00:01Greetings friends! In this short video I want to tell you about a motorcycle
00:05chariot worthy of a cameo in a Mad Max movie.
00:09The name of this vehicle is the Biobotogo and it was built as a one-off way back in 1912.
00:17The Biobotogo, half car, half motorcycle, or more precisely, a monocar whose creator James Scripps Booth
00:24believed that his invention would revolutionize automotive transport.
00:28The heir to a major publishing business, James Scripps Booth didn't show much enthusiasm for business
00:34but instead dreamed of becoming an automotive inventor or an artist.
00:38And to his credit it must be said that he succeeded in both.
00:42Later he combined both dreams and became a renowned automotive designer.
00:47In 1908 he embarked on his most ambitious project.
00:51By the way, James came up with this peculiar concept when he was just 24 years old.
01:08The structure weighed a ton and a half and despite its bulk it rested on just two wooden wheels with
01:14a diameter of 940mm.
01:16On its sides you can spot small wheels that served as outriggers.
01:21As planned they were only used during acceleration and then retracted.
01:26Thus, at high speed the car turned into a bulky one and a half ton motorcycle.
01:31This unique machine was equipped with a V8 engine with a bore of 89mm and a stroke of 127mm.
01:40The engine displacement was 6306cc.
01:45The maximum output was 45hp.
01:48The engine was coupled to a 4 speed transmission and it was started using compressed air.
01:55Industrial design wasn't neglected either.
01:58The gorgeous curved copper tubes on the sides stretching a whopping 137m and forming stylized fenders serve as the engine's
02:06radiator, not just decoration.
02:08The rear drive wheel was chain driven, it had a drum brake and the leaf spring suspension was quite bulky
02:14and complex.
02:16The training wheels automatically retracted under separate fenders in the body when accelerating to 32km per hour and the top
02:23speed was claimed to be around 120km per hour, though this was never tested in practice.
02:30All this magnificence hold as many as three experienced kamikazas.
02:34Sorry people.
02:35A driver and two passengers.
02:37James planned to build 50 vehicles but the monocar turned out to be too expensive and besides, conservative society was
02:44in no hurry to switch from cars and classic motorcycles to this thing.
02:49Consequently, there was no point in putting it into production, so it remained merely an exotic museum exhibit.
02:57With all the modifications, the Biotogo cost its creator around $25,000 which was a huge sum of money back
03:03then.
03:05It remains an open question just how stable this bulky contraption was while being driven.
03:11And why a vehicle positioned as a cheaper alternative to a car used an engine that, even for cars of
03:18that era, was considered premium.
03:21Booth spent the rest of his career designing more conventional vehicles as well as specializing in watercolor paintings.
03:29His creation, on the other hand, was restored by enthusiasts with mob steel in 2017 and, with that, my story
03:38comes to an end.
03:40I have extensive material on monocars in mind, so let me know in the comments if I should make a
03:45video with a few words about them.
03:47Well, you get the point.
03:50This was the CrossMoto Channel.
03:52Until next time...
