You're looking at a motorcycle.
Two wheels, a closed cabin, and no way to put your feet down at a red light. I'm designing and building one, and this is where it gets documented.
Two wheels, a closed cabin, and no way to put your feet down at a red light. I'm designing and building one, and this is where it gets documented.
It leans into corners like any bike, but you sit inside it, behind glass, with a roof over your head and a seatbelt across your chest. Below walking speed two small outrigger wheels swing out and hold it upright. Above walking speed they retract and it rides like a motorcycle again.
The enclosure is the point. A body that slips through the air uses a fraction of the energy a car needs to move one or two people, and it does it without asking you to get wet.
Almost nobody has seen one. Around 172 were built over four decades by a Swiss manufacturer — roughly four or five a year. One of their electric versions won the Automotive X Prize in 2010. Then the supply of road-legal engines for small manufacturers ran out, and the story mostly stopped.
Nothing has been fabricated yet. This is an honest snapshot, updated as it moves.
| Body shell | In CAD — first full surface model |
|---|---|
| Front suspension and wheels | In CAD |
| Drivetrain | Axial-flux motor, single reduction stage. No gearbox, no driveshaft. Component selection in progress. |
| Outrigger system | Concept phase. The most expensive part of the original design and the one I most want to simplify. |
| Cost model | Built. The first version of it killed my original price target. |
| Scale model | Not started |
| Prototype | Not started |
Videos go up on YouTube: the design, the composites, the numbers, and the parts that don't work. If you'd rather hear from me directly when something significant happens — first scale model, first prototype, first drive — leave an email address.
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A handful of emails a year, nothing else. Or write to nxtracer.official@gmail.com.