Portland-based Ryno Motors has set a launch date of January, 2013 for its electric Ryno-cycle. The one-wheeled, self-balancing vehicle has a range of up to 20 miles and a top speed of 20 Mph. It is estimated to cost $4,500 when it hits retail after the new year.
Ryno motors – self-balancing, one wheel, electric scooter
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Source: Bloomberg May 8 2012
After more than three years in the business, Vancouver-based start-up Ryno Motors has nearly finished its third and final design for a one-wheel self-balancing motor bike that’s worthy of RoboCop. It’s a sleek and sporty machine that, most importantly, stays upright and drives with ease.
This electricity powered motorcycle has a range of about 30 miles and can hit a top speed of 25mph. Powered by LiFePo4 batteries, the motorcycle is expected to cost about $3500. The motorcycle features high capacity dual DC motors and controller boards, advanced solid-state motion sensors to maintain constant control of balance loop. All the electronic components inside have been sealed to prevent damage due to shocks.
But now the Vancouver start-up faces a new, more daunting challenge: funding! “We’re stuck right now,” said founder Chris Hoffmann, a mechanical engineer with 15 years of experience in the automobile industry. “Investors love the idea but they don’t know who the market is.”
Hoffmann has so far invested about $25,000 of his own money engineering and building the prototype motorcycles with a mishmash of abundant, cheap parts scrounged from the robotics industry. That focus on systems integration, instead of designing his own specialized components, was the key to keeping his initial production costs low.
A variety of software has been included to continuously monitor a set of feedback systems to warn the rider or take control of the bike if it exceeds its maximum performance limits. An auto balance system will prevent the rider from exceeding the max-rated speed and tilt angle by automatically interacting with the rider through a cascading set of warnings before temporarily taking control of the bike.
The battery monitoring system will trigger yellow and red warning lights when the battery level registers 25 percent and 5 percent to full charge. Moreover, an auto kill switch has been included that stops wheel rotation if the rider is dislodged from the bike or the bike tilts outside of its normal operating parameters.
Looking for funding can be a wild, emotional ride that saps an entrepreneur’s creative energy and attention, Hoffmann said. If he focuses too much on attracting investors, Hoffmann is worried that the passion for his invention, the lifeblood of his business, is likely to suffer. “Forget the angel investors,” Hoffmann tells his team, “let’s just build some bikes.”
Category: Technology, Weekend
Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor implied. If you could repeat previously discredited memes or steer the conversation into irrelevant, off topic discussions, it would be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.
The price is too high, the utility is non-existent and if there’s any failure in the software or hardware that balances the system, the rider gets to do a quality face-plant. All of these problems are addressed by a two-wheeled electric scooter at half the price… and that’s why he can’t attract investors.
A slightly faster Segway! Just what the world has been waiting for. Also, how do you carry anything on it?
definitely a non-starter…!
Portland-based Ryno Motors has set a launch date of January, 2013 for its electric Ryno-cycle. The one-wheeled, self-balancing vehicle has a range of up to 20 miles and a top speed of 20 Mph. It is estimated to cost $4,500 when it hits retail after the new year.
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Not to quibble, but in the text below the video that’s Vancouver and $3,500 (which is referenced elsewhere, despite what’s stamped on the Bloomberg video). And that video also includes the Jan 2013 production date . . . which all seems somewhat premature when the story has the founder saying with regard to funding: “We’re stuck right now!”
It will be interesting to see where this venture lands.
Ummmm, as someone who has run 20MPH and run 20 miles at differing points, I don’t need to be on a pogo stick just because it can manage both at once.
Can you imagine if we had a bunch of assholes riding around on those in NYC? What, they’re already drive petit-cabs? You don’t think they’ll figure out to latch one of these on a carriage, do you?
More generally and practically, that balancing act doesn’t look like it can be done by just anyone…and that assumes that there aren’t sadistic scumbags (like myself) out there looking to run them into a wall or the back of a parked car. I can just see BR falling on his ass after having that thing run out from under him. But, I’ll bet those x-games kids can do some cool shit with it.
For those that can manage the ride, what are you going to do with that thing if it runs out of juice on you? Tap into a street-lamp post?
so now, we can all unicycle like a bunch of wannabe circus clowns!
What a waste….
Audi e-bike is much cooler. 50 mph with pedal assist, carbon fiber frame, special trick mode and wheelie mode, and smartphone features:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2404530,00.asp
Not sure what the price is, but me likey!