Unlike their gasoline-powered siblings, electric vehicles don’t have to have a certain shape. Instead, their inventors can flexibly think of mostly anything that moves… even skates. Meet the FlyRad – the unicycle that will surely create buzz among teens and generally among people who like to think out of the box.
You can ride the FlyRad simply by skating behind it by getting dragged or sitting atop of the thing, anchored by your own knees and having the skates as your steering. A nice way to fly, because you can literally spread your wings open and let yourself go.
Thomas Rank, the inventor of the FlyRad, now wants to enter the market with three sizes, fit for adults, teens and children. They all have a 30 V/500 W motor and weigh about 24 kg. FlyRad’s maximum speed is about 40 km/h (25 mph) and their battery autonomy is 50 km (31 miles), enough for a day’s ride to work and back. Still, if you want to get sportier, you’ll be able to purchase the 1 kW version of the motor, in a probably heavier and more powerful version. All of them charge in about 4 hours from a standard wall socket.
Designed as a form of environmentally friendly transportation as well as for fun and extreme sports, the FlyRad took a silver medal at iENA 2010, the International Trade Fair for “Ideas-Inventions-New Products” held in Nuremburg in October.
Pointless? No way. In my opinion, the FlyRad can really change the way we go to work in a nice sunny day without turning on any engine and emitting any gram of carbon dioxide (at least directly). Even more, if the future owners of the contraption that will launch commercially sometime next year do have some solar panels available, they will be able to charge the FlyRad with no effort and no guilt of causing any damage to the air.
That’s pretty neat, but what if there aren’t sidewalks? Most locations won’t let you ride on the road like that, and or it’s just not safe to ride like that on a main road.
Great article !