Drill-powered Tricycle Goodness!

If only I had a machine shop… and a couple of months… and some access to fancy overrunning clutch gearwheels and a design shop… and… actually, this design might just need to go commercial, though perhaps with a bit more of a comfortable ride. With the EX tricycle, the driver is forward-facing, belly-down and drives the vehicle by actuating hand and brake triggers, the former of which control the twin 18V drill/drivers that power this beast of a machine (they used Bosch, but the system is fairly universal). With arms spread wide and torso somewhat elevated (OK, contorted) from the frame, the machine can be driven… at speeds approaching 19 mph. The entire vehicle was built from scratch and modeled on the human body – a fact that is evident when you see the very spine-like exoskeleton that requires you to use your whole body to steer.

What I liked best was the engineering. Like the design or not, a lot of
thought went into the EX – especially with respect to the chain-based
drive train. The twin drills are connected on opposite sides so that
they run in the same direction. It’s kind of low-tech until you look at
the use of overrunning clutch gearwheels which send torque to the
wheels and keep the drills from interfering with each other.

Seriously, it’s cool-looking, but it makes the average crotch-rocket look like a well-padded cruiser. I mean, it’s different – but would anyone actually want to drive it for more than 10 minutes at a shot (or even last that long?) Maybe that’s not the point (that’s code for “Yes, I’d take one if you gave it to me!”) Brilliant and simple… just put a seat on it for goodness sake!

Yeah… that’s uncomfortable.

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