Madagascar’s Rascal Cycle

Energy & Sustainability
Madagascar’s Rascal Cycle

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When I mentioned to Chris Hackett, director of Madagascar Institute, that I’d have a bum knee during World Maker Faire NY, he offered to “get the Rascal Cycle working” for me. He did indeed, and I rode it from my station in the CRAFT booth to my demo performances on the opposite side of the fairgrounds. It saved my soon-to-be-operated-on knee a load of hassle, and I found it made most onlookers smile. Here’s MAKE’s editor-in-chief, Mark Frauenfelder, riding the electric hybrid Rascal mobility scooter/motorcycle, sporting his Madagascar Institute t-shirt, natch.

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When I first rode the thing, it had two 12V batteries wired in parallel, and it went even slower than an average walking pace. Towards the end of Sunday, I got the itch to go a bit faster and switched up the wiring to supply 24V to the motor, which picked up the pace enough to cruise around the grounds with CRAFT’s Rachel Hobson jogging along side. Plenty of kids tried it out in front of the 3D printing village (with close supervision, of course). Thanks for furnishing me with such a sweet ride!

Photos by Matt Mets, click for high-res.

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Becky Stern is a Content Creator at Autodesk/Instructables, and part time faculty at New York’s School of Visual Arts Products of Design grad program. Making and sharing are her two biggest passions, and she's created hundreds of free online DIY tutorials and videos, mostly about technology and its intersection with crafts. Find her @bekathwia on YouTube/Twitter/Instagram.

View more articles by Becky Stern

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