Your mode of transport says a lot about you. For the geeks in us, sticking a Batman logo on your rear window will simply not do (although a wifi-detecting bumper sticker is rather epic). For true geeky style you need some top geek transportation:
7. DIY Batman Tumbler
This man, a batman fanatic, built his own Batman Tumbler from the movie Batman Begins. It’s almost identical to the one used in the movie and he managed to build his at home from scratch! It has full working lights and its fully fuctional (it’s meant for off-roading). It is 15 feet long, 9.5 feet wide and 5 feet tall. Check it out in the full video. For any fan of Batman this is a must see.
6. Trash-Powered Honda AccordDo you have a spare car lying on the driveway? Well you can convert it to run on trash.This guy managed to use his gasifier to turn household trash into aesthetic fuel thus powering his Honda Accord.
5. Motorized Rail Rider
Rail Riders are cool ways to explore abandoned stretches of railway which can sometime go on for dozens of miles and lead you to weird places. Instead of using a manually operated one, why not
build your own? They’re quite similar to go karts, all you need is some train wheels which can be sourced from scrap yards and some go cart materials. You could even use an engine from a lawnmower or a golf cart if you want to go electric.
4. MIT’s Speedy Motorized Shopping Cart
Instead of partying and picking up chicks, this group of students from MIT decided to modify a shopping cart and make it into a
speedy motorized shopping cart. As you can see in the video above, it can get up to some good speeds and has a steeping wheel for whoever is brave enough to squish themselves into the cart.
3. Build Your Own Self Balancing Segway
This guy managed to build his own self balancing Segway. All you need is the right hardware (such as the lithium batteries and the motor). You write the code yourself and create your own circuit boards by following the guide. The wooden version can be build very cheaply for around $1000 while a retail Segway costs about $5000 making this is both economical and the ultimate geek transportation.
2. DIY Auto Gyro
Auto Gyros are spectacular machines in that they work so well yet they are incredibly simple. They can be built at home just like
this man did. The reason is because they’re completely manual (no computers) and have only basic materials. Imagine the freedom of flying to work in one of these!
1. A Self Balancing Electric UniCycle
This one is really cool because it’s cheap, good for the environment and it attracts a whole lot of attention. It an electronic unicycle which self balances. It takes less than fifteen minutes to learn how to use and it’s built using basic gyroscopes and accelerometers to change the speed of the wheel thus keeping you balanced. To turn, you simply lean left and right. To accelerate, just lean forward.
His first challenge was removing the deck from the car. People told him he’d have to buy fancy stereo removal tools — he made do with tent pegs and coat hangers. Using the same method as described in a past aux-in hack, he identified the audio in leads on the CD player’s ribbon cable. By carefully soldering in his own aux-in plug, he’s almost ready for business! Unfortunately, the CD player also needs to think that it is on for it to properly output the audio. [Noah] chose the simple solution — record a silent CD to always leave in the deck. Stick around after the break to see it in action.
