Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by on Thursday February 16 2017, @05:07PM   Printer-friendly
from the it's-faster-than-walking-now dept.

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.]


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by AndyTheAbsurd on Thursday February 16 2017, @06:05PM

    by AndyTheAbsurd (3958) on Thursday February 16 2017, @06:05PM (#467901) Journal

    As for the final price of the Iris eTrike Eco will be priced at £2,999 and the Iris eTrike Extreme will cost £3,499.

    Another velomobile [wikipedia.org] that will fail because it simply costs too damned much.

    Can anybody make a commercial velomobile that retails for under $1,000? I can't recall ever seeing one; and I'd build my own but I don't want to get involved in welding together a metal frame and shaping a body out of chloroplast and acrylic myself.

    --
    Please note my username before responding. You may have been trolled.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday February 16 2017, @07:37PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Thursday February 16 2017, @07:37PM (#467924)

    It's hard to find an electric-assist bike for under $1000 in the US.
    And that's with 2 wheels, no panels, a tiny battery, no bodywork, and higher sales volumes.

    • (Score: 2) by AndyTheAbsurd on Thursday February 16 2017, @08:35PM

      by AndyTheAbsurd (3958) on Thursday February 16 2017, @08:35PM (#467944) Journal

      Personally, I do not find [amazon.com] that [roadbikeoutlet.com] to be true [ridegenesis.com].

      Of course, if you insist on buying from a local bike shop (which is probably a good idea), these prices will probably go up any from 10 to 50% or possibly even more, which will put my examples over $1000.

      --
      Please note my username before responding. You may have been trolled.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @08:33AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @08:33AM (#468136)

      I bought one for $800 new off ebay - shipped from CA. That was in 2009-10 and they guy said he was trying to get out of the business. Even by 2012 I was still the only person I saw who had one of these things and I was hardly an early adopter. On the forums, people were excited that cars were becoming electric as it would mean lower prices for the batteries. So I would have expected prices to be lower now. I moved country and sold the bike so I haven't been following developments.

  • (Score: 1) by klondike0 on Thursday February 16 2017, @07:40PM

    by klondike0 (1511) on Thursday February 16 2017, @07:40PM (#467925)

    Another question is whether a company can sell a good bike for less than $1000 -- doesn't seem to happen much (Nashbar maybe?). I think that bikes are one of those things that last a long time and the market is normally saturated, so they have to make more money on something that *should* be quite cheap to produce.

    Look at the way bike parts are overly innovated and the price of them is pretty dern high compared to car parts.

    • (Score: 2) by AndyTheAbsurd on Thursday February 16 2017, @08:37PM

      by AndyTheAbsurd (3958) on Thursday February 16 2017, @08:37PM (#467946) Journal

      I think that depends on what you consider "good". I'd bet we can both agree that if you're buying your bike at Wal-Mart, chance are that it's not good - but I find my Electra Townie 7D to be a good bike and I've only got about $750 in it - including a number of accessories.

      --
      Please note my username before responding. You may have been trolled.
      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Thursday February 16 2017, @09:55PM

        by Grishnakh (2831) on Thursday February 16 2017, @09:55PM (#467977)

        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

          by Scruffy Beard 2 (6030) on Friday February 17 2017, @05:02AM (#468089)

          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

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 24 2017, @03:50AM (#471006)

          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.