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| The American take on power skates. |
- soos rolskaatse met motors aan en hoe hul veel goedkoper as Jimmy Choo skoene op uitverkoping is;
- en hoe die grooste lorrie op aarde minder diesel as jou bakkie drink;
- ons gee ook ons respek die oudste, taaiste deelnemer in die afgelope Dakar woestynren; en
vertel hoe Ford se volgende Raptor bakkie die belangrikste verskil tussen die Dakar en Baja woestyn ren in een bakwerk saamvat.
Overberg Wiele, waar jy eerste is om als wat vreemd op wiele is, te hoor!
THE idea of powered roller skates is at least 60 years old, but
since Peter Treadway showed plans for his spnKiX power skates in 2011, the
market for a set of 4x2 shoes has all but exploded.
And the only reason it did not literally explode was because police
in the United Kingdom confiscated 50 pairs of Chinese petrol-powered roller
skates being delivered to an address in Bournemouth.
The Metro quoted Bournemouth Council trading standards officer
David Morton saying: “The skates are so dangerous, we are too worried about
putting them on to test them.”
Only the right boot is powered by a tiny, 25 cc petrol engine,
controlled by a hand-throttle. The power skates are still exported to the
United States, with the Absolutely Unbelievable website listing them for $400
(about R4,600).
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| Slow and ponderous -- and not welcome in the UK. |
The site claims: “PowerSkates can reach a speed of up to 30 miles
per hour [48 kilometres], so you could weave in and out of rush-hour traffic
jams, getting to work or home faster than ever before. You’ll be saving time,
money and the environment when you use PowerSkates as your primary
vehicle.”
Treadway’s much sleeker 2x2 electric shoes sell for just under $700
(about R8,100) as Acton RocketSkates.
If R8,100 sounds a lot of money for a pair of 2x2 powered skates,
consider that at the time of writing, the cheapest pair of slip-on Jimmy Choo
sandals on sale cost £195 (about R3,400), while a pair of killer heels listed
for £1,197 (about R21,000).
Seems many did the comparison, for KickStarter showed the Acton
RocketSkates had 10 times too many takers for the power shoes that went into
production in October last year.
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| The French take on power skates. |
The new French Rollkers were officially launched last week and go
on sale later in the year. They clip to any size and make of shoes with large
wheels for bumpy surfaces.
Maker Dijon said Rollkers were developed to provide a healthier,
more environmentally friendly form of transportation. The Rollkers are
self-balancing and require no specific training.
The Rocketskates are by all accounts a bit more terrifying to ride
on. The user starts by placing one foot forward, giving the skates a moment to
wirelessly synchronise and then moving by tilting the lead skate forward.
Slowing down requires lowering the heel. The motors of the non-lead skate simply
copy whatever those in the lead one are doing.
Top speed on a pair of Rocketskates is about 19 km/h.
Final specs for the Rollkers are not yet available, but the makers
said top speed is about 10 km/h. A trawl of YouTube showed the Chinese
petrol-powered roller skates do not go anywhere very fast.
