Buy Your Own Tron Lightcycle For $35,000 170
ElectricSteve writes "The lightcycle scene was probably the most memorable part of an absolutely jaw-dropping movie when Tron was released in 1982. One of the first films to use the kinds of computer-generated special effects that later become commonplace, it was a glimpse into a whole new world that left an indelible impression on most who saw it. Now, as Disney prepares to release Tron Legacy, a sequel some 28 years after the original, the lightcycles are back and looking meaner than ever. Built by the same guys who did the memorable Batpod replica, the new lightcycles feature massive dual hubless wheels, carbon fiber/fiberglass bodies, and all the lashings of neon that you'd expect. And there will be five running models built — all of which are now up for sale on eBay for a cool $35,000."
Yes, but... (Score:2)
...can it be compressed down to just a handle, as seen in the (fucking amazing) Tron Legacy trailer?
Now if this generates the wall trails... (Score:2)
Now.
..ooOO(Imagines taking this on the downtown connector area in Atlanta)
Blech... (Score:2)
Lets hope (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I think you meant 'than'.
Re: (Score:2)
What are you talking about? The A-Team movie was great. They fly a TANK by using the recoil of the main gun rounds. They play a shell game with cargo containers. They break Murdoch out while the looney ward is watching the A-Team. What is there NOT to like?
I want one, but... (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Not to mention the littering tickets you'd rack up from the walls of solid light you'd keep leaving behind you...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
How are they going to catch you to give you a ticket when you have a bike that can make 90 degree turns at two hundred miles per hour? Pull the ambulance over?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
If you are dead, it is not your problem, is it ?
Re: (Score:2)
You wouldn't have to only worry about the hospital bill. There's the EMT that declares you dead at the scene.
So, hospital bill problem solved?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Not really, they'll probably charge you morgue rent until you're transferred out.
As someone who worked as a cemetary caretaker (Now, THAT's an interview icebreaker for your resume), I know of some places that did effectively charge for that.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
This isn't something to ride, even though it is apparently street legal. This is to park next to your limited edition Batman car, guarded over by your life-size Alien replica, as the focal points of the tasting room of your climate controlled wine cellar... Also, there are strippers nearby.
At least, that's what I'm doing with mine, just as soon as I gather up my loose change...
Re: (Score:2)
You know what, now that you mention it, forget the cycle, car, replica and wine. I think I'll just go with the strippers.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Also there is the funeral cost.
There's no funeral, but I wonder what they charge to derez you?
It'll look cool (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It'll look cool (Score:5, Funny)
I'm a middle-aged geek, but luckily I'm not fat. However, I can't ride a motorcycle.
Just how cool would I look sliding sideways down the freeway on this thing with bits of melted Spandex and skin trailing behind me?
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Just how cool would I look sliding sideways down the freeway on this thing with bits of melted Spandex and skin trailing behind me?
Cool enough that the resulting YouTube video might help fund my retirement. Please let me know where and when, and I'll make sure to have my video camera. Thanks.
PS: This is in no way an endorsement for you to do it. There won't be enough income from the YouTube video to even begin covering your medical costs, so I don't want any share of the liability. But if you happen to do it, just let me know when and where, OK?
Re: (Score:2)
Hah! I'm Canadian, so the medical costs are irrelevant.
Of course, I'm also A) a coward and B) don't have $35K hanging around doing nothing.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh shut up. Why are you preaching about medicare in a Tron thread?
It was a joke.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:It'll look cool (Score:5, Funny)
I am trying hard not to picture it being ridden by a fat middle aged geek wearing a skin tight spandex body suit.
You mean like this guy [wordpress.com]?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
at least he finally listened to his critics and started wearing a cup. (shudder)
Re: (Score:2)
How's about an elderly Geek wearing a bathrobe and sweatpants?
Re: (Score:2)
Wrong show...that's more of the basic Tony Soprano look.
Re: (Score:2)
Does it include... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
A lot of motorcycle drivers will never "get" counter-steering - to them it's counter-intuitive. That it's actually safer in a curve (because you can lay the bike down really low, and if it slips, you can recover better because it straightens out the line between your center of gravity and where the rubber meets the road - I know, not a great explanation - just do it!) than the conventional method is lost on them.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Except that counter steering is not counter steering when you're trying to counter steer something where the wheels are 300mm (or whatever those monstrosities are) and your center of gravity appears to be about 8 inches off the ground. Not to mention, the riding position appears to have the riders arms almost at full extension. Looks like a death trap to me.
Please explain the appeal of Tron to me (Score:4, Interesting)
I was a 16 year old geek when Tron came out. It bored me to tears and I forgot about it as soon as I walked out of the theater. The new Tron Legacy trailer looks every bit as dumb. What am I missing here?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Now, I'm not saying you're wrong or anything, but be grateful the mods don't have at their disposal an option for "-1, Heresy". [aforementioned option would also likely be liberally applied within comments on stories about Linux]
Re: (Score:2)
They really need a -1, Heresy mod. Or maybe even a -2 or -3.
"It bored me to tears..."
No geek card for the grandparent!
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
How about a +-0 Heresy mod - it doesn't affect karma, but we get to vent.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Imagination?
Re:Please explain the appeal of Tron to me (Score:5, Funny)
I was a 16 year old geek when Tron came out. It bored me to tears and I forgot about it as soon as I walked out of the theater. The new Tron Legacy trailer looks every bit as dumb. What am I missing here?
Probably some portion of your frontal lobe. Maybe it's a congenital defect, or the result of some early trauma. It's ok, don't worry about it. You can still lead a fulfilling life despite your disability. Really, we shouldn't even consider it a disability; let's just call it neurodiversity.
Re:Please explain the appeal of Tron to me (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
You might've been too old.
No, he was 16; the age when lack of explosions, blood, or boobs meant any movie was "meh". My father was in his late thirties at the time and liked it. My brother and I were obsessed with it, but weren't allowed to buy the light-cycle toys. :(
Not made for the movie (Score:3, Informative)
The summary was a unclear to me -- these weren't built for or affiliated with the movie in any way, these were simply built based on the specs of the models built for the movie.
Re: (Score:2)
$35k seems like a steal to me.
(Assuming they can deliver, which I"m not too sure about...)
great timing (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's on par or cheaper than the nicer Harley's
Akira Please (Score:3, Insightful)
The only bike I want is Kaneda's bike.
Re:Akira Please (Score:4, Informative)
here you go [bbakira.co.uk]
With a Tron cycle and suit, babes will love you (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Everyday street use. Really? (Score:2)
Re:Everyday street use. Really? (Score:5, Interesting)
From the Ebay listing it says these bikes are designed for everyday street use. If that's the case, how the hell is that bike supposed to turn? There appears to be no way for the front wheel to steer. Anyone have any idea how the hell this would work?
The Ebay listing is a testament to one part wishful thinking, one part overconfidence, and two parts willful fraud.
The photos is the listing are of the non-functional movie promo prop, not anything these guys are selling, or even OWN.
For the bikes to be street legal, then by definition can't look anything like the movie bikes because they need things like headlights, turn signals, etc.
The best part is the claim that the bikes will be ready in 6-8 weeks...RIGHT!!
I'll believe these guys aren't trying to outright steal from gullible people as soon as they can show a photo of something they didn't just scrape from Tron movie promotions.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If you don't think you turn the handlebars, I encourage you to take Keith Code's superbike school and attempt to turn the motorcycle he created to disprove this notion (the steering head is welded in place).
You actually counter steer quite a bit, especially at full lean at high speed.
Re: (Score:2)
Close.
Motorcycles are counter steered at speed. You turn the bars opposite to the direction you wish to turn, then lean into the corner. Keith Code (Keith Code superbike school) had to take a bike and weld the steering head in place to prove this to people who kept insisting your statement was true.
You are correct in that racing bikes have a limited steering angle, but it's in the neighborhood of 35 degrees in either direction (depending on the bike, my Ducati 900ss was notorious for needing 3-point turns i
Re: (Score:2)
In my experience (not as credible as yours, but 20yrs on the street including a stint as a messenger in DC), the amount of counter-steer needed is minimal. Often just a whisper of pressure on the inside hand will induce a turn. I totally believe, though haven't tried, the welded headset trick works fine, but probably requires more pressure to actually force the lean..
From my observations, the counter steering is just to move the front wheel out from under the center of gravity thus inducing lean and subsequ
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The point of the welded steering head at his school is that you can't turn the motorcycle without turning the front wheel. The only way it turns is if you decrease speed enough that it's basically trying to fall over.
As you lean, the position of the front wheel in relation to the frame is not constant - you're still counter-steering, but in a less efficient manor.
The reason he created the exercise was to show people that focusing on putting input into the handlebars is the way to turn a motorcycle - everyth
Re: (Score:2)
Only once, about 10 years ago ... I think it was a combined CCS and FUSA event.
We were based out of DE, so that was a long haul for us. I've raced just about everywhere else East of the Mississippi.
That was 28 years ago ? (Score:3, Funny)
Driving? (Score:2)
The pilot; part of the frame? (Score:3, Interesting)
Fakes (Score:2)
Seriously, are these images of actual hardware, or 3D models?
Won't be good for Europe. (Score:2)
In the US you have this rd/st system with roads crisscrossing at right angles.
In Europe, most cities grew as defensive fortresses, with new layers of city walls, and later beltways added as more rings around the center, with roads to/from the old city market and in circle around it.
So unless someone's gonna upgrade the light cycle firmware to run on polar coordinates vs cartesian, they won't do much good in Europe.
Re:Why bother? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
I think one of the reasons that the original Tron still looks so good is because most of the effects are not CGI.
Re: (Score:2)
I prefer the old hand-painted miniatures approach, ala the original first few Star Trek movies. Their special effects have aged well, but other early CGI has not. I think one of the reasons that the original Tron still looks so good is because most of the effects are not CGI.
Same thing with Star Wars. Ever notice how the "Special Souped-up versions" (Jabba in A New Hope) now look dated compared to the originals? Pretty soon, episodes 1,2,3 will look old too.
Re: (Score:2)
1,2 and 3 look old now. Where the studio floor ends and the green-screen begins is quite easily identified if you pay attention to the background.
Re: (Score:2)
I always thought that artsy snobs would actually at least tolerate films with no plot anyway (stuff like 2001: A Space Odyssey springs to mind).
Whippersnapper! (Score:5, Insightful)
Your UID suggests you should get off my lawn. :D
Those of us who were kids when it came out loved it, and the sequel (not a remake) seems well timed, to me. The movie was not a plotless dud, it was a kinda-confusing people-didn't-get-it (and a couple of plot holes didn't help) dud in the box office. TRON was redeemed by cable TV, VHS, and DVD.
And the cycles kick ass. So, get off my lawn :D
Re:Lawn! (Score:2)
Can we get some custom mowers that short when they're not mowing every second, and try to box each other into mowed lines on your lawn?
Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)
I'm old too. My first computer work was in the Air Force, as a computer operator on a Burroughs mainframe running MCP. (trivia bit, MCP was the bad guy, and the GFX were rendered on a Burroughs mainframe)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't doubt that I was wrong, but I do remember reading that fact when Tron came out in 1982. They probably had it mixed up since they used it's OS, MCP, as a character.
Re: (Score:2)
20 years?
Doesn't the EVO have a 1Ghz processor on it and runs Android, a flavor of Linux? Sounds to me like we could render CG on a phone NOW. (Albeit slowly)
Heck, my Palm Pre with a 500Mhz Processor can play 3D games, I'd bet good money it could render CG given enough time and the properly optimized software.
Re: (Score:2)
I remember not being that impressed, too.
For one thing the personification of software irked me. I also found the jargon strange, especially their frequent reference to the "user". I found the term nauseating, awkward and stupid.
The irony that I use the term all the time now is a nagging reminder to tone down my judgmental tendencies.
In conclusion, Disney sucks at sci-fi.
Still, maybe someday I should watch Tron on a color tv.
Re:Why bother? (Score:4, Interesting)
Tron wasn't sci-fi, and wasn't trying to be. It was pure fantasy. It was based on the idea that there is a whole world inside of computers where programs interact like people and bits float around saying "yes" and "no". Worrying about things like how an accounting program can be made to compete in gladiatorial games without being modified, or how bits could be floating around individually when every program would have to be made of bits and there'd need to be more of them than existed in computers of the day is besides the point. It'd be like having a movie where you can go to a magical school for wizards after walking through the wall at the subway, then worrying about how they can make brooms fly.
The fantasy nature of the movie really struck me when I re-watched it for the first time in 20 years. Sure I remembered liking the movie as a kid but I had very little in the way of expectations. And I found that because of its fantasy nature it worked way better than just about any sci-fi movie that tried to show computers "realistically" and utterly failed*.
Once I accepted that it was a fantasy world, I found it fascinating. Especially the idea of the programs having a religion based on the "user" as their gods (little did they know what an unworthy god they worshiped), and even more fascinating an "atheist" movement which denied that the "user" and the world outside of the computer even existed. Also interesting was how outside of the digitizing machine, everything shown about computers in the real world was completely normal. The giant spinning vortex of the MCP inside the computer was just a simple text interface on the outside. It'd be kinda like Harry Potter if magic simply didn't exist outside of Hogwarts.
Anyway, I say give it a another shot, and go in realizing you're watching computer-based fantasy, not sci-fi.
* Major contemporaneous exception: Wargames!
Re: (Score:2)
It was science fiction. Science fiction is merely fantasy enabled by a fantastic scientific invention. Think about it. Even the most technologically mundane of the science fiction genre is a nerds' fantasy of what might happen given a specific fantastic advance in technology.
Entire human-replica societies inside computers and other dimensions is nothing new to science fiction.
Re: (Score:2)
There's a big difference between a virtual world implemented as software and possibly populated by software AIs (Neuromancer, Snow Crash, Matrix), and postulating that non-AI software and even bits themselves are sentient entities that roam about in a world that isn't simulated on a computer, but is the computer.
It's no more fantasy than Hellraiser is because of the mechanical puzzle box, or Her Majesty's Wizard is sci-fi because the protagonist creates a monofilament blade with poetry. The mere presence o
Re: (Score:2)
Absolutely spot-on. The ending, with a time-lapse view of the streets from the Encom building as night falls and you see the cars flowing through these circuits, really affected me as a kid. Sometimes, complexity is all about perspective.
In retrospect, it's even more funny that the big cash-cow and policy maker, at a company with a functioning matter digitizer/teleporter, is a vector-art video game. :)
Sneakers was pretty good too apart from the encryption hand-waving that was necessary for the story (but ev
Re: (Score:2)
"Tron wasn't sci-fi, and wasn't trying to be. It was pure fantasy."
When I was a kid, those fuzzy, black-light posters were real popular. I had several in my bedroom, all of them some sort of D&Dish, Boris Vallejo-type, fantasy scene.
I actually had a few dreams that were visually very close to the posters, dreams in a world of solid blacks and heavily contrasting colors, almost neon in their purity.
I was totally flabbergasted when I saw Tron for the first time. It looked very much like my dreams.
space paranoids 2000 (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
You mean they too it out where you saw it?
Re: (Score:2)
Tron was a Disney film, which somehow still went out on a bit of a political limb and made a statement about whether 'religious' experiences (in the cyberworld), might have a rational underlying explanation, and how many generations of time (at cyberworld speeds) might imbue mundane physical and pragmatic events with a religious symbolic venier. Still Disney left it as a rather complex and multi-leveled theme rather than dumb it down to Rah-Rah "Flynn is Jesus" total oblivion. They too the time to introduc
Re: (Score:2)
I think that Disney films tend to be less about plot and more about adventure in a new world. And Tron delivers on that in volumes.
This.
Disney neither claimed to be high cinema, nor high drama with bullet-proof plots. It was *FUN* to watch.
Re: (Score:2)
And young man goes on journey, sees many exotic things, meets new people who think differently than his native tribe, and experiences some maturing specifically because of travel is a whole type of story in itself, one that traditionally stops about when the young man puts down roots back home and doesn't traditionally try to answer the questions of how he will use his newfound knowledge after he resolves the conflict that drove him to travel in the first place.
There's probably plenty of valid criti
Re: (Score:2)
More like (-1, Offtopic)if you insist on wasting points to mod down but if posted in the iPhone discussion, (5, Insightful)
Re:Awful Original/Great Remake: Battlestar Galacti (Score:2)
I thought the Battlestar Galactica movie (which I saw for the first time only a couple years ago) is actually pretty good.
Re: (Score:2)
Remake with shakey cam? No thanks.
Re: (Score:2)
That's their Batpod, I don''t think they've actually built the Tron bikes yet.
Re: (Score:2)
The "Honda Yamaha Kawasaki Suzuki Harley" part is so that this item is listed for anyone who searches those terms.
Re: (Score:2)
The bike looks cool. Their marketing blurb beneath the pic is a bunch of buzzword laden hooey.
Re: (Score:2)
It sure can! In fact, it does four of them at once!
Re:But...not with you on it (Score:3, Interesting)
Anybody remember a TV show called Automan. He had a car that did 90 degree turns "like pacman" but it was hard on the human occupant...
Re: (Score:2)
Wiki even has an article on it. [wikipedia.org] I loved it, and was about 14 at the time.
Before we judge, et's not forget the TV knockoff.. (Score:2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automan [wikipedia.org]
Seriously, with all the plot issues of Tron, it was still light years ahead of that...
Re: (Score:2)
Yep. Waaaaay too cheap (Score:2)
$350k would be more believable (as a reference, West Coast Choppers charges well over $100,000 for one of their bikes and they've got a production line going for most of the parts).
Either they're doing it at a massive loss just to get famous or the thing you end up with will look nothing like the pics (more likely).
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, it's $35k for a nice Harley, so if they can actually get these on the road for that I'd be more than impressed.