Pedal at Highway Speeds with the RAHT Racer

Sweet.

Bring the price down $20,000-30,000 and let’s talk financing.

Incredibly dumb. Human power is only a tiny fraction of the power of the electric motor so it adds almost no benefit. If the battery dies, try pedaling a 570lb machine. The human power component was added to make it seem more “green” when it is really just an electric car with an exercise bike inside. There are already electric cars with better range, horsepower,and more interior space at the price range mentioned (Ford Focus electric, for instance). And you don’t have to pretend to be pedaling them either.

Now if you want to address weather concerns, try a velomobile. Unfortunately, velomobiles suffer from taking up too much space and are too slow to mix with car traffic under most conditions.

The swiss have been building and selling “twikes” for 18y. They are a bit slower but have a range between charges of about 500km. This one fall short with only 50mi/80km. This is deceiving, especially in 2015. I would have expected at least 150 to 200km of range for this to be interesting.

I think it’s awesome but….

-To market to bike riders wouldn’t something more like a velomobile be more appealing for the reasons mentioned by other people above.

-To market to non-bike riders wouldn’t it be more appealing WITHOUT the pedal function?

This really is an electric motorcycle.

It looks incredible, although I wouldn’t buy one (don’t have need where I live).

As someone who despises cars and petroleum, I thought this was a cool project. In less than five years we’ll have automated electric cars in progressive areas. I’d love to see that take over all cars – just have highways for automated cars and leave back roads to bicycles and other self propelled vehicles. Just like in parts of the Netherlands where people take a bike to and from the train station and don’t use cars at all. Imagine that, car free back roads, safe highways and no car exhaust pollution.

The pedal assist in this thing seems to be just a rule beater. If it’s classified as an E-bike instead of an electric automobile, it gets around a lot of Federal and state safety equipment requirements.

Have the creators seen the Elio? http://www.eliomotors.com/

They have to know they are competing with vehicles like this and not with pedal power vehicles, and the delta MSRP makes for a very unconvincing argument (for the RAHT racer).

I had a similar idea a few years ago but without the pedaling. Ultra Light Electric Vehicles would be an awesome alternative to the gas-a-sorous led sleds we drive now.

http://www.coroflot.com/chrisdaisy/ULEV

Shut up everyone,I can’t hear my 9.0 L suv humming…

It doesn’t make much sense on any level, but whatever. I doubt that anyone who actually coughs up $35-45k for this thing is going to ever bother pedaling it. The pedals really need to drive the wheels directly so you can at least get home when the battery runs out. Sitting in a 7-Eleven parking lot pedaling your guts out for two hours just so you can generate enough juice to get home isn’t going to go over well with anyone.

I agree with Dave B. This is a regulation dodge, pure and simple. Anyone who would pedal it would just get a much cheaper velomobile. Anyone that buys one at that price will pedal it for the first few trips, then eventually get lazy and just rely on the battery power.

Anything above 750 Watts is defined as a MOTORCYCLE. It has to meet motorcycle regulations and be insured and you’ll need a motorcycle license.

PSI-The article stated clearly it was funded with a grant from the State of Minnesota.
I am certain 95% or more of all things on this site are privately funded enterprise. I salute anyone with the balls to do that. I abhor welfare for companies, especially when they a clearly risky ideas benefitting from PC ideology.

For that amount of cash you have a BMW i3 and some a nice Nomad.

A simple pedalec drive would make more sense.

Here we go, range anxiety and safety being trotted out again. Bigger does not necessarily mean safer, a bigger vehicle is less maneuverable and so is more likely to have an accident in the first place.

The main advantage if this vehicle is that it a narrow tracked vehicle. It already requires 1/4 the power of a typical “small car”. And also, you can fit twice as many of them in each lane, that’s a game changer.

The concept is not new. I thought of it more than a decade ago. I lacked the finances to make the prototype. The pedaling would be geared up to a ratio of 9:1. I was working on doubling that before installing it into the system. The Raht racer is heavier than I would want, but the concept is sound. Humans turn the generator, which feeds the battery, which powers the vehicle.

BTW, the Elio still uses gas, and the production date has been delayed for the $6800th time.

Thinking outside the box I can see how amplification works, for example, I have a 750 watt Electric bike, If I put a load on to the bike it becomes difficult to rise even in first gear, lets say the weight of the laod is my 152 lbs, and my load is 64 lbs, well trying to pedal that weight with out a motr would be difficult, if I add the 750 watt motor to the bike, then I can safely and easily haul the combined weight. in essence my use of the pedals, with pedals assist has in effect multiplied my power.

People when they speak of human pedal power at 250 watts or so, they are not taking in to consideration that the bike motor is doing the work as you pedal, it is in effect amplifying human power.

how ever there is one draw back. the cadance sensor is acting like a magnetically activated switch. And I can demonstrate that when I can rotate the crank and a slow speed and the bike ramps upm this is true for all electric bikes that use a cadance censor so to be honest the motor is doing all the work still. you just have the bennifit of changing the speed assist.

Speed assist cuts the power to a sesired speed you are looking for. you could use the speed assist as a form of well electronic gearing.

what you have created is not just a fast car, but also a pedal powered generator that could be used as a form of back up power to a home.
Facinating. I wish you well on you endevors, and it takes people sho say your crazy it can not be done to get it done.