The Light Bike

Wellington's city centre is compact, fast-moving, and short on reasons to stop. The Light Bike was designed to change that: a fully electric mobile cinema that could pull up anywhere, project film, sport, or art onto any surface, and fill the surrounding space with sound through a network of rechargeable Bluetooth speakers.

The design brief was to build a functioning electric vehicle prototype for the next decade of urban transport. The response was to question what an electric vehicle could be beyond getting people from A to B — and to build something that had utility and brought people together instead.

Designed and built as a team over four months, I was closely involved across design and fabrication of the full-scale working prototype. The form draws on the café racer motorcycles of the 1960s and 70s — low, purposeful, and visually striking in a city streetscape. The chassis uses two distinct materials and methods: the rear half is welded aluminium extrusion for structural rigidity, while the entire front half is laser-cut HDPE plastic, heat-bent over a custom mould to form the curves of the frame. Aside from the steering column connection, there is no metal in the front half of the chassis. A custom sidecar houses the projection unit, drawing power from the bike's battery. The bike is powered by a 1000w in-hub motor.

At a final rally with a speed and agility course, the Light Bike outperformed all other entries.