When it comes to motorized off-road activities, motorcycles already have some pretty strong credentials. As replacements for ATVs, there are even more extreme designs, such as the two-wheeled Rokons, but the Oruga Unitrack (under development in Latvia) takes a different approach.
According to its creators, the Oruga Unitrack is “the world’s first electric monorail all-terrain vehicle, designed to be versatile, robust and resistant, taking into account the environment, and created for use in a variety of terrains, seasons and operations”. It replaces conventional wheels and tires with “tracks” to distribute its weight over a greater surface area. It’s still undeniably a motorcycle – after all, it has two “road wheels”, even if they are accompanied by a third support wheel mounted in an elevated position at the front to help overcome large obstacles – but it’s unlike any motorcycle currently in production.
There have been monorail vehicles before, although not in mass production, but the Oruga Unitrack aims to combine that idea with an electric motor and, unlike most of the built models we’ve seen before, it has suspension and a curved surface that allows it to lean into corners.
At the moment, Oruga has only officially shown some conceptual drawings and recently appeared at the Outdoor Riga fair in the Latvian capital with scale models of the future machine. However, the design registrations for the finished machine have also been officially published through the European Union Intellectual Property Office, giving a clear view of the Unitrack’s intended appearance.