Well, hard to believe this was a flop.
https://www.carrozzieri-italiani.com/listing/italdesign-mach...
It's interesting that these are still essentially the regulations for e-bikes in the EU today, I guess slightly relaxed (25km/h, 250W average only but can peak higher).
So I looked up photos with a person inside and no, it really is that bad [0]. Pure form over function.
Uncomfortable, yes. That's bad enough. But you hands are far back under your center of gravity. Any crash over a few km/hr is going to result in a faceplant because there's no way you'll bring your hands forward fast enough. Top speed of 24km/hr is enough to cause serious... death by head trauma.
[0] https://www.autocar.co.uk/sites/autocar.co.uk/files/styles/g...
https://www.rad-innovations.com/blog-our-news/about-recumben...
I have occasionally seen continental European tourists on those in Ireland. They struck me as a really bad idea for another reason. They're very low to the ground, which is probably good for aerodynamics but terrible for visibility for people in trucks, busses etc. There's no way I would cycle one on any normal road.
Some people do have a small flag sticking up but I don't think that's enough.
We have our fair share of Range Rovers and other SUV shaped things but the bonnet heights are still not that far above average adult waist height.
Vehicles like Ford/RAM/GMC trucks with hood heights at or above eye level of an average adult just aren't a common sight at all.
Buses and trucks often have better visibility than those as they have a shorter distance between driver and the front of the vehicle. There are still huge blind spots though.
Most European countries have a much greater affinity and acceptance of cyclists than my experience of the US.
Cycling has its risks but it's far less dangerous than being sedentary. The UK has around 24 cyclist deaths per year per billion miles traveled. The US figure is about 4 times as high as the UK per distance traveled.
In the UK it's more dangerous to be a pedestrian (27 pedestrian deaths per year per billion miles traveled) yet people fixate on cycling being inherently dangerous whilst pedestrian deaths are just kind of an accepted consequence of cars driving right next to where pedestrians walk.
The wrist position is also rotated 90 degrees which looks a lot more comfortable with arms at sides IMHO.
Just like a kayak, but without the rowing.
Electric moped was right idea but some 30 years ahead of its time.
The battery in the C5 was designed to be run to 0% charge which would kill most lead acid batteries in no time, but if I remember rightly the charger would recover them by putting quite high voltages across them to de-sulphate them. Or something like that (not a lead acid battery nerd :-).
Electric milk floats (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_float) were common even in the 1960s, and, I think, decades earlier.
Electric forklifts have been common since a long time, too. Not having an exhaust is a big advantage when operating one indoors.
(Both also fairly nice, but milk floats where used on public roads and fork lifts require much more power than golf carts)
“On BBC's Top Gear programme in 2002, Jeremy Clarkson said, "I have to say, absolute hand on heart, I've never had so much fun in a car, really and truthfully, and I don't think I'd ever tire of it."”
There’s an electric two-seater now. Around €12k
And you'd get a fantastic amount more grunt uphill and a longer range with a modern battery and motor.
- Polypropylene injection-molded bodywork (largest of its kind in 1985)
- Lotus-designed suspension and handling geometry
- Electric motor based on a modified torpedo cooling fan design
- Handlebar-mounted electronics with LED range and load indicators
- Custom deep-cycle lead-acid battery technology with 'smart' charging
- Toothed-belt drive system for quiet operation
It really was like seeing a bit of design from the future. Commercially a failure, alas.
But then I was offered a C5 as a potential Christmas gift. "It's a Sinclair, you like those" was the approximate reasoning. But even I had to draw the line. There's only so much bullying one person can take. I was used to being laughed at for my fashion choices, my social awkwardness and my lack of sporting prowess. But a C5 would have been the final nail in the coffin.
Ungrateful? Certainly. But I think I made the right choice.
Yeah, I reminisced a bit in the thread about his death 5 years ago.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28564456
I did also get to play around in a C5 that they had at a secondary school that my father was teaching at (either Bassingbourn Village College or Collenswood School in Stevenage), must have been some time in the late 80s.
> There's only so much bullying one person can take. I was used to being laughed at for my fashion choices, my social awkwardness and my lack of sporting prowess.
School in the UK in the late 80s was brutal.
It was great going around the playground.
leke•3w ago
UncleSlacky•3w ago
https://95octane.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/sinclair_c5_...