Maarten Timmer's VertiGO concept - The future of electric motorcycle design?
Maarten Timmer's VertiGO electric motorcycle concept - Click above for high-res image gallery
What should an electric motorcycle look like? Should designers attempt to make alternative machines as similar to their fossil fuel-burning siblings as possible or should they stray as far from that course as feasible? That's a question that's sure to be on the minds of budding young designers the world over for the next few years, at least.
Maarten Timmer, a student working on his masters at the Deft University of Technology, believes electric motorcycles need to be different from the gas-burning machines we are currently familiar with, and his VertiGO concept proves the point rather well.
We see some similarities between the VertiGO and the electric superbike design ROBRADY did for Vectrix, especially in the use of negative space directly in the center of the bike. Because an electric motorcycle obviously has no need for fuel, Timmer's VertiGO features a tailsection and saddle cantilevered from the area we'd normally expect to see a gas tank. Overall, it's a nice design.
[Source: Maarten Timmer via Hell For Leather]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Anonymouse 7:59PM (7/10/2009)
Its balance is all wrong. As far as I can tell from looking at it, it's RWD. RWD means weak regen, and the battery weight is over the non-drive wheel, meaning less traction. Simple fix: change it to FWD or AWD.
Nice aesthetics, though.
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Chris M 10:44PM (7/10/2009)
Battery Electric drive affords an extraordinary degree of design flexibility. It can be rear wheel drive, front wheel drive, all wheel drive. It can use hub motors, or shaft drive, or belt drive. The battery pack can be arranged in many different ways - wide, narrow, tall short, even split into two or more sections.
No more dealing with transmissions, clutches, gas tanks, or hot exhaust pipes!
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jpm 2:50AM (7/11/2009)
I like the idea of hub motors...very exciting. with no linkage between motor shaft and drive wheel, that's got to be the most efficient design.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pE9tdW7bY0
fast forward to 1:30
DasBoese 7:49PM (7/12/2009)
Hub motors are a terrible idea for motorcycles, at least for anything other than low-speed vehicles like mopeds and scooters.
The adverse effect of the larger unsprung mass on handling would be very dangerous on a motorcycle with any serious performance. With cars, a slight disadvantage in handling and ride comfort is tolerable in exchange for the advantages hub motors offer, plus you can mitigate it with things like ESP and active suspension.
But with just two wheels and contact patches the size of a coin you really want to have all the best handling you can possibly get.
Jay 1:01AM (7/11/2009)
One word: TRON
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mike 2:51AM (7/11/2009)
looks like a typical motorcycle design to me........2 wheels belt driven front forks ect.. the only difference is the negative (wasted) space under the seat. I agree with the first post about the regen not working to its full potential due to the weight not being over the rear tire. hub motor in front wheel should help out!
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jpm 2:55AM (7/11/2009)
the belt is way too close to the foot
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d 12:29PM (7/12/2009)
i totally agree, if you got your foot caught in there you would be f&cked.
Stan Wellaway 5:37AM (7/11/2009)
I don't understand why an electric bike "should or shouldn't look like (whatever)".
Whatever the motive source and fuel, a bike (or whatever we chose to call it) needs wheels (or some other way of translating power into motion), a braking system, a steering mechanism, suspension system, and somewhere to sit/lie/stand. The rest is surely open to whatever a designer/engineer thinks will work - and doesn't 'have' to look like or unlike whatever.
Incidentally, one particular difference between combustion engined bikes and electric ones is that the fuel load is effectively of constant weight on an electric one. A gasoline bike handles differently when fully refuelled than it does when empty and lap or trip times can vary accordingly.
The fact that batteries can be in modules which can be distributed around the vehicle to best advantage provides the designer/engineer with wonderful flexibilty in balancing the machine. Including the possibility of some such modules being adjustable up/down, left/right, back/forth, to compensate for passenger size, or to amend during races. And on road bikes, it should presumably be easy to add or subtract battery modules according to whether it's being ridden short distances by rider-only, or carrying a pillion passenger and luggage -- with the unused modules being left on charge.
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gorr 1:04PM (7/11/2009)
Im not interrested to buy. These battery-only gadjetry have no use and no future, LOL. They are made and not sell to anyone by wannabee engineers that don't believe in free, unlimited, non-polluting energy, so beware of them. In that case you cannot go anywhere without experimenting a drop in energy from the start until you have to punish yourself by paying for few energy and wait 8 hours sitting beside the bike while pedestrians walk faster and farther then you. This is a severe donwsizing proposed to you. This bike cost more and offer less and is dangeurous on crowded roads. This is mainly for constricted intellectuals that talks for years and drive 5 minutes. They follow the general panic from millions of drivers that want to leave gasoline but don't know anything else except a wall socket. This is because they only paid in the past for 2 energy gadjetry, gasoline and wall socket, so they don't know anything else, LOL. So wannabe producers and consumers think that if gasoline is restricted then they want to switch to electric utility. It's easy to see that they are constricted consumers having no more choice for energy and no power, LOL. This is as sad as lauphable.
The president of toyota destructed the world 2 years ago when he refused to put on the market his car able to drive from new-york to los-angeles for free without pollution. 95% of the bloggers here in this site have battery-drained brains without a refueler. If the future is a costly and depleted battery powered by a costly and polluting grill then the bloggers here in this site are just mad and empty.
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jpm 5:17PM (7/11/2009)
no one cares...
Ahmet 4:57AM (7/13/2009)
Hi, interesting topic - I have just bought an electric bike that I use to get to work everyday. I Just plug in at work to recharge it and then cycle home.
Absolutely love the bike, it was cheap and simple to use. I got it from www.elecbikeco.com they seemed good but I am sure there are many other companies out there too.
Good luck
Ahmet
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Rick 1:36PM (7/14/2009)
Looks nice. My only question, I'm not engineer, much less a bike rider, but the rear shock seems oddly angled to provide and real absorption from the rear tire that would travel upwards. It appears as though the shock would be a weak point and focus of stress should the bike be airborne and then slam down hard onto the pavement?
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tomjackson490 11:58PM (9/24/2009)
no no . i dont think that their is a need for changing the design of the bike i look superb.....and i must say that work done by students was mind blowing....
glucosamin
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