Mike Hanlon

Honda has finally added electric propulsion to one of its most enduring and successful commuter vehicles – the Japan-only three-wheeled scooter. Used extensively throughout Japan's congested urban environment as a commuter and delivery vehicle with a 50cc four-stroke motor, the Honda Canopy (aka Gyro) delivers 100 mpg. Converting the well-protected three wheeler, with its capacious cargo space, to an electric-only vehicle is a no-brainer and is certain to create an insatiable demand in non-domestic markets everywhere. Read More

At long last, the world's largest and most influential motorcycle manufacturer appears to be getting serious about electric motorcycles, announcing it will be showing a supersports motorcycle concept at the Tokyo Motor Show next month. Named the RC-E, the images released by Honda indicate a a super sports motorcycle designed solely for the "the joy of riding." Read More

If the horse is not humanity's favorite animal, it should be, as it has served us far better than any other domesticated animal. It has been the predominant form of personal transport for the last millennia, has done more work for us than any animal, and its mastery became the fundamental military technology which helped Genghis Khan build the biggest empire in history. The notion of using advanced technologies to replicate and extend the personality and functionality of the horse gave Honda a wonderful platform to explore in its latest design concept. Part sci-fi and part technology-crystal-ball-gazing, here's what a synthetic Horse V 2.0 might look like 200 years hence. Read More

The world's industrial robotics industry will get considerably larger in the near future as Taiwan-registered Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (best known as Foxconn) has announced plans to begin building industrial robots. Its initial plans of building one million industrial robots for its own purposes will nearly double the number of industrial robots in the world (currently The International Federation of Robotics puts that number at 1,095,000). Foxconn is best known as the largest exporter in China, the assembler/manufacturer of Apple's iPad and iPhone and for the extraordinarily high suicide rate of its employees. Read More

You just never know what you've got in the shed. This horary quadrant was found in a bag of old pipe fittings in a shed on a farm in Queensland, Australia, forty years ago. Last year the owner of the quadrant was surfing the internet and came across this article where he recognised not just the same tool, but the same stag-coronet insignia that was on his quadrant (he thought it was an astrolabe) signified it was made for King Richard II (of England). He subsequently contacted the British Museum, which identified the item sitting on his desk for the last forty years as a 1396 horary quadrant. It will be auctioned next month and is expected to fetch between GBP150,000 and GBP200,000. Read More

Four years ago, New York City officials convened a group of taxi drivers, owners and passengers, to create a set of goals for the next New York City taxi cab, a project called the Taxi of Tomorrow, an attempt to re imagine the entire taxi system. The results are in. Today the Nissan NV200 taxi which won the job until 2023 will be shown to the public at the "Taxi of Tomorrow" Design Expo. To me, it looks a lot more like a Taxi-designed-by-Committee than a Taxi-of-Tomorrow - a gas-engine and a basic van design. Where did it all go wrong? Read More

One of the world's most valuable motorcycles will go under the hammer early next year. Built by Sylvester H. Roper, one of two people with legitimate claims of having invented the motorcycle. Though built in 1894, 27 years after the first Roper Steam Motorcycle, the machine is one of a very small number of motorcycles built by Roper (around nine), and was ridden by him regularly before his death in 1896. The Roper Steam Cycle hence has a provenance of massive historical importance, and is expected to establish a new world record for a motorcycle sold at auction in Las Vegas on January 12 – 14. Read More

The Shannon Solo Dumper is an easy-to-operate, remote-control, four-wheel-drive, high-tipper-dumper with a carrying capacity of 500 kg (1100 pounds) and remote-control-range of 100 metres from the operator. Apart from doing a lot of work at cheap rates, reducing many two person jobs to single person tasks, it significantly reduces operating risks where there is a risk to the person operating a traditional drive-on dumper: demolition sites, sites where there is a threat of falling debris, with a gradient, confined spaces, narrow access, busy highways, contaminated land, unstable ground, ad infinitum. The GBP12,750 (US$20,000) Dumper has been so well received that the Solo Fire Hose (GBP19,500 - US$30,600), Solo Sprayer (GBP13,500 - US$21,200) and Solo Mower (GBP17,950 - $28,200) have been added to the range and a portable winch version will soon be added. Read More

Another Brough Superior motorcycle has moved into the top 10 most valuable motorcycles sold at auction when the 1929 SS100 commonly known as ‘Moby Dick’ sold for GBP 210,500 (US$333,210). The auction result continues the trend of Brough Superiors becoming the most valuable brand in the world, with four of the 10 most valuable motorcycles now coming from the famous (and recently resurrected) brand name. Interestingly, yet another Brough Superior SS100 will front the auctioneer on November 16 (est. GBP165,000-185,000) and it will almost certainly become the eighth Brough Superior in the top 20, and the eleventh of this group to have been sold by Bonhams. Read More