SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Grant Sinclair, nephew of Sir Clive Sinclair, is promoting a new version of the C5, his uncle's electric trike of 32 years ago. The new one, called IRIS, is faster and has a weather enclosure. Both can be seen in this BBC article. The original C5 was launched back before people had become punch-drunk with announcements of personal transport revolutions; and in the UK, before the launch, there was great excitement and a general expectation of a small electric car.
However the C5 turned out to be an open three-wheeled pedal car with feeble electric assistance. The C5 (and Clive Sinclair himself) instantly became laughing stock, and it has been described as the "worst gadget of all time" and the "biggest technical flop ever". Nobody thought it was "cool", as the BBC commentator claims.
Arguably, the C5 set back the cause of EVs by a generation, as people assumed that any EV would be similar. One commentator said that it seemed axiomatic that EVs had to be "quirky, ugly and tiny". Indeed, IRIS joins quite a range of similar tiny EVs, none of which are showing much sign of revolutionising transport. Meanwhile conventional car type EVs look set to thrive.
[Ed. Note: The BBC link is a short video. This article on techmash has more words.]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Thursday February 16 2017, @09:55PM
You don't think Walmart bikes are good? Why not?
I don't have one, but I have looked at a couple somewhat recently, out of curiosity. They have an aluminum hybrid with Shimano components for about $150. It's not the lightest bike I've lifted, but it's also not a pure road bike, it's a hybrid with wide tires, and it seems to be pretty decent quality, and considering the $150 price tag seems to be a steal if you want a bike like that and don't need cutting-edge.
Now obviously, it's probably not as good as a $2000 bike from a bike shop, but I wouldn't expect it to be either. But is the $150 Walmart bike as good as a $500-1000 bike from 25 years ago? It might be.
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Friday February 17 2017, @05:02AM
John Forrester devotes a chapter to it in "Effective Cycling".
Essentially, the sub-$300 bikes are "toy" bikes. Maintenance is an after-thought.
The plastic parts are often harder to adjust. Before reading that book, I bought a cheap bike because I did not know what to look for.
Well, I learned that when the chain-rings wear out (one or two seasons with sand/salt/ice), you have to replace the whole crank-set because they are riveted in place.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 24 2017, @03:50AM
No, the Walmart bikes are not even close to the quality from 25 years ago. Look up a youtube channel called "bikemanforU", he runs a bike shop in Long Island. He has a few videos where he goes over the most common problems he sees in the shop with "Walmart" bikes. He doesn't discourage people from buying them, he just says that if you do here is what you will run into. The largest problems are poor assembly, no grease in any of the bearings and rims that are so poorly made that they tend to pop tubes or can't be trued.
If you look back though old (I'm talking all the way back to the 1920's and 30's) Sears catalogs and news paper ads for the name brands of their day, then adjust the prices for inflation you will find that quality bikes have almost consistently stayed in the $400-$500 equivalent range with a few lower and premium brands being more, some times as much as $3,000 in todays money. Bike prices have been pretty consistent though their history.