Build Your Own Solar-Powered Scooter

An anonymous reader writes "CBC is reporting that the Biomod company in Montreal has released plans for building your own solar scooter for only $1600 (in Canadian funds, no less!) Hopefully the engineering community will take an interest, and add brakes to the blueprints..."

Hey

[Anonymous Coward]

That's almost enough reason to go outside sometime.

HA!

[Anonymous Coward]

Solar scooter? It'll never go fast enough to need brakes ;)

Bah

[Sophrosyne]

I will buy one when it runs on my cynicism and comes with an ipod holder.

Does it come with. . .

[idesofmarch]

solar-powered headlights?

penguins...?

[DustyShadow]

why are there linux penguins on an msn page?

Like Fred Flintstone...

[bizpile]

Hopefully the engineering community will take an interest, and add brakes to the blueprints..."

If it's solar powered, maybe your feet will be enough to stop.

asking the hard questions:

[tsch]

does insanity come with the scooter, or do you have to provide that yourself?

from their message board:

Well BioModers' - Yesterday we did it! - For the first time on Earth (as far as we know), a SOLAR ELECTRONIC VEHICLE traveled over 100 kilometers in one day - on the streets and roads of this planet!

... A Black family took offense at our efforts to hook up with a neighbors' socket after a deserted factories outlet had suspiciously failed. Earlier, an African electrician cab driver had examined the vehicle during a brief stop, and rushed away vibrating with revealed inspiration, a Chinese family as well. After a short hop, we got permission from a factory gardener to use his outlet, with a good sun exposure - and then the cops showed up! They claimed that someone had hopped over a nearby fence! But the rattled OIL OCCUPATION ARMY was no match for the assembled prayers of native circles meeting yesterday around the world!

...So there we were, in the gathering darkness, BLINDED by the oncoming lights of S.U.V.s', going the WRONG WAY down a one-way highway - right through the RED LIGHTS of major urban cross-highways, wiggling through and between oncoming traffic of the acursed MOTOR CARS and TRUCKS - to their complete SHOCK! ....I wouldn't have had it any other way! (emphasis mine) link to the post quoted [msn.com]

also, it looks like you have to log in to access the "files" part of their site.

Re:Why not just bike?

[Thunderstruck]

These bikes you mention, I've seen some that are solar powered too, they use cool biotech drive mechanisms to convert solar energy to chemical energy... then they burn the chemical energy and give off nothing but CO2, water, sweat, and depending on the means used to covert the solar energy, methane.

Re:Add chicks

[Anonymous Coward]

Q. What do a scooter and a fat chick have in common?

A. They're both fun to ride - but you wouldn't want your friends to see you on one!

$1600 CDN?

[shiftless]

What is that, like $12.89 USD?

hmmm...

[GreenKiwi]

so that's like what, $100 usd?

So that's how much in US dollars?

[Jardine]

Jokes about how much $1600 CDN is in US dollars in 3...2...1

(it's about $1255 according to xe.com's currency converter)

Re:Hey

[Achorny]

And in the sun, no less

Speed: The Slowmobile from Futurama

[Nova Express]

Why do I have the feeling that the speeds obtained by this solar scooter will rival those of the Slowmobile from the Bureaucracy ("How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back") episode of Futurama?

Bureaucrat: "Oh no, now you've got my slowmobile off course and I'm going to crash!"

Slowmobile moves very, very slowly into a pile of boxes over the next five seconds.

Bureaucrat (in mock fear): "Ahhhhhh."

Too slow

[Hash Browns]

At least with a gas powered scooter, you might be able to move fast enough to avoid getting beaten up.

Comic Book Guy

[div_B]

I will buy one when it runs on my cynicism and comes with an ipod holder.

CBG: A cynicism powered scooter? I really doubt that will ever-
[KA-BOOM!]

Bigot

[Anonymous Coward]

Highly impractical and only suited for pot-smoking hippies,

I'll have you know some of us pot-smokers proactively trash the environment, you insentive clod!

Um....

[Tablizer]

and if a big wind comes up, it doubles as a hang-glider

Re:$1600 CDN?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe you got Canadian modpoints.

Re:No methane?

[euxneks]

Everyone has a little methane in their somewhere. =P

Re:Hey

[polecat_redux]

I'll go outside as long as I don't have to get any exercise... this thing seems perfect. Ladies, here I come!

Re:Hey

[sporktoast]

It is a proven fact that most nerds spontaneously combust at the site of the sun.

I can't think of anything that wouldn't spontaneously combust at the site [reference.com] of the sun.