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news
EX - the screwdriver-powered tricycle
Electric bikes, eh? All bulk batteries and upright riding positions, worthy rather than fun. If that's what you think of when you think of e-bikes, then you should take a look at this. Okay, it's a trike, but you have to admit: it's a pretty cool trike.
The EX – for that is its name – is clearly mental, but there's some interesting tech going on. First of all the power plant: the trike is propelled by two 18V cordless screwdrivers, powered by a hand throttle, which will purpotedly wind the EX up to 30km/h. That doesn't sound like much, but given that you ride the thing face first we're guessing it feels pretty fast. There's no word on the range, which we're assuming is fairly small from our experiences of cordless screwdrivers...
The other unique aspect of the EX is the steering system, which is based on a flexible spine: you basically have to use your whole body to move the trike from side to side. The spine is constructed of CNC-milled struts bolted together in a criss-cross formation which tilt the rear wheel to turn the vehicle. It looks superbly engineered and the steel space frame is certainly pretty.
Is it the future of urban transportation? Well, no, clearly. You'd have to be certifiable to head out on the mean streets of more or less anywhere on this. On the other hand, it does look like a lot of fun, and we'll be looking at our cordless screwdrivers in a new light...
see more at http://www.nilsferber.de/ex.html
Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.
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4 comments
The riding position looks very painful, ~I like the idea... totally bonkers, but would not want to ride very far on it. Yer shins would be killing in no time.
Head first riding position!?! Head held over the handle bars down the lakeland passes; better than sex....... well nearly!
This is nuts.
Was at brands hatch to watch some motorsport a while back and a certain yellow coloured power tool supplier had a stand there. They had a chap zipping around on a mini bike powered by one of their cordless drills. At one point he was doing endo/wheelie combinations, looked flippin' brilliant fun (quite fast too) and a lot more practical than this.
Like this one
What a great piece of engineering design ... not sure I'd want to ride it any distance though
when you said "propelled by two 18V cordless screwdrivers" I though you meant just the motors...but nope, there they are. two actual electric screw drivers.
mental