My neighbor Larry Sizer [1] sent me a video- and as a BMW rider, who was already in love with the C-1 model enclosed scooter,
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl6I3gqaerM[/youtube]this made it look like a half finished idea.
Meet the EcoCycle, made by:
PERAVES Ltd. was founded in 1974 and produces MOTOR VEHICLES and INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES(ICE). Since 1987 we are market leaders in CABIN MOTORCYCLES. Presently the MonoTracer® with conventional BMW-ICE is in production. A BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLE (BEV) with ELECTRIC motor is being tested with a street legal PROTOTYPE and a market launch, E-Tracer®, is imminent. A HYBRID-MODEL with PERAVES-SUPERBALLMOTOR® is also under development.
via Welcome to Peraves AG Winterthur – MONOTRACER – SUPERBALL MOTOR – ECOMOBILE [2].
(sorry about the ALL CAPS- the SWISS must think it MAKES THINGS SEEM MORE IMPORTANT).
Here is the video:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbdkZB9-Sd4[/youtube]The EcoCycle is a converted BMW bike- that’s fully enclosed, with outrigger wheels that deploy when the bike slows down. No more rainsuits, or scuffed up dress shoes (and people wonder why I wear jeans most of the time- it’s because I ride most of the time). Obviously, fuel economy is on par or better than a motorcycle- meaning an instant doubling of most peoples fuel economy.
This is the kind of forward thinking manufacturing we need to be attracting to Dayton- and putting this city back on the map.
Good luck in prying the plant from GM’s cold dead fingers….ya a little pessimistic this am…lol
The GM plant was set up to produce gas-guzzler SUVs. Converting to electric or hybrid motorcycles would perhaps be daunting.
But if you really wanted to go that way, why invite a foreign manufacturer when we’ve got American start-ups with a similar–perhaps superior–product?
http://www.aptera.com/
truddick- as long as we’re building something in the plant- that makes us more competitive and less oil dependent, I’m up for it.
Thanks for the link.
Which elected officials need to be held most accountable, besides Moraine, with getting the ball rolling at the assembly plant property? Dayton, County, State, Husted, Turner ??? Or GM?
Does anyone know of any past or current proactive steps that are in the works?
and then there is this all electric motorcyle designed and manufactured in California. Innovation can make it economical to manufacture domestically.
http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/zero-s.php
@Jennifer – GM, I believe. I am under the impression that Moraine wanted to get the ball rolling. But GM was in bankruptcy and had not decided what to do with the building either. They can’t sell it until the emerge from bankruptcy.
http://www.ci.moraine.oh.us/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=217
Moraine Hires Consultant To Find New Jobs
The City of Moraine now has a plan to bounce back after General Motors closed the truck plant and eliminated thousands of jobs. City officials said they are hiring a special consultant to put together a plan to bring in new jobs and launch a comprehensive development plan. The city has hired an experienced consulting company to come up with the plan to bring in new jobs to the former GM site. Jean Matheny, Acting Mayor of Moraine said, “These people can do a lot for us, broaden our horizons, bring it back. We won’t be the ghost town that everybody thinks we’re going to be.”
Tackling the 300 acre complex will be Angelou Economics, a multinational consulting company based in Texas. The company will devise a plan for one employer or several companies to possibly relocate to the facility. Steve Vierck, of Angelou Economics said, “I think you want to keep options open. Somebody may take the entire building, but also an option would be to split it up into smaller spaces for uses. There’s been different types of spaces for uses like distribution or manufacturing.”
Moraine has not heard much about when the property might be available for redevelopment, but the city is planning ahead with the consultant’s help. Moraine City Manager David Hicks said, “They’ll give us target industries with specific companies to identify that we should go after in the future. That’s comforting to know that they’re not giving us a generic plan, go after aerospace or green energy, they’ll give us target industries with the possibility of expanding in the region.” City leaders said the study should be back in about six months. Between now and then, the city will keep the community informed through a Web site and meetings.
Add the Brammo electric motorcycle: http://www.brammo.com/home/
@Jennifer, Bruce, and David – thanks for educating me and for the links. Been a couple months since I kept up with and I had written it off as dead.
I know that last week GM removed the large “GM Truck & Bus” sign that stretched across the building above Springboro Pike. I also know that other properties like the Kettering office on Forrer & Woodman & also the other Moraine Delphi facility on Dryden Rd were all torn down to lower the property taxes. I wonder what environmental clean up may have to take place with the Truck & Bus prior to any progress there. With bringing manufacturing to the complex, I’d be more interested to see a beverage or food company come to town. Being first hand affected by the auto industry failures & uncertain future ….if you can’t drink it, eat it or smoke it….I’d rather not place a big investment stake in it.
@David, the Moraine City site has an annoucement for citizens to hold public office. Maybe you could do a trial run of your candidate training/education program & help get some active Moraine citizens prepared to lead.
http://www.discovertheleap.com/surveys.html
Above is the link for both citizens & business leaders to fill out a survey for Moraine’s consultant firm. Looks like a more productive survey than what City of Dayton was asking for at the rally.
@Jen- I can’t jump on the Moraine candidate training too- this is already going to take a bunch of time, and, Moraine politics is even more warped than Dayton.
The Rally survey wasn’t by the City of Dayton- it was the Dayton Development Coalition.
I knew the survey wasn’t the city, I meant the DDC.
Yes, your very correct about Moraine politics…what a mess!
Sorry, for trying to recruit you for everything.
I really do prefer the Moraine consultant firm site, more than the H2O site.
In this article it sounds like all the closed GM facilities were spun off into a separate company during the bankruptcy. The author suggests rather than take a loss the company may be slow to dispose of these properties in order to wait for the economy to improve a little. Guess they think real estate values are on the upswing?
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ibvdMsPxXefv2MUHd6scBTSFbROQD9BUAEV02
@Bruce – maybe this was what is what I partly remembered about it staying shuttered for the immediate future.
For all the destruction they caused – GM should give the plant to the city.
There are a large number of electric/hybrid/other innovative start ups in California that are waiting for the battery technology to make their products profitable.
I like the idea David. If only we had the motivated thinkers in government and developer seats to make it happen.
GM should give the plant to the city
Does GM (or the rump GM that still owns such troubled assets) still have to pay property taxes on the plant? They might do well to give the plant away and be done with that expense as well as responsibility for the property’s upkeep.
@Teresa – Government needs to get out of the way of development. But they should not be responsible for it, in fact, they are unqualified. They are not developers even though some may pretend to be. This type of thing will happen from private investment and/or perhaps augmented or even facilitated by government incentive to market Dayton’s economic amenities. Whether it’s tax incentive, donated property, rewritten city policy, etc.; Dayton’s elected officials need to facilitate this sort of thing and then get the heck out of the way of the free market.
I want one for Christmas!
they need to make gm open up the truck plant and bust the uaw’s….. . seems they only give jobs to uaw friendly democrap political states anyway. ask v.p. biden. seems all of the big buisnesses have left the area anyway; lets see what would happen if wpafb dissapears from the area. new orleans will be more useful than dayton ohio would be.