Smallist

This little electric motorcycle from Yamaha glows in the dark, and features iPod connections and controls. It has a 40km range and a top speed of 30km/h. Via MetaEfficient.

Air shows have that Nascar-with-wings vibe, so it’s not surprising to see motorhomes pressed into service. Here’s an airplane landing on a motorhome roof. It’s like an aircraft carrier for some future, escalated Hatfield-McCoy feud.

Ever wonder how much farther you can drive on empty? Justin Davis did, and he couldn’t get a straight answer from the car companies. So he’s using the magic of the internet. Via Consumerist.

In case you don’t want to check your boat at the airport, this inflatable catamaran will fit in a bag, weighs under 90 pounds, and seats two. And it looks quite seaworthy. Via Trendhunter.

AutoBlogGreen reports on the French designed Air Car, which may be coming to India soon. The company, MDI, also makes the above “MiniCat”, an air car in miniature format for city driving.

The killer advantage of air is that an equipped pumping station can “fuel” it in 2 minutes, just like gas. (Charging at home takes around 4 hours). I would wonder how efficient the compression process is, and most importantly, how loud this engine is. The 100 mile range isn’t fantastic either, though certainly fine for a commute, especially if air stations became prevalent. And finally, I’d be concerned about heat: compressing air generates quite a bit of it, no?

More pics of the little beauty here.

While it might sound like it has to do with adolescent-onset blindness, Stokemonkey is an electric bike conversion for a Xtracycle. Backing up a bit, an Xtracycle is a bike extension designed for hauling cargo. It’ll give you 30 miles per hour on level ground, and about 20 uphill. While the range can vary significantly, normal use provides about 50 miles between charges.

Extra kudos to the site for providing neat wattage information. For instance: a normal biker going 14 miles per hour uses about 100 watts of power. (That suggests the bike generator people are really sweatin’ it to get 200 watts.) Meanwhile, Lance Armstrong can provide about 500 watts for a burst of 20 minutes.

Via Metaefficient. Other electrics were previously discussed here.

The A-Z of Popular Scooters & Microcars looks like a fun read! The printing and typesetting look a bit cheap judging by the sample chapter [pdf] and cover, so it might not be coffee table material, but it seems to be pretty comprehensive. So if you’re into bubblespotting, this is your book.

Via AutoBlogGreen. Previous post on bubble cars.

Remember the Reva? We discussed its UK version, the G-Wiz, a while ago. Turns out it’s extremely bad in a crash. As in, hit a wall at 40 and you’re dead. In Europe, the little vehicles are classed as “quadracycles”, not cars, which means they’re not subject to the more stringent car regulations. The poor results of the Reva — and the likelihood of more quadracycles on the road — might just scare the EU to change things.

Via AutoBlogGreen.

Would you cross the Atlantic on this thing? I dunno, it seems to lack bathrooms. But Sun21 has just completed an Atlantic crossing on pure solar power. And not that tawdry second-hand “wind” stuff, they did it with good old fashioned pv panels. Looks like they ran at about 4 knots throughout the trip. That’s not quite enough to jet ski, but it’s a pretty decent clip, on par with a sailboat.

We’ve discussed another, similar cruiser before, the form of the DSe Hybrid, pictured below. But the DSe hasn’t been built yet — it’s currently in scale model form only.

The NYT covers electric bikes. At 20 miles per hour without pedaling, light pedaling to increase range and speed, and a few hours to charge, this could be a great way to get around. The Times article starts with the high-end “Optibike“, which costs around $7,000. For those of us with realistic budgets, the eZee bikes seem like a good buy — the folding model might even fit in the smallcave!

Also visit Suitable Transport, a site detailing a Melbourne to Sydney electric bicycle trip. Their bike of choice is the Schwinn World GSE.