Raht Racer, the e-bike/e-car that moves with the speed of a car, but has pedals, might just be what you need to stay fit while going to work with greater comfort.
This somewhat unusual three-wheeled Raht Racer is a hybrid between an electric car and an electric bicycle, which combines the best of both worlds. It is spacious, safe, fast, eco-friendly and it has pedals that not only generate power to juice up the battery, but also keep the driver in good shape while sitting inside on the way to work.
The idea behind it sounds to me a bit like replacing the seat in front of your desk with a stationary bike. Instead of spending hours sitting, you are in fact moving, and here it is even taken to the next level by making it generate power.
The inventors designed it in a way that if the cyclist/driver does not want to pedal, he does not have to, but if he does, then the pedal power goes towards the battery. At this stage, the Raht Racer is still a concept, and the currently ongoing Kickstarter campaign is set up to help the designers realize their idea. Here is the promo video.
Ultimately, what they would like to build is a three-wheeled e-bike/e-car, looking a bit like the Spira4u, with a super light body made of carbon fiber, able to drive at car speeds, and equipped with all safety features required in a car-seat belts, air bags, headlights. And the twist- pedals to power the battery and a seat for an extra passenger on the inside.
The way I see it is not really like an e-bike. If the guys stick to the original plan, it will be too fast and too big to drive on bike lanes. But the idea of being able to exercise while being stuck at a traffic jam, together with the feeling of doing something good for the environment (a.k.a. charging the battery without any need of grid electricity), makes the whole thing really worth investing in.
Image (c) Rich Kronfeld
You should make a 2 seater that way more than one person could pedal ,also put some solor panel on type that way if they even get tired it could charge its self while the suns up that way they could go even farther, just a helpful idea ,
Keep the pedals if you want to help kill the e-bike entirely. Did you miss whats happening at legislation because of high speed downhillers?
I like the pedal idea, but some of the punters don’t, so there should be an option for a non-pedal version. For people who ride in heavy slower traffic conditions, the pedal option is good. But if you want shorter distances at higher speeds, the pedals become redundant. What I like most is that it’s a narrow tracked vehicle, able share lanes with motorbikes and possibly other narrow vehicles.