| Posted: September 14, 2007 |
Nanotechnology battery-propelled motorcycle crash |
| (Nanowerk News) It's Slow News Friday time! A while back we brought you a story about how a nanotechnology battery propels motorcycle from 0 to 60 mph in under 1.5 seconds. Well, it's not named KillaCycle for nothing. This week, the inventor of the KillaCycle almost killed himself during a demonstration at the Wired NextFest conference. |
| Using A123 Systems lithium-ion batteries, the KillaCycle can go zero to 60 miles-per-hour in a mind numbing 0.97 seconds and has a top speed of 158 mph. |
| Bill Dube, a government scientist during the day and electric bike builder at night, did a “burn out” in front of the Los Angeles Convention Center, but accidentally accelerated too much and crashed into a Minivan. Watch the insane acceleration in a YouTube video: |
| Luckily, Bill is ok. As he writes in his blog: |
| First off, I’m just a bit scraped up. Emabarrassed of course. I had not intended the bike to move in the soapy water, just spin the tire. |
| Got it slowed down to about 20 mph. Front wheel is bent, as are front forks. Cowling is not nearly as pretty as it was. Battery box took a hit from the front wheel. Almost certainly, some cells were shorted. No smoke. No fire. Ultra safe cells. Had these been anything but A123 Systems Nano-phosphate cells, shorts would have caused a serious fire. |
| No major damage. We will have is fixed in short order. |
| Yes, I am an idiot. :-/ |
