Why you shouldn't name your invention the KillaCycle

I'm not sure if you've ever invented anything. Chances are you haven't, but if you have, then you know one of the most crucial things is naming your invention - like giving it a snappy name so people are drawn to it.

Or you could just say, screw this, and actively tempt fate.

Unfortunately the latter is what Bill Dube, a government scientist during the day and electric bike builder at night, decided to do. He named his invention, which is an electric motorcycle that goes from 0-60mph in 0.97 seconds - the KillaCycle. It's also known as the Ben Roethlisberger Special.

The KillaCycle is the fastest electric vehicle in existence currently, meaning it's sort of dangerous. I'm sure you can't guess what happened next.

On Thursday Dube did a “burn out” in front of the Los Angeles Convention Center during the Wired NextFest conference, but accidentally accelerated too fast and crashed into a Minivan. Naturally. Although the above picture looks bad (and yes we realize it says "accidentes" in the background, and no we didn't doctor the photo), he's currently in the hospital with minimal injuries - or as minimal as getting thrown from a motorcycle can be.

If you think I'm taking this too lightly, why don't you get TG Daily's take on it. Here's my favorite line from them:

Luckily we were able to interview Dube before the crash.

Well that's good. We wouldn't want his potential death to distract us from the important things, like why in the hell someone would try to ride this thing in congested LA traffic.

Dube fatefully told us that the batteries are “more powerful than anything else” on the market. Well they were indeed the most powerful because they hurtled Dube and his bike into another vehicle.

And just to top it all off, TG Daily got the whole thing on tape, including Dube sprawled out on the concrete. Glad they had the boom mike over him as well.
Despite this sobering accident, Kellen Winslow Jr. still immediately rush ordered 3 KillaCycles.

-WCK