Why would you want this?

I know, your parents didn’t give you enough attention as a child, so you use possessions to force fleeting glimpses of admiration from unassuming strangers in an atypical attempt to fill (if even for a microcosmic second) that void with something you call pride but we call pretentiousness.  In other words, you’re a rich prick.

Built by the 18 year old Ben J. Poss Gulak, the Uno is an electric vehicle that uses two microgyro-motors; one for turning and one for forward and backward movement.  You might remember the microgyro-motor technology from Dean Kamen’s Segway.  I’m a fan of Kamen because he’s from my home state and has the same birth day as myself; two excellent reasons to like someone.  Ben on the other hand named his two wheeled invention the "Uno"- nice job dumb ass, why didn’t you just call it the "tripod" or the "I’m a total douche bag".

We’re just kidding Ben, we look forward to seeing what else you have in store for the future.

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Mission Two- find a better plastic’s fabricator. 

The Mission One EV electric sports bike unveiled this past week at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference by Mission Motors is said to have a 150 MPH top speed and 100 foot-pounds of torque at any point between 0 and 6,500 RPM. 
If you’re like me, the design is just a little too space age-ish.  If you’re not like me, go have fun on your 70 thousand dollar "Blade Runner" bike and make sure to send designer Yves Behar a thank you card for making it flashy enough that everyone worth a damn will know exactly how much you paid.

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Yesterday (September 16th, 2008), GM unveiled the production model Volt.

The Volt is an extended-range electric vehicle (E-REV), not a hybrid.  Hybrids have small electric motors that move the car at slow speeds while a gas engine kicks in on the Autobahn.  The Volt however, utilizes an all-electric 161-horsepower 45KW (100 KW peak) motor capable of moving the car from 0 to 60 in 8.5 seconds with a top speed of at least 100 mph.

The Volt’s high-voltage battery pack will get you about 40 miles after a full charge from your homes wall outlet.  I know, I know, it’s still electricity so somewhere fuel is being burned or hydrogen is being split, but it’s still cleaner than igniting that Middle Eastern octane and your electricity costs will amount to a gas equivalent of about 50 cents per gallon, so it’s a whole lot cheaper to boot.

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The SHIFT Tricycle designed at Purdue University helps children gradually learn how to balance by providing two rear wheels that change angle as speed is increased.  When the child starts out, the back wheels provide a wider base for extra stability, and as the newbie builds momentum the wheels shift towards parallel, putting more of the balance responsibility on the child. 
Since this is just a concept, I’m not quite sure how well the tricycle handles, how it maneuvers corners, or what happens when you slam on the breaks (are the wheels able to shift back or do they stop at parallel?).  Aside from these questions, the trike seems pretty cool.

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[Get It $1,000,000]

Hold the press, the Dutch have an athlete that could medal in Beijing, lets spend three years and $1,000,000 to increase his chances by an 8th of a percent!

Cycle maker Koga Miyata claims to have spent a million dollars on the development of a new bike frame for Olympic bound athlete Theo Bos. Of course with the American dollar acting like Patrick Swayze after chemotherapy, it’s not really that impressive. They should have said the bike cost 10,400,000 Mexican Pesos, that sounds pretty good.

Obviously this is a marketing maneuver by Koga to brand their name. If they really wanted Theo to bring home gold they would have spent their 630,000 Euros on a chemist, not fractional aerodynamics which makes as much difference as eating an orange ten minutes before the race opposed to nine.

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No, this isn’t from the new Batman movie.  The Can-Am Spyder Roadster is an actual vehicle approved for street use.  This adult sized dyslectic Big Wheels from the Bombardier company is pitched as a touring style sport bike.  Hopefully it’s as fun as I remember my big wheels being; the clutch went last month so I donated it for a tax write-off.

After inventing the snowmobile in 1958 and the personal watercraft in 1968, the Bombardier company went out on a limb once again with their newest design.  The Can-Am Spyder Roadster is a Y-configuration tricycle laid out like a snowmobile with an ATV like chassis, double-wishbone front suspension, and mono-shock rear.  It sports a five-gear motorcycle shift-box, pumps out 106 horsepower, and tags 0-60 in 4.5 seconds.  With the Mercedes-Benz SL55 covering 0-60 in 4.8 and the Porsche 997 GT2 getting it done in 3.6, the Spyder might not look so flashy, but how fast do you really want to accelerate on this weird contraption? 

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