Lit Motors C-1

C-1 electric vehicle from Lit Motors.

C-1 electric vehicle from Lit Motors.

The C-1 by Lit Motors is a fully enclosed, self-balancing, electric motorcycle. It uses giant gyroscopes to balance itself, either tilting or staying upright as appropriate.

Let’s take the pandemic scenario, week one; the freeways are clogged with the cars of people who died in them and the abandoned cars of people who saw them dying and fled. You watch the news reports and realize this isn’t getting any better. How long before power and water cut out and there’s an all out failure of services? Having prepared, you decide it’s time to bug out. You own a plot in the outback just across state lines, about 170 miles out from where you are now, with a cabin containing plenty of food, access to water and solar power. If you can just get through the city and to the cabin without contracting the disease you’ll be fine. Luckily, as a prepper you had the good foresight to get yourself a good bug out vehicle, namely a Litmotors C-1. It’s a fully enclosed electric motorcycle that uses giant gyroscopes to balance itself, either tilting or staying upright as appropriate. The gyroscopes work so well that the vehicle would continue to stay upright even in a collision with a mad maxian marauder. And having a completely enclosed body and climate control system, no virus is getting in while your beaming passed parked cars and banking from one lane to the next.

How it works? When parked the C-1 is kept stable by a “landing gear” type of setup. You enter and start the C-1 up, which kicks in the gyros. You retract the landing gear, and you’re off. Interesting tidbits: the electric motors actually regenerate power every time you brake. And the C-1 has a reverse gear!

The C-1 will either take 2 passengers or one passenger with carry-on size luggage. In the unlikely event of a system failure, don’t worry. The C-1 was designed to allow the driver to take over manually in an emergency situation. In fact, according to Litmotors who take the C-1’s safety very seriously, “all critical systems are double- or triple-redundant, with mechanical backups to allow the driver to steer and stop the car even in a catastrophic failure of all systems. This includes the “landing gear” that keeps the C-1 upright when parked.”

Some specs:
Occupants: 2
Max road speed: 160kph+ (100mph+)
Range: 320km (200 miles)
0-100kph (0-60mph): <6 seconds

Watch the C-1’s designer talk about the motor cycle. 

Pros:
Fairly safe, since it stays upright in a collision. Also because you can still steer and stop it even after a catastrophic systems failure.
Only motorcycle I know that drives in reverse; get away from those marauders quick.
Enough space for 2 people, so you can bug out with a loved one.
Electric, so no need to store or steel fuel. Just use your solar, wind or human powered generator back at your cabin.
Sweet audio system.
Looks very nice.

Cons:
Not enough space for bug out bags if you’re bringing a second person.
Not EMP proof.

Price: $24.000