Japanese Three-Wheeled Motorcycle Runs on Poop

The Neo is part motorcycle and part toilet and it runs on eco-friendly biogas produced from sewage and this – well, eccentric at best – machine recently completed a journey of more than 600 miles across Japan.

It was certainly met with some inquiring looks and vacant stares along the way.

The three-wheeled vehicle, developed by Japanese toilet maker Toto, features a toilet for a seat and has a giant roll of toilet paper mount on the back which flutters in the breeze as the bike cruises along. The company also makes a “talking toilet,” and that’s just another product I don’t see myself spending any money to purchase.

Fortunately for all concerned, the Neo is a “concept bike,” and there are no plans to put it on sale.

Toto unveiled its toilet-cycle earlier this year as part of the company’s plan to half their carbon emissions by 2017. As for other “emissions,” this bike will need them to keep running down the road. The three-wheeled motorcycle is powered by livestock waste, household sewage, and ecologically friendly biogas.

The seat of the motorcycle is, for lack of a more delicate way to say it,  a toilet, but in a move sure to please all of those sharing the roads with it, the toilet isn’t in working order.

“Although the seat of the bike is indeed a toilet, it is not for actual use,” said Toto spokesman Kenji Fujita. “The fuel is eco-friendly biogas, stored in the tanks on the back. It’s a surprisingly nice way to travel.”

The motorcycle can travel up to 186 miles at a speed of 45mph before it needs to be, uh, recharged, as it were. Toto has no plans to sell the Toilet Bike Neo but they have added an interesting alternative to the mix.

I must admit that I do dig the old school whitewalls, if not the overall concept of the bike.