Electro-Rat

Some newcomers to the Rat Patrol have begun to take things in a new direction. Paul's specialty is mobile audio, and Todd rigged up a mobile FM radio station on a trailer for use on Critical Mass rides. Here's one of Todd's latest creations, the electro-rat. This bike's Whispering Wheel motor makes absolutely no noise. With the batteries disguised (say, in the false bed of a trailer for the Tour Da Chicago) there's almost no indication that this bike has a motor. Yet it can get up to 45 mph! He chopped out the rear triangle a bit to accommodate that small wheel (smaller wheels = more efficient) and made his own batteries. It weighs 60 pounds and has a throttle on the right drop. I find it a bit too fast for its crappy, trash-bike front brake. But I wholly endorse the idea of cobbling together trash to make a vehicle that can get around town faster than anything else AND evades certain legal issues by being a vehicle without precedent (most electric vehicles being too slow to require a license and helmet, for example)

Johnny 7:56 PM