Geeks and gear-heads rejoice: the light cycles from Tron have made it into the real world! This summer the team at Parker Brothers Choppers announced plans to create full street-legal versions of the most famous icon from the Tron movies. Now, they’ve released video of the first futuristically sleek motorcycle prototype…and it looks awesome! Working from little more than pictures and artists’ concept sketches, Parker Brothers Choppers was able to build a machine that captures the style and excitement of the movie while still being able to drive with the power of a V-twin engine. Watch the only non-virtual light cycle in existence in the video below. This thing is amazing!
Back in June, Parker Brothers Choppers had five of these bikes on eBay, each with a unique color. According to Wired, there are still four left, but the price tag has jumped up to $55,000. Jeff Halverson at PBC revealed the bike’s specs: 474 lbs, 100 inches long, 23 inches wide, with a seat 28.5 inches off the ground. Top speed and driving stats are still unavailable, but I get the feeling from the video that this is more of a show than performance vehicle.
Unfortunately, it looks like the test driven prototype doesn’t include the really amazing neon light features that we’d come to expect from the Tron movies. The bike may be glowing during a night rally at which the bike appeared (see the video below which is cued up to the relevant point in time), but I may just be seeing a reflection in its shiny exterior. Either way, it looks like we’ll have to wait a while until this bike really shines the way we want.
It may not glow very well yet, and it will never be able to produce a light wall, but the Tron motorcycle is iPad compatible. According to Wired, the builders are including the option of having all displays (gauges, etc) routed through the tablet computer. Hey, that means you could play Tron while driving the Tron motorcycle. Nice. Dangerous, but nice.
[image credit: Michael Lichter]
[source: Wired]
