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Whirling Twirling Propeller Trike
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Wed Jul 04, 2007 12:13 PM
from the mit-students-with-to-much-time dept.
from the mit-students-with-to-much-time dept.
hankmt writes "A student at MIT has built a tricycle that applies force to a giant rear fan, instead of directly to the wheels. The effect...well, it's best to look for yourself, but it would be pretty useful on the post-apocalyptic roads of the Australian Outback. The blades of the trike even have built in LED lights which display colored patterns...and also warn pedestrians of their impending deaths."
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If this trike concept became popular (Score:2)
Crazy (Score:4, Funny)
Those crazy MIT guys are lucky that Massachusetts just made health insurance mandatory!
First prize for impracticality (Score:3, Funny)
From the looks of it after watching the vide, its terrible at transforming pedal energy into forward motion, and I'd really hate to see what would happen in any sort of wind. At least a "real bike" you can get off and walk. Add bird strikes to the blades, the excess width, etc., and you've got a real problem.
Unless,of course, you're Wiley Coyote, and ride it off a cliff - you could autogyro down, I guess.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:First prize for impracticality (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
As impractical as the Bede fan car (Score:2)
It's a very clever toy, nothing more.
Re:First prize for impracticality (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:First prize for impracticality (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:First prize for impracticality (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
No science (Score:2)
Re:No science (Score:5, Funny)
(cue the smell of burning karma courtesy of humorless mods)...
Parent
Pfft.... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Pfft.... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
I can't believe Slashdot. (Score:5, Funny)
This guy builds a trike with great glowing, whirling blades of death on the back and actually manages to ride it around for a while without getting shipped to Gitmo, and people just complain how it's not practical?
You people fail utterly at nerd-dom.
Looks like something for Burning Man (Score:4, Interesting)
The Burning Man crowd likes stuff like that. It's too late for this year's Department of Mutant Vehicles [burningman.com] registration, though.
By playa standards, this is unambitious. Check out the Neverwas Haul [tribe.net], a steam-powered 3-story Victorian house on wheels that moves under its own power.
Um (Score:2)
Fan cage? (Score:2)
That said, it's still pretty cool. I wonder how it compares to normal bicycle drive for efficiency.
Re:Fan cage? Fully enclosed... (Score:3, Funny)
Miyazaki did it first... (Score:2, Informative)
If it comes with a hands free iphone kit (Score:2)
"durr, they jump out of the way even..." (Score:5, Insightful)
(from the video) "...and they jump out of the way even if they're 20 feet away."
That's pretty smart on their part. Pay close, careful attention to how he restrains these spinning blades: A FUCKING PIPE CLAMP.
Maybe if he's so smart with matlab, he can work out the pulling force at a few hundred RPMs on those blades, frighten himself, and put a bolt through the blade and hub shaft.
Also, the design of the frame is pretty sketchy, with no bracing; he's relying purely on the static-load-bearing capacity of the tubing and his welds. If he collides with anything, the frame is going to come apart, and he stands a good chance of getting a chromalloy chest transplant.
From TFA.... (Score:5, Funny)
As opposed to a normal trike, which operates with ear-shattering volume?
Re:Dumbass Rolled Up Pant Leg (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, the bike pulls to the right. So by rolling up his right pant leg that side creates less drag, which helps trim the bike back to the left.
Dan East
Parent
Reminds me of a pilot... (Score:4, Interesting)
I once knew a pilot for parachutists and he would trim the plane so well that all he did to turn was to lean in the direction he wanted to go. I believe it was a C172 or something small like that.
Parent
Many bicycle riders do this (Score:5, Informative)
Parent