What do you get when you cross a Segway and a mobility scooter? The electric RYNO scooter that is apparently impossible to fall off. The one-wheeled, battery-powered scooter can travel at a speed of up to 25mph and can be parked anywhere, free of charge. It was designed by Portland-based RYNO Motors specifically for commuters to help beat the traffic and avoid expensive parking charges. The RYNO works like a Segway – the driver must lean forward to accelerate and backward to decelerate. But unlike a Segway, the RYNO scooter is also fitted with self-balancing technology that means the scooter will automatically right itself if the driver leans too far to the left or right, or too far forwards and backwards. It weighs 57kg and can cope with slopes of up to 30 per cent gradient. The idea for the scooter came from the daughter of the firm’s CEO Chris Hoffmann in 2009. She had seen a one-wheeled motorbike in a game she was playing and asked her Dad to make one for her to ride to school. Hoffman said: ‘With a product like RYNO, a rider can slip behind a wall, cut up the alley, around behind the big oak tree, down though the park and emerge at a destination long before anyone driving a car could ever get there. ‘Plus a RYNO can be parked anywhere a bike can be parked, free of charge.’ The designers also claim it can be taken on trains and driven through pedestrianised areas and shops in the same way mobility scooters can. Its inventors add: ‘Or simply ride the RYNO through a lobby and up the elevator to your own apartment.’ Although the RYNO reaches speeds of 25mph, it is regulated when being driven in cities and towns to 12.5mph. The RYNO’s battery can be removed and be plugged into electricity sockets to charge. The company claims it takes around 90 minutes to fully charge the device. Hoffman continued: ‘See what happens when you ride through the streets, it’s the same everywhere, people think they’re watching something out of a video game. ‘Even though it takes less than an hour to learn to ride, onlookers think you have the skill of a circus performer.’ The RYNO is set to go on sale from August 2013. The company hasn’t released full specifications or price details but it is expected to cost around £2,250, according to figures released when the concept was launched in 2010.
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