The world of bikes seems to be rapidly evolving. I feel like five years ago, the idea of an electric bike was fairly silly, and the idea of an electric mountain seemed even more silly. On top of that, fat tires seem to have exploded in popularity over the last several years as well (it’s entirely possible that both of these observations are just because of my upbringing/age, but they aren’t the point of this article). Now, thanks to Robo.Systems, we’ve got an electric fat tire bike that’s not just designed for off roading or snow, but also the water.
The 2X2 ULTRA BIKE is a 6 ½ foot long all terrain bike. Specifically focusing on low-pressure tires, the company claims the vehicle will never get stuck. The two brushless DC air cooled electric motors, which are each built into the wheels, supposedly provide plenty of torque for any sort of off-road terrain. The wheels have positive buoyancy, apparently allowing them to keep control while in the water, and two attachable balloons are put on the side of the bike to keep it upright while moving through said water.
Room for a portable gasoline generator allows for the vehicle to be recharged on the road (seems like that ruins the idea of the electric vehicle, since you’re still just carrying the gasoline), and each wheel supposedly includes 20 liters of liquid storage. Currently, it’s selling for $1990 on the Robo.Systems website.
This bike seems, in theory, decently cool. But there are some downsides. It has a maximum range of 40 miles, and tops out at 30 mph. That’s not terrible, by any means, but given that the vehicle doesn’t include pedals, as a majority of electric bikes do, it feels like there should be a little more range packed into this thing. Furthermore, the idea of including a gas generator on the bike seems extremely counterintuitive. Why not just include gas motors at that point? You’d probably be able to get more speed and distance out of it… Finally, the liquid storage inside the wheels really seems like it would defeat the purpose of the floating wheels, but I’m not a scientist and I don’t really understand that stuff, so I could be very wrong…
Image Credit: Robotechnic on YouTube & Robo.Systems on Instagram