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posted by CoolHand on Thursday October 13 2016, @11:52AM   Printer-friendly
from the motorrad-uber-alles dept.

The motorcycle of the future is so safe riders can cruise without helmet—all of the thrills with none of the danger—according to BMW.

The German automaker unveiled on Tuesday its Motorrad Vision Next 100, a sleek, self-balancing prototype the company released as part of its 100th anniversary celebrations.

The zero-emissions bike has self-balancing wheels designed to stand upright even at a complete stop, stability that the company says will allow riders to forgo riding a helmet.

"Its self-balancing system will help protect the rider at any time," said Edgar Heinrich, the design director of BMW's motorcycle division. "Any late reaction from the driver will trigger and the vehicle will balance out."

"In the future, motorcycle riders will be able to enjoy riding without protective gear."

The TRON light cycle is almost here.


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  • (Score: 2) by fliptop on Thursday October 13 2016, @04:31PM

    by fliptop (1666) on Thursday October 13 2016, @04:31PM (#413957) Journal

    If you ride enough, you will crash

    This. I've put mine down twice, both times to avoid a collision w/ a deer. I've had some close calls in traffic but after riding a while you start to recognize a potentially dangerous situation and learn how to best make yourself seen, or even avoid them altogether.

    --
    Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
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  • (Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Friday October 14 2016, @12:12AM

    by art guerrilla (3082) on Friday October 14 2016, @12:12AM (#414121)

    i wonder if deer aren't a bigger problem than we generally know...
    hell, they take out enough cars as it is...
    (not to mention, the factoid -if you didn't know- that deer are the number one killer of human beans on the planet...
    not poisonous snakes, not hippos, not crocs, not sharks, but bambi... true story...)
    since we don't let cougars and wolves do their thing, the deer overrun a LOT of places like rats...
    it is scary enough to imagine hitting one with a regular vehicle, taking one on with a motorcycle sounds like a thousand kinds of hurt...

    • (Score: 2) by fliptop on Friday October 14 2016, @01:19AM

      by fliptop (1666) on Friday October 14 2016, @01:19AM (#414134) Journal

      it is scary enough to imagine hitting one with a regular vehicle, taking one on with a motorcycle sounds like a thousand kinds of hurt...

      Both times it was dark out. The 1st was around 12:30am, I came around a curve and he was just standing in the middle of the road. I went into the ditch, but couldn't coax the bike back up out of it and went down. I wasn't going fast and was OK. Bike was banged up but I was able to ride home. Second time it was about 6am and foggy, it jumped out of the road on my left and then turned and sort-of ran along side me a little bit, in the other lane for oncoming traffic, then turned and jumped back the way he came. I was startled by the suddenness of it that I again hit the ditch on the right side instinctively trying to avoid it. Luckily there was a ditch at that spot b/c the road was on top of a hill, and there's a stretch of road just before that spot w/ a guardrail and steep drop-off. It took some time to swallow my heart back down after that one. I was a little banged up but OK, and was able to limp the bike home.

      --
      Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.