HOT from the European Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market comes this design patent for a new bike, which stretches the definitions of ‘motorcycle’ and 'suitcase' by trying to be both.
The design, filed by the wonderfully-named Boris Kunc from Slovenia, is for a suitcase that’s also an electric bike. Or an electric bike that’s also a suitcase. We’re guessing it’s not intended to be road legal, and is probably short on both range and performance. Even so it looks like an interesting way of getting around an airport at the very least, and perhaps even acting as rudimentary transport on arrival at your destination, too.
Or, by trying to perform two usually distinct functions, does it risk being no good for either?
It’s hard to judge its size from the images. Is this a massive Samsonite of a creation, destined for the hold, or a titchy hand-luggage-sized scoot? Perhaps there’s scope for both! It’s pretty clear from the ‘door open’ view that it’s mainly empty space inside, so there’s room for spare pants and a toothbrush.
While we’ve seen suitcase-shaped bikes before – Honda’s Motocompo, for instance, or the Boxx scooter – most of them don’t actually double as luggage. However, a quick search of Google’s patent library reveals that Mr Kunc isn’t the first with the idea, with drawings of very similar machines dating back to the 1960s and '70s. We've included a couple in the picture gallery under this story.
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