The Bubble Bike
might look like the love child of a scooter and a Messerschmitt
Kabinenroller, but it’s an ingenious response to the needs of Northern
China and some of the more northern Asian countries where temperatures
drop well below zero in winter and the roads get a liberal coating of
snow and ice, making them not nearly as suitable for scooters and
motorcycles as they are in summer. The recipient of a 2009 Red Star
Design Award (China’s equivalent of the red dot awards), the three-wheel Bubble Bike sells in China for RMB 5000 (around US$730).
Low cost transport is imperative in many developing countries, and
the Bubble Bike's price-tag makes it the only game in town if you want
more than two wheels, or want to carry three people or a lot of luggage
and keep them/it dry and warm.
Most importantly, the Bubble Bike is electric, meaning it recharges
from a power point for a negligible cost and has oodles of grunt for
getting up to its 45 km/h top speed. Now we understand that's not so
fast by the standards of the big cities with lots of space that we're
accustomed to, but it's plenty fast for urban running in the highly
congested streets of China's megacities.
The Bubble Bike has a range of 100 km and takes between six and eight
hours to charge from a standard household power outlet in its current
configuration. The manufacturers are currently trialling alternative
batteries which decrease the charging time to three hours and increase
the range of the vehicle to 200 km, plus the cost of the Bubble Bike by
several hundred dollars. I'm presuming those batteries are lithium ion
but translation between the designer’s Shandong dialect and English was
an issue, so I can’t be sure.
The biggest benefit of the bike is apparently roadholding. Bubble
Bike's representative said that because the bike is very light and has
three wheels and a low center of gravity, it really hangs onto the road.
Given that its specifications and geometry are very similar to the Spira that I tried in Thailand last year I imagine that the handling would be similar (i.e. sensational).
In many ways, it's a scooter with a bit of protection, and there was
some discussion amongst those of us looking at the machine whether there
was adequate crash protection in comparison with a Western motor
vehicle. One of those present contributed, "I'm sure it crash tests
better than the scooter it will replace though."
Source: gizmag.com @ By Mike Hanlon
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