Superheroes need a ride. And since your driving license got suspended after crashing into a cop car last month, your replica Batmobile will have to stay in the garage just a little while longer. You might want to consider this Motorized Wheelrider instead.
Clad in a style and color scheme that doesn’t veer too far from standard Gotham City fare, the ride should make a decent alternative for getting around town. At a 20mph top speed, all the baddies on their Ducati Streetfighters and Icon Sheenes will be leaving you in the dust, but you might be able to catch up to those bank robbers making their escape on a Segway X2 or a Ryno Unicycle.
The Motorized Wheelrider is a 58-pound “skatecycle” measuring 44 x 17 x 10 inches. You ride it by parking your butt over the rear tire, one foot on the front footboard and another on the rear. The slip-resistant front footwell controls the left and right steering, with your other foot anchoring you in the rear board for balance. Acceleration and braking are managed using the tethered handheld throttle out in front, with the engine started by pulling a string similar to a weed trimmer.
A two-stroke, 2-horsepower engine plods the thing along for up to 20 miles at a time, drawing juice from a quarter-gallon tank that takes a mixture of gas and oil. It can run over most terrains with a maximum slope of 15 degrees, including sand, grass, dirt and asphalt. Maximum rider weight is 200 lbs., though, so all the juicehead superheroes with Hulk-like pythons will have to find other accommodations.
Hammacher Schlemmer has the Motorized Wheelrider available now, priced at $499.95.