Northamptonshire Police are ramping up their use of a fleet of petrol/electric White Motorcycle Concepts hybrid three-wheelers by training non-motorcycle riding officers ahead of active duty.
The WMC300FRs are designed and built by UK firm White Motorcycle Concepts using the Yamaha Tricity as a base and the force took delivery of eight of them last September.
With two wheels up front, the machines can be ridden on a car licence and now the first two non-riding Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) have been put through a four-day training course so they can use the machines out on patrol.
The WMC300FRs differ from conventional police motorcycles because the standard 292cc four-stroke twist and go Yamaha engine has been combined with two 56V 12 amp-hour detachable lithium ion batteries to provide drive below 30mph. These are housed in a topbox made from recycled aerospace carbon fibre.
A central duct between the front wheels forces air through the vehicle rather than round it, which lowers drag and cuts emissions by a claimed 50%.
“It’s essentially a free ice-breaker for our officers. Policing isn’t all just enforcement, there’s a lot more to it, and it gives people an excuse to speak to us,” Neighbourhood Policing Team Sergeant, Greg Taylor told MCN back in February. “We’re not intimidating, we’re not scary people and we want people to come and talk to us. If we don’t know what’s going on, we can’t deal with any problems.”
Uncured offcuts are smooshed up to make that stuff everyone advertises as "forged carbon". Bit like using up the left over dough with biscuits.
