Solar motorbike uses snail shell shape for surface area

Powering a car with solar panels is a relatively easy task, but on a motorbike it's a lot harder to find flat surfaces to catch the sun. That means that a solar powered motorbike has got to look rather odd in order to provide enough surface area for the panels: hence the snail shell-like design of SunRed's prototype solar powered bike. When (or if) SunRed completes a real world prototype, the bike's surface area will be 25 square feet, allowing the bike to store enough of the sun's energy to ride for 13 miles at speeds of up to 30 MPH. The motor is integrated into the wheel too, so there's no transmission. Once these "green" bike thinkers sort out the problem of running a bike without oil, we hope they'll move onto making them a little less fugly. It seems like a precedent is being set here.

[Via Autoblog Green]

[Jake Phlieger @ Jun 24th 2007 4:57PM]

That's really sweet lookin'.

[tekdroid @ Jun 24th 2007 5:01PM]

riders of the future don't have to see where they're going?
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When (or if) SunRed completes a real world prototype, the bike's surface area will be 25 square feet, allowing the bike to store enough of the sun's energy to ride for 13 miles at speeds of up to 30 MPH.

^^^^
Hate to say this, but I'd rather be pedalling with my bike for far less cost and damage to the environment (and physical fitness).

Though I'm looking forward to a time they improve things dramatically here.

[Randy @ Jun 25th 2007 10:31AM]

How do you put your foot down when you stop?

[trev @ Jun 24th 2007 5:04PM]

Ok not that Im angainst green vehicles - the more the better! But seriously eww.. poor visability and how on earth are you meant to steady yourself when your waiting at traffic lights? Also isnt part of the appeal of a bike being exposed?

[paralipsis @ Jun 24th 2007 5:38PM]

If you bother following the read link, you will note that the "shell" retracts while you are riding it. The image above is what it looks like while charging and not in use.

[Steven Hu @ Jun 24th 2007 5:05PM]

it looks hot in there

[Steele @ Jun 24th 2007 5:20PM]

Doesn't have me convinced... Scooters don't use very much gas averaging about 100mpg under normal conditions, so for now, i think i'll stick to my GoldWing, and when an electric bike has greater speed, and a longer cruise time, maybe. But no way now, it's not quite ready.

[Dylan @ Jun 24th 2007 10:01PM]

Actually scooters pretty much average out at around 75 mpg and your goldwing closer to 35. Both electric motorcycles and scooters already exist but production versions will never see cruiser styles, they're simply too heavy. Its all sport bikes and scooters.

[Woogs @ Jun 24th 2007 5:24PM]

AAHHH! You couldn't pay me enough to ride that thing in traffic, ever. Seriously. After "driving too damn fast", the biggest risk you face on a motorcycle is "somebody else". That bike does a beautiful job of making sure you can't go anywhere too quickly for the road conditions (as it won't be able to move at all in bad weather!), but then screws you on the whole "what the frack is going on around me" front.

[Feroz L. @ Jun 24th 2007 5:31PM]

What the HELL?!?! My Vespa goes like 30 miles on 5 bucks worth of gas (at these high prices...around $5.50) AND it goes about 40+mph (goes to 50 on speedometer, usually on downhill goes up to 60-70)

[McGinley @ Jun 24th 2007 5:34PM]

Hah,Id prefer to have a motorbike like that than a vespa.

[Chris @ Jun 24th 2007 5:52PM]

Read the PDF about this thing. The solar panels move and it looks like a Vespa. So you get the worst of both worlds.

[Feroz L. @ Jun 24th 2007 5:32PM]

I wouldn't ride that thing if they gave it to me for FREE!

[Bazza @ Jun 24th 2007 5:58PM]

Tron 2.0

[Darwin @ Jun 24th 2007 7:55PM]

More like Tron 0.2

[Pete @ Jun 25th 2007 8:18AM]

I was thinking more like Batman and his "shields."

[Mike @ Jun 24th 2007 6:26PM]

Am I missing something - 13 miles? surely the point of being solar powered would be the ability to ride indefinately. You'd be far better off putting a big battery in there, and sticking the solar panels to the roof of your house.

[Stephen @ Jun 24th 2007 6:39PM]

30 mph? 30? Who has gone anywhere under 30 mph ever? Is this thing for driving to the mailbox?

[Sean @ Jun 24th 2007 6:45PM]

For city commuters who normally ride scooters, 13 miles is more than enough for a round trip commute, as is 30mph between stop signs.

I personally would rather have more power and a longer charge time (say, if I wanted to park in the garage at work), but I can see the market for such a thing. For now, I'll stick with my bicycle which boasts similar specs but only requires tacos, plantains, and chai to keep it going.

[Is this fucking middle school all over again? @ Jun 24th 2007 7:13PM]

The current produced by solar panels is proportional to the sin of the angle of the incident light. Furthermore, even the most efficient solar panels are only at 20 to 25% efficiency and they are very expensive. Therefore, I would guess that the cells on the bike are pretty inefficient. Judging from the photo it does not look like many fo the cells would be very useful for producing electricty at any given time. This seems like a waste of money. Much more practical to have batteries and plug the damn thing in - and even have a small gas motor hooked to a generator for extra energy when needed.

However, if this does work - then great.

[M @ Jun 24th 2007 7:15PM]

Tron?
M

[ethana2 @ Jun 24th 2007 10:44PM]

You do know what tron is- wait, wait- sorry.

If it's still under copyright then you can't be expected to have seen it. That is an unreasonable expectation on society's part. Just forget it. It sucks almost to the point of being funny in some weird sense, and it's really not worth seeing.

In the instance we see freedom as intended by the hard 7-year copyright model for these works, then, if you want to see something really trippy and won't miss your brain cells, you might check it out. Maybe.

[M @ Jun 24th 2007 11:54PM]

I know what Tron is. My post was moved. It was originally the first first post and it made sense as the first point referring that the image looked like a light cycle. If you accidentally click on the link again from engadget, it reapplies your post to the bottom.
M

[BatteryAcid @ Jun 24th 2007 7:44PM]

The reason it gets such bad millage is because a third of it's weight is from solar panels. Like Mike said, you would be much better off having the solar panels stay at your home.

[Darwin @ Jun 24th 2007 8:00PM]

Agreed. But wouldn't it be even better if you just paid a deposit for a standard-size battery and paid some ridiculously low fee at a filling station that has batteries pre-charged for you?
Propane has been sold that way for years, why not electricity?

[ug @ Jun 25th 2007 1:37AM]

These companies with nothing but a CG mockup are equivalent to some guy walking into a bank with a pencil sketch on a napkin asking for tens of millions in loans. You need more of a foundation infrastructure to make vehicles (money, real engineers, manufacturing facilities). You just can't be some guy with nothing but an idea! Ideas are cheap.

[wslcrew @ Jun 25th 2007 4:09AM]

There's a reason why solar cars have a flat panels: putting most of the solar cells vertically means it's only good for dusk or dawn where light intensity is relatively low, and if one side gets the light, the other side won't. I've worked on a solar car before and we spent endless hours trying to maximize the TOP surface area without compromising the aerodynamic efficiency. This design, obviously, is flawed as a solar vehicle.

However, it would be better if they just removed the panel and make it rechargeable via wall outlet. Solar cars are basically electrical vehicles underneath, so it shouldn't be too difficult to modify.

[Jason @ Jun 25th 2007 6:37AM]

they can do better then this on design and why so many solar panels?

[fmarcos @ Jun 25th 2007 1:33PM]

30mph? It's actually a snail...

[Savage @ Jul 6th 2007 9:32PM]

Well a snail-shaped motorcycle ought to be about as popular in America as the Nova was in Spanish-speaking countries.