Forget booking a taxi, now you can RIDE your luggage to the airport as firm designs 'scooter suitcase'

By Daily Mail Reporter
From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Ride to check-in: The £250 scooter can be detached from the case and carried onto the plane

Trying to run with a suitcase because you're late for your flight is a nightmare that most of us have had to deal with.

But now a firm has designed a case that could make the desperate dash across Heathrow a breeze - with a bizarre 'commuter scooter'.

The Micro-Luggage case has an in-built scooter so travellers can ride their case to the gate after dropping up to 20kilos of luggage off at check-in.

The new £250 bag consists of a 26-litre case and a lean-and-steer scooter. It is being marketed at frequent business flyers and people making short commutes to work.

The case can be detached from the scooter and wheeled around in the same way as an ordinary suitcase.

It is designed by Micro Scooters UK, a Colchester-based company behind, who produced micro scooters which were popular in the early 2000s.

A spokesman for the company said: 'Micro Scooters UK has already changed the face of the school run with thousands of families having swapped their gas guzzling 4x4s for the Mini and Maxi Micros.

'Now the company is set to do the same for commuting with the Micro Luggage scooter.

'Not only is it a healthier option to a car, it's a great way of reducing your carbon footprint.'

Carry-on: The case and scooter, pictured together right, can be detached. The £250 product is being marketed at frequent flyers

Regular flyer Dave Gardner, 35, said the new case would be a big help when he is at the airport

'I've missed flights because my taxi has been delayed,' he said.

'It's left me running across the terminal with luggage that won't roll straight and turning up red faced to a closed gate.

'If I could whizz across the terminal it might save me a lot on re-booking business flights.'

However, the price is putting some off the product.

'Surely I could just take a micro scooter with me and put in my bag when I get to work rather than forking out for this - I'd look like a fool riding around on that' said Claire Evans, a 35-year-old banker from Dudley, West Midlands.

BMW Unveils 3 Versions of Retro Electric Scooter

by The Green Groove
from: http://greenopolis.com/

BMW gives urbanites a chance to ride in style with 3 different versions of its Mini Scooter E!


Images: wired

If you’re a fan of electric scooters and you like the look of the Mini Cooper, then you may want to check out BMW’s new retro plug-in scooter. The scooter, which is called the Mini Scooter E, comes in three different versions: a two-seater, a MOD and a “purist” single seater. Although each version looks quite different, they are all powered by an electric motor and can be charged in any wall socket.
Designed by senior VP Adrian van Hooydonk, the Mini Scooter E also features:

• A lithium-ion battery
• A Smartphone app that starts the car (no keys needed)
• GPS software that points out other E-scooter riders in the area
• A helmet that has an integrated headphone and microphone with embedded Bluetooth

All three designs are trendy and hip, and any urbanite would look good riding one. Which one do you prefer?



The single seater “purist” design.



The two-seater.



The Mod version.

Although these scooters remind me of something that Austin Powers would drive, I think that they are all good-looking vehicles and would be great for the environment. The scooters are estimated to cost well over $6,000.

Here’s a video that features all three designs:

Underwater Scooter HydroBOB

Posted by KRCKE
From: http://www.insanetwist.com/

HydroBOB - This compact scooter to ride under the water. It allows even an inexperienced person, feel like an underwater explorer, the truth will not travel on the sea bottom, and at the bottom of the pool. Oxygen it gets from a special balloon attached to the scooter itself, rather than through the hose, which stretches to the water surface. If you have kindled a desire to ride on such transport, then you have to go to "Hyrdodome" in Forte-Loderdeyle (Fort Lauderdale), Florida, for $ 25 per hour

Ryno Motors creates one wheel electric scooter

From: http://gadgetsmarket.com/

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Scoot Coupe: Hot Holiday Gift Or Barely-Legal Nightmare?

By Nelson Ireson

November 20th, 2009 Is it a car? A scooter? A motorcycle? All of these questions are fair game when talking about three-wheeled cars, and the issue has even risen as high as the White House, with the Obama administration deciding they are in fact cars in the case of electric-powered three-wheelers like the Aptera 2e. But the legal status of the typical gasoline-powered, motorcycle-based vehicle is a lot more murky.

That's normally not a big problem, but interest in one model in particular, the Scoot Coupe, has seen a huge upwelling in public interest following an appearance on The Price Is Right game show's showcase prize. Now Google is getting hammered with searches for the vehicle, and towns are becoming wary of their "street legal" status.

At least one town has even gone so far as to ban them. Aside from the obvious addition of traffic to the roads, the issue is largely with their scooter-powered nature. Available in 50 cc and 150 cc displacements, the two-seater Scoot Coupe is the very definition of underpowered. Add to that minimal--if any--crash protection and you have what could potentially be a hugely problematic addition to the roadways.

Compounding the problem is the Scoot Coupe's bargain-basement price: just $6,299 for the 50 cc P50 model, and a mere $300 bump to $6,599 for the 150 cc P150. On the other hand, this isn't the first such vehicle and it's not the first time they've risen to the public spotlight, so perhaps all the "sky is falling" antics are precisely that. [Christian Science Monitor, Scoot Coupe]

Scoot Coupe

Enlarge Photo

Scoot Coupe

Enlarge Photo

Is it a car? A scooter? A motorcycle? All of these questions are fair game when talking about three-wheeled cars, and the issue has even risen as high as the White House, with the Obama administration deciding they are in fact cars in the case of electric-powered three-wheelers like the Aptera 2e. But the legal status of the typical gasoline-powered, motorcycle-based vehicle is a lot more murky.

That's normally not a big problem, but interest in one model in particular, the Scoot Coupe, has seen a huge upwelling in public interest following an appearance on The Price Is Right game show's showcase prize. Now Google is getting hammered with searches for the vehicle, and towns are becoming wary of their "street legal" status.

At least one town has even gone so far as to ban them. Aside from the obvious addition of traffic to the roads, the issue is largely with their scooter-powered nature. Available in 50 cc and 150 cc displacements, the two-seater Scoot Coupe is the very definition of underpowered. Add to that minimal--if any--crash protection and you have what could potentially be a hugely problematic addition to the roadways.

Compounding the problem is the Scoot Coupe's bargain-basement price: just $6,299 for the 50 cc P50 model, and a mere $300 bump to $6,599 for the 150 cc P150.

On the other hand, this isn't the first such vehicle and it's not the first time they've risen to the public spotlight, so perhaps all the "sky is falling" antics are precisely that.

[Christian Science Monitor, Scoot Coupe]

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Hybrid Electric Scooter Runs On Anything That Burns

Written by Jerry James Stone

Segway inventor Dean Kamen is developing a hybrid electric scooter that can run on almost anything that burns.

According to the patent, the bike has a small two-piston Stirling engine right under the seat. Though with an engine of that size, it really isn’t going to provide much juice - not much more than 5bhp.

A Stirling engine is based on tech which predates internal combustion engines by almost 100 years. It’s kinda like a steam engine in the sense that it uses external combustion. They use pistons for the crankshaft, but unlike the alternatives they have no valves for no gas ever enters or leaves the cylinders.

Since there is no need for a fuel to be injected, it can run on almost anything that burns - everything from wood chips to old Barbies. This really opens the door for renewable fuel technologies and the standards they would have to meet.

With the engine’s low output, it won’t provide much of the bike’s performance on its own. But it can keep the rechargeable battery packs, which are located in the floor of the bike, topped off. Those reserves can be used for an extra kick in the pants!

Multimillionaire Kamen has already sunk more than $50 million into developing the Stirling engine technology.

A prototype of the bike has yet to be seen unlike Kamen’s Stirling-engined car. Though, rumor has it that Kamen rides one around his own estate.

A version of the Th!ink City also uses a Stirling Engine

But Kamen isn’t the only one looking at the Stirling as a viable solution. Honda has patented concepts using the Stirling to extract more power from a conventional internal combustion engine. Yah, say that three times fast. Other applications include autonomous robots for the US military that can “feed” themselves to remain active for years.

Um, anyone else thinking…SkyNet?

Source: Gizmag