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18-Year-Old Invents Bad Ass Electric Bike to Combat Pollution

May 6, 2008

Cliched as it sounds, sometimes the youth really does have a fresh creative edge over the rest of the population. 18 year old Ben Gulak of Canada has spent the last few years creating a futuristic looking electric bike designed to reduce pollution. That’s right, he’s been working on this thing since he was a mere 14-15 years old.

The Telegraph has it:

Although it resembles a unicycle, the Uno has two wheels side by side and uses gyroscopic technology to stay upright.

Ben Gulak, 18, spent several years building the machine. The rider leans forward to accelerate to speeds of 25mph, and backwards to slow down.

Mr Gulak, from Canada, said: “I was inspired to make the bike after visiting China a few years ago and seeing all the smog. They all drive little bikes that are really polluting and I wanted to make something to combat that.”

Weighing 120lb, the bike is light enough to be taken indoors to be charged up, and runs for 2.5 hours.

Don’t you want one? When I saw the photo, the ‘Jetsons’ theme song instantly started playing in my head. When I was a little girl, I was under the impression that by the time I was in my 20’s we’d be living in a Jetsons-style futuristic world, and of course we’re nowhere near that, but cool inventions like this make it seem closer. I just hope that more of the inventions to come are as eco-friendly as this one.

Link [The Telegraph]

Photo credit: Motorcycle Mojo