An interesting invention by a German man. A special bike has been built that runs up to 50 miles an hour and could lead to a transportation revolution.
It’s certainly a head-turner. Whizzing around the streets of Berlin – this is the “ErockIT”. Half-bicycle, half-motorbike, Stefan Gulas has been working on his invention for the past four years:
[Stefan Gulas, ErockIT Inventor]: “It’s a motorbike and in a certain sense it’s also a bicycle, because the motorbike works as a bicycle. So you have to pedal in order to travel forwards. The pedals act as a type of accelerator. So you don’t have an accelerator on the handlebars but you have to pedal. And the quicker you pedal the faster the motor goes.”
And this pedaling also charges up the bike’s battery. Gulas is convinced the ErockIT – which can travel up to 80 kilometers, or almost 50 miles an hour, is a transport revolution.
[Stefan Gulas, ErockIT Inventor]: “The thing I’m most proud of is that we’ve managed to make a cool electric vehicle. There are lots of vehicles with petrol engines that are cool – you just need to go and take a look at them, Ducatis or cars like Porsches and Ferraris. They’re cool vehicles, but they all have petrol engines.”
The bike may have the looks. But it seems people don’t quite know what to make of it.
[Martin Alridge, Likes ErockIT]: “From the speed, I’d say it’s a motorbike, but he pedals it, so it’s a push bike. So it’s a bicycle. But an amazing thing, absolutely amazing. I want one.”
The others who want one should be prepared to dig deep into their pockets.
An “ErockIT” costs 30-thousand euros – or around 44-thousand U.S. dollars – and customers have to put down 25 000 euros when they place an order.
For his part – Gulas says he expects the bike will appeal to creative, successful, people