They claim to have more than 200 pre-orders against a projected retail price of $24,000, which is not shabby for a company that hasn't made a single production vehicle so far. (Alternate Video Link)
Because the internet has programmed us to communicate entirely by pop culture references and oblique sexualized insults, leaving no room for actual critical examination of anything.
Looks like Kyle has some sand in his vagina again.
Guaranteed death in a car accident -- what's not to love?
That doesn't stop all the motorcyclists and bicyclists out there; they have even less protection than this offers.
Plus in this you don't have to wear stifling leather clothing, and you can drive in the rain without getting soaked.
I think there is a market for this.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
The gyos add complexity, and dropping a third wheel doesn't save that much space. ...
You must be thinking of something like the Peraves MonoTracer, but my impression of it is that it takes some getting used to. The C-1 will be much, much easier to deal with (not to mention better looking). As for the added complexity, the gyos make it easier to drive and don't make it prohibitively expensive ($24k, v. $104k for the monotracer), so who cares? As long as it works.
... Second. Who the hell ever pulled up to a stop while riding and thought "Fuck. I have to put my feet down again!"?
A guy I knew once told me that when he lived in Germany, he'd get very drunk every night after work, drive home on a road that he'd figured out the timing of the traffic lights so well that he never had to put his foot down even once. The only problem was he'd forget to put his foot down when he got to his destination.. So every night the homeowners knew when he arrived in the garage by hearing him and his cycle fall over. :-)
200 pre orders?? Screw that. The Elio has 20,000 pre-orders, and it's not built yet, has a nice low (projected) cost of $6800 and gets 84mpg. And I'd much rather have the Elio than the C-1 (although for a brief moment, I considered the C-1)... But for the long range I need, the Elio fits my requirements better.
http://www.eliomotors.com/
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Not only is it NOT A MOTORCYCLE! the person talking about it has never ridden a motorcycle.
which is easier on the driver's legs than putting a foot down the way you do while riding most motorcycles.
First all motorcycles. Not most. Second. Who the hell ever pulled up to a stop while riding and thought "Fuck. I have to put my feet down again!"?
Not all. Like it or not "trikes" are considered and labelled motorcycles. As such, your statement is not accurate.
Second, I know a number of people who dislike it due to weaker legs/ankle injuries/etc (and thus, are attracted moreso to the trikes, which, for the record, I HATE).
"Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
the appeal behind motorcycles is gotta go fast
There are 200,000 Harley buyers a year that disagree with you.
Yeah, and don't forget that "loud pipes save lives" around typical inattentive drivers. This thing is silent but deadly.
A coworker of mine thought that.
He was STILL clobbered because of a dingbat driving her well sound insulated white SUV - and drove off; never to be caught for hit and run.
He's pretty screwed up but can still program.
As for me, walking on the side fo the road to have some narcissistic assholes cruising along at 10MPH - twisting their throttle - VROOM! VROOM! VROOM! - with their fat guts and gray hair hanging out of their over priced leather outfits, just has me putting my fingers in my ears, shaking my head and feeling sorry for such losers who have nothing better in their lives than to spend too much money on crap and live a delusion that they are "born to be wild" on weekends and have to go to their souless corporate drone lives on Monday.
They are not as original as they claim. There was a similar concept in kit car magazines in the 90's. There is a Youtube video (Yes, it is Flash but so is the video on the story)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Yes, and over 30 years before that there was the Ford Gyron, which was much more like a car, and even it was not original. However, nothing like that has ever made it into production. If the C-1 does, it'll be the first gyroscopically stabilized vehicle ever to make it to market. And I figure it has a good chance of success, because $24k is hardly unaffordable.
Shilovsky's Gyrocar 1914 ftw.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
I like it when my brakes stop me before I slide into something.
Motorcycles are actually better at stopping than most cars. Ever heard of a stopee?
(I ride a motorcycle, I find riding in the rain to be unpleasant for a variety of reasons)
Yes, because if you manage to get your motorcycle's front wheel to slide, it usually means you fall will over. But, that's exactly one of the reasons why the C-1 is so cool: it's gyroscopically stabilized, so if it slides for whatever reason it won't fall over. In that respect it will behave much like a car.
You have made a false claim because you are terrible at statistics. Deaths divided by serious injuries is a nonsensical metric.
Hint: Go find the total miles driven in cars and motorcycles.
According to these stats for Canada in 2009, car drivers suffered about 1173 deaths and 5393 serious injuries while among motorcyclists there were 194 deaths and 1271 serious injuries.
According to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2006, 13.10 cars out of 100,000 ended up in fatal crashes. The rate for motorcycles is 72.34 per 100,000 registered motorcycles. Motorcycles also have a higher fatality rate per unit of distance travelled when compared with automobiles. Per vehicle mile traveled, motorcyclists' risk of a fatal crash is 35 times greater than a passenger car. In 2004, figures from the UK Department for Transport indicated that motorcycles have 16 times the rate of serious injuries compared to cars, and double the rate of bicycles.
Additional data from the United States reveals that there are over four million motorcycles registered in the United States. Motorcycle fatalities represent approximately five percent of all highway fatalities each year, yet motorcycles represent just two percent of all registered vehicles in the United States. One of the main reasons motorcyclists are killed in crashes is because the motorcycle itself provides virtually no protection in a crash. For example, approximately 80 percent of reported motorcycle crashes result in injury or death; a comparable figure for automobiles is about 20 percent.
Motorcycle safety