Marc Graells Ballve, a talented designer from Spain, came up with a creative way to protect your motorcycle from theft and bad weather.
The idea behind Protect 486 is to prevent access to the motorcycle itself by entirely covering it with a protective “shell”.
Also check out: Creative Motorcycle Helmets
Nathan
Interesting, but it looks like it could be quite bulky when folded down, which would drastically affect handling. I’d love to see this in use if that issue could be addressed. I’ve had people damage by scooter (including jamming stuff in the ignition keyhole) which this would very effectively prevent.
Sep 20th, 2008
Chris Taylor
You do realize that the typical way to steal a motorcycle is to steal the ENTIRE motorcycle IE pick it up and put it in the back of the van pickup truck etc.. IE this would be useless for that :-)
Sep 20th, 2008
Speedmaster
Cool, looks like an armadillo. ;-)
Sep 20th, 2008
techwitch
The old batmobile had a defense system like this… It took a few clowns (literally, Joker Thugs) to hack into it, I wouldnt be so sure this would work lol.
Sep 20th, 2008
majesteit
I’m sorry, but the idea sucks! If it’s closed I can imagine the benefit of it, but when it’s open.. I would never go around with something like that on the back of my scooter/motorcycle.
Sep 20th, 2008
mwendell
i agree that it looks heavy, although being that low when retracted, it may not affect handling too much.
my complaint is simply that it won’t, as it claims, do anything about keeping your bike out of the weather. water will simply run into the openings (which face up at the rear of the bike) and drip all over your seat. now if the largest shell were at the center of the bike (instead of at the bottom) this wouldn’t happen.
i’ve done roofing, and the whole concept is this, just keep any openeings pointed down.
Sep 20th, 2008
dmc
Neat Idea, I own a scooter and I always hate having to cover it at night or when I park in iffy places. Anything that makes it easier to protect it is definitely worth looking into. Portability looks iffy with this though and that Scoot also doesnt have any Rear views that stick out quite a bit, could block the cover.
I think a few of my concerns that make me cover my scoot is to just keep it out of site so kids and others dont mess with it, protect it from bumps and scrapes and of course keep it out of rain which this doesnt look like it will do without some adding sealing between the slats.
Nifty idea though.
Sep 21st, 2008
Sam
This would work better applied to ‘bike parking’ spaces in my opinion.
Fix it permenantly to the ground (stops theft by carrying away) and have a bunch of them in a row in the centre of town. You could rent one for the day or something.
Lets face it, no one is going to ride around with that thing attached to thier bike all the time. Unless you could make it out of kevlar and have it automatically deploy when it senses you are about to crash your bike, thus protecting the rider inside ;) Just a thought.
Sep 22nd, 2008
JC
we have things similar to this for bike theft here in portland, or. they are solid and lock down over the bike. i don’t see any mention that this is intended to be a portable solution…but it would work fairly well for every-night parking at one’s residence in conjunction with a lock-down for the entire shell. also, it doesn’t say that this is intended for weather-proofing. i mean, if you DON’T have one, your scoot is just getting rained on anyway. so what’s the difference? experience tells us that anything that makes it a bigger hassle for thieves to steal is a step in the right direction. definitely worth another look in the development dept….
Sep 22nd, 2008