The Self-Balancing Electric Unicycle: Silly or Innovative?
Are you an electric vehicle-loving balance guru? Then you should get in line for Focus Design’s self-balancing unicycle (SBU). The unicycle can blaze down the street at 8.5 MPH, and can go for 12 miles on a single charge. At 25 pounds, it can easily be carried to a charging station.
The unicycle rider controls the vehicle’s speed by leaning forwards or backwards to go faster or stop. There are no pedals—only foot rests.
According to Focus Designs, even balance-challenged riders may fare reasonably well on the SBU. The vehicle stays upright using “accelerometers and gyroscopes with sophisticated balancing algorithms”. Riders will need to stay at least partially upright by themselves, though—the company says that the SBU is about half as difficult to ride as a regular unicycle.
The SBU is coming out in limited production next month for $1,500. If you’re interested, start boning up on your interview skills now— the first ten buyers will be chosen on the basis of order date and the quality of a personal interview.
Will the release of the SBU spawn an electric unicycle trend? Probably not. But it’s definitely a fun addition to the rapidly growing canon of electric vehicles.
Photo Credit: Gearlog
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October 21st, 2008 at 9:48 am
I dont know if a unicycle will catch on majorly, but electric bikes are really popular right now both the off road varieties as well as the kind where you fit an electric motor to your bicycle.
October 21st, 2008 at 11:14 am
get a bicycle people – exercise promotes good feelings.
October 21st, 2008 at 11:15 am
segway?
October 21st, 2008 at 11:23 am
I live in Boulder, CO and I can see myself whipping around town everyday on one. What a great idea. Not entirely practical, but it would turn heads without a doubt.
October 21st, 2008 at 11:31 am
So it’s a one wheel segway, without the handlebars.
October 21st, 2008 at 12:00 pm
“the company says that the SBU is about half as easy to ride as a regular unicycle.”
Please tell me that this there should be a ‘twice’ instead of a ‘half’ – I can’t see anyone wanting to make unicycle riding more difficult
October 21st, 2008 at 12:04 pm
“…the company says that the SBU is about half as easy to ride as a regular unicycle.” Doesn’t that mean that it’s more difficult to ride? Twice as difficult, actually? One would hope that a self-balancing unicycle would be twice as easy to ride as a regular unicycle. ;]
Cool idea! Everybody seems to be jumping on-board the electric motor bandwagon.
October 21st, 2008 at 1:29 pm
It’s half as easy to ride as a regular unicycle? A standard unicycle is hard enough.
October 21st, 2008 at 2:41 pm
I like to ride my human powered unicycle in triathlons while wizzing the cheese.
With this baby, I could focus my efforts on wizzing the cheese while the electric motor does the other work.
Genius.
October 21st, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Silly or innovative? I’ll cast my vote for silly.
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:43 pm
[...] this week’s news of an upcoming self-balancing electric unicycle was certainly exciting (and strange), KTM’s announcement today about its electric off-road [...]
November 6th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
how about poser lol why would you wanta pretend you could ride a unicycle
November 16th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
wow…just fantastic bycicle))) I like it
December 1st, 2008 at 6:23 pm
If you like this then check out the “enicycle” from Slovenia. It is much better, has a novel steering system and he is trying to get funding to put it into production. He is far too modest and so only has around 1000 hits on his youtube vid. Watch him ride it around a shopping mall, down a corridor and into his office (with his arms down by his side).
July 20th, 2009 at 4:00 am
Sweet, a unisegway. This would pwn on Like a Pierott.
December 21st, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Silly or Innovative? Both actually.
Check out the video of Adam Savage riding the SBU (self-balancing unicycle) for the first time: http://focusdesigns.com/2009/12/21/adam-savage-sbu/