Last week, Michael DiTullo's took a look back at the frog FZ750 Rana which recently entered the collection of the SFMOMA. Inspired by the original Rana, a small group of folks in frog's San Francisco and New York offices have been tinkiering with a new bike. One that incorporates the kinds of technologies that designers and consumers expect today. Here's a look at where the project currently stands—there are two concepts with some differences between the San Francisco studio's bike and New York's version. The SF version has projected augmented reality and swappable batteries and seems a bit more practical. NYC's bike reaches more—it lacks a combustion engine and has no battery. What are your thoughts on frog's vision for an electric future?
The San Francisco bike started with an electric powertrain. Three removable nanoparticle crystalline copper hexacyanoferrate battery packs are mounted in the sculpted frame. The cylinder are removable with a quarter turn of the handle so they can be swapped out on the road on long rides. These batteries power a large exposed hub motor that occupies the entire center of the rear wheel.
A smartphone mount is integrated into the bike's triple clamp. The smartphone processor is used as the brain for a series of on road projected augmented reality graphics. To the rear of the bike are projected lane guides that help motorists on the road understand how far away from motorcyclist they should be. All instrumentation is projected toward the front of the bike onto the road surface. The illustration shows the maximum of what could be projected. In reality we would see many of these widgets appearing in a just-in-time fashion.