Behold! The most badass motorcycle your geek eyes will ever see is here. The TRON Light Cycle isn’t just in movies anymore – a full scale and working model of the motorcycle is riding around the streets of Florida and New Jersey. Built by Parker Brothers Choppers, the scifi inspired bike glows and zips around like the ones you saw in TRON Legacy last year, or the original TRON movie back in the 80s. Selling for $55,000 these custom motorcycles are powered by an all-electric drive system and lithium ion battery. Space age stuff. Check out the latest, and most impressive videos for the TRON Light Cycles below, followed by a description of how you can win your very own! We’ve been following these killer vehicles since they were first announced more than a year ago, and they keep looking better and better. They do everything but leave behind an opponent-wrecking wall…give Parker Brothers Choppers enough time and they just might make that a reality as well.
Here’s the footage from one of the Parker Brothers latest test drives, showing the Light Cycle running in both day and night. Damn that glowing bike is amazing! Make sure to watch past 2:31 when they take off the shell and show you the interior as well:
Bill Weir of ABC Nightline News recently did a short segment on the bike and EVolve, the company behind the 96 volt plug-in electric motor used to power it. Some great footage of the bike riding down the New Jersey street. Very cool:
If you desperately want one of these bikes, and I know you do, you can either shell out $55k and get on the waiting list, or you can compete to win one. Parker Brothers Choppers is taking video submissions from their fans to see who can prove they deserve the Light Cycle the most. Official rules are here. Finalists will be decided by Parker Brothers, and the winner will be voted on by fans. The competition closes Novemeber 7th, so get to it!
The TRON Light Cycle is about as awesome a piece of movie-inspired tech as I’ve seen. (And we’ve seen some great scifi ideas come to life.) As Weir points out, however, the EVolve battery and motor give the fiction some real world science to take along for the ride. It should be interesting to see if these small plug-in electric vehicles take off in the next few years, especially as they’re not too expensive. Even the high-end 96 volt kit used in the TRON Light Cycle was probably less than $10k (judging from quotes on the EVolve site seen here and here).
But who really cares if the TRON Light Cycle is powered by lithium ion batteries or unicorn farts. It’s a goddamn glowing motorcycle that’s quieter than a ninja. What else needs to be said?
Geeks rejoice.
[screen capture credit: Parker Brothers Choppers]
[source: Parker Brothers Choppers]
