If you love turning heads when you take a ride around town, then the Ryno electric unicycle is probably for you. Designer Chris Hoffmann had his eyes set on the Segway crowd when he started work on the Ryno, and he has come up with quite the interesting looking one-wheeled auto. The cost for a pre-production Ryno is a whopping $25,000 and Hoffmann already has five orders, but he expects the market model to cost about $3,500. The production model will have a top speed of 25 mph, a range of up to 30 miles and an impressive 25-inch thick tire. Hit the jump for video proof of this gadget in action!
Hoffman envisions his ride being used by patrolmen or guards who spend a lot of time walking back and forth over the same ground. Though Segways work fine, you’ve still got to stand up on them for your entire shift. The Ryno would just require you to do a bit of a balancing act while at work, and at least you get a seat. The sheer oddity of the thing might also be an asset, if thieves saw a patrolmen scooting around on one wheel late at night, they might be too stunned to try to break in. Hoffman doesn’t make pretenses that anyone is going to try to ride this guy as their sole mode of transportation and says on his website that it is a complement to whatever duel or quad-wheeled auto you already own.
The folks over at Engadget had a chance to ride the Ryno and said that it was surprisingly sturdy — thanks in large part to its very large tire. In the video above, the Ryno scoots around Pioneer Square in Portland, Oregon dodging pedestrians and parked cars like a pro. In addition to be electrically powered, this little guy uses a lot less materials than a Segway would, for starters it only has one wheel.
+ Ryno
Via Engadget
