The Solowheel is yet another take on electric-powered personal transport. It is also just about the simplest possible design you could possibly imagine: a wheel and nothing more.
The wheel contains a 1,000 watt electric motor and gyroscopic controls, making it a kind of minimalist Segway. To drive it, you put it on the road (it has a carrying handle up-top), flip down the foot platforms and step on. Lean forwards to go, and lean back to slow down. Turning is done by leaning from side to side: As there is only one wheel, no steering mechanism is needed.
It certainly looks like fun, right up to the inevitable face-plant that will happen as soon as you try to bump up a too-high curbstone.
The Solowheel, which is not yet for sale, is certainly small and somewhat portable, but suffers the same disadvantage as any electric mode of transport. It is heavy, at 20 pounds, and while it folds up small, it?s not much smaller than a fully-collapsed Brompton, which weighs just about the same, doesn?t need recharging, and won?t send you face-first into the street.
Solowheel product page [Inventist via Core77]
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