Whirling Twirling Propeller Trike

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."

Crazy

[grub]

Those crazy MIT guys are lucky that Massachusetts just made health insurance mandatory!

First prize for impracticality

[trolltalk.com]

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:Dumbass Rolled Up Pant Leg

[Dan East]

You know what also is funny? The way he rolls up one of his pant legs to be 'in style.' Real original, is he an MIT gangsta?

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

Pfft....

[Digitus1337]

That thing blows.

I can't believe Slashdot.

[pclminion]

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.

Re:Pfft....

[Anonymous Coward]

Technically, half of it sucks.

Re:First prize for impracticality

[timeOday]

Oh well, millions of people per year spend good money on devices that do nothing *but* waste energy, such as elliptical machines, treadmills, and exercycles. And you can't even hack people to pieces with those.

Re:Reminds me of a pilot...

[pcnetworx1]

Only old Koreans would lean to turn a C172. It's all the rage now to do it in an Antonov, n00bs maybe can get away with a Starlifter

Re:First prize for impracticality

[trolltalk.com]

But in this case, he'd autogyro down, with that big sh*t-eating grin on his face, holding up a sign saying "PHEW!" and just as he gets to ground level - BAM! a truck driven by the RoadRunner runs into him and creams him.

Re:Fan cage? Fully enclosed...

[flyingfsck]

Hmm, if he fully encloses the fan and adds a vacuum pump, then the fan will spin much easier and his forward speed will be pretty much the same...

Re:No science

[hotdiggitydawg]

Can I hire that thing to get rid of my evil enemy Mr. Naughty?

Well, Hans Reiser is otherwise occupied, so yeah, why not go with Plan B?

(cue the smell of burning karma courtesy of humorless mods)...

From TFA....

[argStyopa]

"I spend a month a year working on a commercial fishing boat with a loud diesel engine, and the greatest sound in the world is to hear it turn off," says Damon Vander Lind, the creator of a soothingly quiet trike"

As opposed to a normal trike, which operates with ear-shattering volume?