An ingenious farmer in South India has developed a ‘tree bike’ that will allow him to scale 100-foot-tall Areca palm trees with ease. It is dubbed a ‘tree bike’ because, this ‘vehicle’ is essentially made using standard motorcycle components which include accelerator, clutch, brakes, shock absorbers and a 2.1 horsepower gasoline engine. However, instead of huge wheels and tires, it has 9-inch rollers that allow it to roll along the tree trunk.
As you can see in the video below, it works like a charm and pretty quick too, enabling its rider to reach the top in just 30 seconds. Instead of climbing using fabric or rope like traditional farmers do, users only need to hit the accelerator and the clutch and the user will be on his/her way up. ‘Tree Bike’ was created by 49-year-old farmer Ganapathi Bhat who is actually a science graduate and the go-to “technician” in his locality.
The tree bike couldn’t come at a better time. This clever contraption is poised to help local Areca nut farmers who is facing a labor crunch to carry their work more efficiently. Back to the machine… in case you wondering about the risks of this tree-scaling machine, well, Bhat said it has built-in fail safe. Tree bike won’t just fall off the tree if there’s a malfunction.
In the event it suffers a mechanical failure, it will just stop there. It won’t come crashing down. All you have to do is to depress the clutch and it will gently slide down to the ground. In fact, Bhat have tested the machine thoroughly, climbing some 150 trees before you “premiering” it to his fellow farmers. Bhat said he had spent 8 Lakh (800,000 rupees, or about US$11,500) to develop the tree bike and plans to sell it to farmers for Rs 75,000 (around US$1,080).
Here, have a look of Bhat zooming up a super tall tree on his tree bike:
Images: Newsflare.
