Wow i guess i wasnt the only one thinking about this. Glad to see others with the same idea. To me, it seems possible to make a air trek..but then its like, if you really think about it, where are we gonna get a motor thats small enough to fit in a pair of roller blades without them being too big,heavy, and clunky? But just like everyone else, i'm trying to be optimistic i would really love a pair of AT's.....

btw, would anyone know where i could get a pair of roller blades that are LIKe ATs? (two wheeled but w/o the motor) i need them for a cosplay....

Alright. I have read a fair amount of pages on this 30+ page thread. I have been out most of the day, talking to roller-blade/skateboard friends of mine (ill explain skate boards within my post) and doing general research. If any of this has already been posted, please inform me. secondly, none of my post is meant to deter, or insult anyone, and i will try my best to avoid that. Third, my grammar and spelling are not perfect, excuse any mistakes you may find. That being said, there is a few flaws we are looking at when it comes to prototyping or manufacturing an Air Trek. Obviously i know we cannot make one exactally like an air trek from the series, however, i will be trying to hold close to this idea as i can while i report what i have found. I am no tech. major or physics teacher, i just happen to know a few things, that came to question in my mind, and after a small amount of research, i have found my questions answered. First off is the wheels themselves. We all live in different areas of the world, and even if we manage say, 20km/h out of these, any kind of skate park would eventually prrove a little repeatitive and virtually small, for someone moving at those kinds of speeds on a pair of air treks. People would want the same type of freedom as in the anime/manga series. obviously at those speeds, the side walk is out of the question, esspecially in highly populated areas (kyoto, new york, vancouver, toronto, miami, london, etc) i know there are many other places, i just wanted to give a few examples where the sidewalks can tend to be flooded. This leaves the road. Air treks would be highly effecient in high traffic area's because you arent going high speeds, and there is a constant flow of stop and go, but being a person, much smaller than a vehicle, you have the advantage of using crosswalks. even though you are still limited to using the road. (this is where skateboarding research comes in) now, rounded off or smaller rollerblade style wheels are great, you can lean and make turns in them, there is less wheel touching the ground, allowing for higher speeds, but there is one thing that all my roller-blade questioning has found: at high speeds, a small crack, or even a pebble could easily throw you or make you crash and burn. those who live in Canada, or northern parts of america, would know that there is pebbles and cracked tarmac/pavement all over the place, due to frost/heat over the years cracking the roads, and from "sanding" the roads in the winter. that would be bad for most of the people who live more north as i said. constant crashing. in places like california, where there is constant platonic movement near, in, and around the area, you are going to have craked tarmac/pavement, and very uneven ground, at higher speeds the last thing you want is to hit a patch of pavement that has the texture of sandpaper. (wear leather kids!) alot of UK based high population areas and cities, and many smaller towns in canada and quite a few older smaller towns in america have "cobblestone" walk ways as decoration. this is the same problem, tread carefully ov er these in an AT because you will most likely crash. the "smaller stuff" set aside, because we all dont live in small towns, i began thinking on an alternative wheel. I talked to my skater friends, who are a bit crazy and have done some pulling boarders behind a vehicle. at what speeds i did not ask at the time but im sure, at LEAST 20km/h. I am not saying bladers cannot do this, but skateboarders have much better odds at pulling these stunts for two main reasons. they have flat wheel bases instead of rounded like a roller blade, they also have 4 wheel stability. For a skater, hitting a pebble or a crack, CAN still affect them, but in almost every case, it is to a much less effect. (instead of crashing, or falling, they merly lose speed because they have stability) now the problem with a flat wheel on an Air reak, is you lose alot of your ability to lean and turn, which at higher speeds would be definately needed, and the wheel would most likely come off the ground, providing less stability, traction, and you're vastly shifting your center of gravity. In the end, a flat wheel on a roller blade would eventually mean breaking something badly. This led me to thinking, what kind of wheel is small enough but stable anough without needing 4 wheels? pneumatic, or air filled tires, such as that from a bicycle. this may be a possibilty, pneumatic over the air filled, as air filled would be difficult to fit on an airtrek. possible, just difficult. Now before i continue, i would like to say, im not trying to start anything bad, im only throwing out a few facts that i have not seen mentioned. i haven ot read all 30 pages, so if this has been mentioned, i am sorry. please correct me, and my post is for discussional purposes only, i just want to throw my thoughts into the mix and brainstorm that is this thread . Now onto the propulsion system. people have made the worlds smallest gas powered vehicle. every part is like 1:30 the size of a real car (or some garbage like that) and it fits on your thumbnail. its really tiny. making an engine small enough isnt a problem. its making an engine small enough that would propel, anyone from 90 lbs to around 215lbs (or even higher). to achieve speeds of at least 20 km/h there is some things you have to consider and a few things you have to discredit. First off is alternate forms of energy, other than battery. any Hydrogen cells, diesel powered etc. has to be thrown out the window for one single reason. almsot all forms of alternate energy have a converter, or a cell that is far too large to be put on a set of air treks. too small of a cell and you would have major problems within the engine. even batteries are a problem. they weigh alot and you need a large enough cell, or many batteries, to keep you going for at least 30 minutes to make it worth while. before anyone goes off about energy effeciency, ill adress something. this is a prototype being made, lets work on creating it first, by any means nessecarry (even if that means creating a gas guzzling air destroying, smoke hazardous set of air treks, THEN we will work out the other details.) lets create this thing first, before trying to do something super complicated to nothing but a design in each of our heads. considering alternate forms of energy is a very complicated process and lets not get ahead of ourselves. Next subject is the amount of space for mechanical, electrical, combustible parts inside the AT's themselves. technically speaking, the Air trek is proken down into three spaces: The shoe, The mech space, and the wheel base. assuming the mechspace/engine space is the amount of space between the bottom of the shoe and the top of the wheel base, lets do a small amounto fp ractical math to figure out how much space we can try and have. if we assume too much space in our initial design there will be balance issues, and if we assume too little space, we are going to have a problem cramming everything inside the air tek, and probably causing huge design flaws. between the shoe and the wheel base, i had to figure out two things. first off, foot size is an issue, every one has different size feet, and some people even wear different size paris of shoes as they change their style. i was forced to choose a size, because for everyone there is going to be a different amount of space. i also considered the fact that i doubt children under the age of say...18 would be allowed to even use these due to the high speeds. (hush, we will work out speed limiting for kids later, once we get the real thing going) so i picked an adult size. using my feet, i determined an "average" size for both sexes, i am a woman's size 8 (yes i have long feet, im built like a fricken "L") which is like size...10 or 11 in mens..or something (i dont know men's sizes so dont count me for sure on that.) either way, back on track: size 8 feet for length of space, and i gave 2 inches in height of space between the bottom of the shoe area, and the top of the wheel base. this gives us roughly 6 inches of width at the widest part of the trek (i am giving a bit more space than nesssecary in each of the width and length areas because i assum an air trek would be built similar to a snowboard boot, or a rollerblade boot, neither of which conform to your foot perfectly, as they are stiff and made of hard dense pieces.) 10 inches long of the length, and 2 inches high as i said before. this is 5W x 10L x 2H (all in inches) thats 100 cubic inches in volume. What al lthis garbage means, is we have roughly 100 cubic inches of space in jam mechanical parts into. This gives us an idea of how small, our parts will roughly need to be. What im doing here is using a few estimates, to create a number in volume, so we can begin to fathom just how to go about this. it doesnt solve many problems, but it is getting us all on the same page, which is where we all need to be, and any future posters will need to be, when thorwing ideas or concepts out there. i am giving us a space to work in. Why? because i have noticed many people seeing things work in their mind, which is awesome, but flawed at the same time. everyone sees something different. I am attempting to provide a meager mold into which people can begin to tamper with, to figure out how to fit their ideas inside this mold. i am giving everyone a design concept and a set amount of space into which parts can be designed measured, and even created into. You might find flaws in my research, and i am open to criticism, but, i AM trying to set things into stone, make something permanent. or else this is just a discussion, that will eventually die, when in reality there are many talented minds here who CAN make this happen. so please, let us assume this design concept for now. I am currently working on some drawings to better show you what i mean, in case my words do not make sense to some of you. so please be patient for those. I have not solved any issues on a propullsion system, in fact, i created more problems by saying "this is how much space we have" but i have also solved a few issues out there for those of you who dont know where to start on this project. I have more to say, but i have only had 1 day's worth of research since i have seen this thread. once i have gathered more info i will psot the rest of my thoughts. if you read all of this, i thank you, and for those of you who skipped to the end, i am sorry my post was this long. Last issue to adress: I want to be an investor. I realise the kind of money this takes, and i am willing to give that much. However, im not going to just forward money to some random person on the internet. if we get people designing this, i am going to want alot of contact with them, and some actual proof that they are not going to jsut take my money and run. That being said, enjoy the long read, if anything.

edit: afterthought: i realise that some of you may be going "hey! we talked about this!" the reason i mention these facts and researched them, is because these findings were only briefly touched upon, in other posts. I also forgot to mention that the drawings im coming up with are near schematic except much more simplistic. im going to need some math wizards help me with this. also i did not mention what else i was looking into: High speed braking system for roller blades, a suspension system that is small enough to work, and an engine that will propell enough weight (im still looking into it) also, remember to think in the confines of the 100 cubic inches of space for inside the AT itself.

Last edited by Naoko_N at 2:05 am, Jan 3 2008

we may have talked about this...since i didn't read your post till the end..
still..i'm glad you put much efforts in this..

we may have talked about this, but never so precise/accurate(stinks at physics here)


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Let's get Kickin' ...whatever that means

my findings aren't purely accurate, just some basic research and a tiny amount of basic math. If anything, i updated those who didnt want to read 30 pages. i touched upon the most troublesome subjects

It seems you've done alot of work Naoko. Here are my concerns...

1) Current batteries will propel something like this for 8 miles at most (and that's being generous). It's not bad, but it's far from being like Air Gear (i.e. going out and riding around for however long you like). Additionally, battery that will propel someone for more than 3 miles will not fit in a skate; the commercial technology just does not exist/ is far too expensive.

2) Any motor that has the power to propel someone at 20kmh will not fit in a skate. The 100 in^3 is not very much space, and the wheels will take up quite a bit of that space considering they're at least 4 inches in diameter.

3) The weight of the skate boot + base plate + motors + suspension + battery is consideriable. Adding this extra weight to a normal peron's feet is going to take some height off jumps.

4) The project is very expensive. I don't know how old you are, but it seems like you are in your teens. Based on the requirements of the skate, I don't see this project even starting without at least $900 for the most important parts. Then comes the cost of tools, "custom made" parts, and replacements for builds that will inevitably be made wrong/break/not work. I do not know of many teens or even adults who browse Air Gear forums and yet have that kind of money to easily throw around.

5) Assuming the project is successfully completed, a 20km/h motorized skate is still slower than the average skater who is power skating. For the advantage of an 8 mile effortless ride, there are the disadvantages of a lower top speed, less maneuverability, and higher cost.

so basically, if we want to start building ATs now, we'll have to make the parts ourselves.so they fit their criterias.
Or we can wait about 5-10 years for someone ELSE to make that kind of technology and use it then.

lol its a tough decision.


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No, Neo, I am not your mother. Guess again.

yeah it will be great if air treks were to be created but then theres the cost in manufacturing it.

i wonder how much it will be around
$300 - $1 000 000 .............. ??

I think the main reason for failure so far is that all the post I'v read so far have all moved in one direction. I would include a multi motor system. An electronic/friction/gravity system would likely work,. but its just an idea right now i have to do the research. You would start off like regular skating, but thats when the gravity design would kick in, giving little boost. Shortly after the Friction motor would kick in, helping maintain speed and giving a little boost. by that time using a magnet system like in the everlast flash lights (magnets located in the center and sides of the wheels and when the pass through the sideguards is when they collect energy) and a force turbine like in a windmill or damn they would be enough electrical chard to accellerate, which in turn would produce more power thus being able to sustain a decent speed. I would also do movement like the segway system uses. Also you would need a reverse motor with the axel on the outside fitting into the wheelscapable of producing the HP an tourque. For supension micro-sized car supesion and a air pump system like the one found in that 6 sec ab device. The Wheels would need to be significantly larger than traditional inline skate wheels and a two wheel system would leave the nessacery room for parts. The biggest problem would be compacting all this. But I think this would work and inspire the futuristic at to become a reality.

I would say they would probably cost $1000 at most once they are capable of being mass produced, but development of even an extremely basic pair with decent specs (speed and battery life) would probably cost at least $5000 in supplies. If not even more.


Also AT, what you described seems awefully close to a perpetual motion device, and I dont think those really work. Trying to recapture energy from movement caused by something that required energy in the first place wont really help except to possibly (though with a lot of precious and then wasted space) improve the effeciency of the device, much like a hybrid car works, it doesnt actually use less energy, it just uses its energy more effeciently by recapturing as much of what is lost as it can.

Though I may have misunderstood you a bit.

I'm not saying no battery, mearly a system which constantly repleneshes 50-75% of the power to extend battery life. Like the others have said when just dont have that kind of power sources yet, unless you use a hydrogen fuel cell. However, has anyone looked into the all electric cars the new ones. Why not down proportion thier engines and batteries.

Well I think our battery problem may have just been solved. Check out this article, the battery is still a couple years off from commercial production, but its basically a method to get 10x as much energy stored in a Lithium Ion Battery. That *might* be just enough to get a 30 minute session. Then again thats just a total guess, since I dont know how many joules per second it takes to propel the human body at about 30mph. Now how many are in this battery, but 10x anything makes it A LOT better than it is now.


http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?article ID=205801093

I can't believe someone else in this thread has a sense of humor/ knows what the word means!
Glad those examples didn't go to waste. And lets hope the genius who actually makes them, thinks about the practical uses.
That said, I would definitely buy a pair. A few broken bones won't hold me back... for more than a few months...

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lol yeh man
I wouldnt mind a few broken bones at all.

and this is random but i saw a guy ram into a tree across the street yesterday.
lol imagine doing that at 30k on motor powered skates.
.....man that would hurt.


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No, Neo, I am not your mother. Guess again.

just my idea but to make them work on batterys i was thinking of
the same kind of battery as drilling machines use
.. a 24V battery they last quite long and arent that big...
u could make a special holder to put the battery on ure legs ;)

I have had some success tinkering around with a pair of precission speed skates. I found that by removing the middle 2 wheels in an extended axis pair of blades i had around 3 inches to work in some michanics.

The power source i came up with is a momentum motor meaning for every stride the motor will be able to provide a substantial boost of speed making for an easy ride but not a completely effortless ride. I was able hit speeds of around 50 kph on the flat striding every 8meters or so. I would suggest that i would be able to get faster if i strided more often providing the motor more juice however I have a couple of heating issues which i was afraid would blow a $500 motor. Another interesting advantage to this meathod is that if you grind it will provide a majour amount of juice to the engine depending on the angle at which you hit the rail and your starting speed.

In regards to the stones issue. If you use rubber inline hockey rink wheels or precision wheels you find that this issue is eliminated however this meathod means you have to replace the wheels on a regular baisis (every 8 or so runs depending on how hard you ride).

with the speed skates i implimented the boots on these as they are similar to the ones off the show and provide a supprising degree of control. A downfall of this is that it is easy to roll your ankle and possible snap it all together if you are hit with any force.

I have not implimented a breaking system as a power slide (similar to an ice hockey stop) was adiquate in coming to a stop.

I would like to find away to store some energy when not in use for an initial burst of speed when you start out on a run as i found it frustrating starting out a run going regular skating speed and having to build up to AT speed. This didnt take long at all after a few strides the motor kicks in however this happens every time you come to a stop so you cant start off with any increased speed.

in relation to the use of this particular degsine of AT I found that you could use it pretty much in any urban environment and they are usefull in a skating rink but you cannot take advantage of the grinding features. I belive that they are best suited for a city or skate park environment as you can get some very good air off them. I have been taking them out for runs around my town and i have had great fun finding different routes of getting places and exploring various aspects of my hometown that I have never even thought of.

While these are far from complete i belive that this particular degsine has potential. I would appreciate any ideas on how to make them any better

-- keep searching for the sky road

Azure archon