Electric Skateboard Reaches Neck-Breaking Speeds

March 10, 2016 by James Hobson 25 Comments

[Mischo Erban], a Canadian speed-freak, just broke a world record on an electric skateboard. 59.55mph! That’s almost 100km/h.

We’ve covered a lot of electric skateboards over the years, as well as some commercial versions — like the Boosted Board, one of the few actual Kickstarter success stories — and of course, people have hacked them as well. But this board from Next Generation Vehicles (NGV), seems to have taken speed to the next level.

Made by a Slovenian tech startup, the board features direct drive motors built into custom wheels. The article is a bit light on details, but we imagine they must be a few kW each in order to reach those speeds. No mention of a range (we can’t imagine it’d be very far at those speeds), but it is just a prototype.

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University Attempts To Break 3D Printing World Record

April 5, 2014 by James Hobson 83 Comments

lulz

LeTourneau University attempted to set a 3D printing Guinness World Record yesterday. They had 50 3D printers print the same thing at the same time. Impressive? Kind of, but not really.

LulzBot — our favorite 3D printer company — saw this and thought “that’s cute — we run over 50 printers a day on a normal basis!”. So just for lulz, they decided to film a little counter-record video featuring 109 LulzBot 3D printers running simultaneously.

To be honest, we kinda feel sorry for LeTourneau University — but it looks like LulzBot really takes the cake here. The university has a really cool policy for their engineering students though — all incoming freshmen students are required to build their own 3D printer for school. Whoa! To be honest it is a really cool way to force you to get out of your comfort zone and learn a bit about several different engineering disciplines.

To follow along the discussion and status of the record, a thread is going on over at 3Dprintboard.com. Stick around to see the video of LulzBot’s drool worthy server racks filled with identical printers.

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Land Speed Baby Carriage Record Set At 53 Mpg

January 21, 2013 by Mike Szczys 25 Comments

53-mpg-baby-carriage

Let’s face it, you’ll never break the motorcycle land speed record without a stellar engineering team and some serious corporate sponsorship. But this build proves that individuals can still set other speed records. [Colin Furze] rode his motorized baby carriage over the 53 mile per hour mark to set a the world’s record. We were surprised to learn it only took him about one month and $750 to build the infant death machine.

The design appears to take a page from the commercial lawnmower industry. We say that because the driver rides along on a little tow dolly behind the carriage itself. All of the controls are mounted within easy reach of the T-bar steering mechanism. There are a couple of rockers for his thumbs which actuate the gas and brakes. Red push buttons just below the handlebars are used for up and down shifting with a third button used as a kill switch. The only thing missing from the write up is video footage of the actual 53mph run. We guess you’ll just have to take his word for it.

[via Dvice]

Wooden Bike Hopes To Set World Record, Not Catch Fire

April 28, 2011 by Mike Nathan 21 Comments

splinterbike

[Michael Thompson] has been hard at work for well over six months building a bicycle made entirely of wood. The project started as a bet between two friends, and has become much more over the last few months. The SplinterBike, as it is being called, has been constructed solely from wooden parts, as well as glue and paint – but not much else.

The bike uses many different woods in its construction, each chosen to fulfill a particular purpose. The axles are made from hardwood ekki, while all of the gears, wheels, and frame parts were constructed from birch plywood. Oiled ironwood was chosen to serve as a replacement for metal bearings wherever moving parts came together due to its durability. Other parts were constructed with random scraps that [Michael] had sitting around in the shop, such as the handlebars which were cut from an old broomstick.

Now that the bike is complete, [Michael] and his friend [James] are gearing up to set a wooden bike land speed world record. It should be doable, as they have calculated that the bike should hit about 31 miles per hour provided [James] can pedal fast enough. A date for the record attempt has yet to be set, but keep an eye out – it’s likely to be an entertaining show.

[via Gizmodo]