OK, it's not a bike, but it is electric... Bubble cars are back!

[nigelbb]

Announced a long while ago at a too high £14,000, now at a ridiculous £22,000. the rather flimsy Microlino has no hope. The full size, well equipped MG EVs start at £30,000, not much more, and there will be better small EVs from China shortly, if we in Europe don't kill them with anti-dumping taxes.
.

The Dacia Spring at just £13,000 is the cheapest EV available by a long way.

Dacia Sandero details | carwow.co.uk

quotes.carwow.co.uk

 

[kevsbike]

Love the idea of an microcar EV, different times, but my wife's parents were bold enough to travel all the way up to Scotland in their three wheeler, yet our "Del Boy" Reliant Regal supervan always seemed to be travelling on a wing and a praver, especially on the hills.

Is it a bike, trike or boat, or.. anyway, get a waterproof electric assist on it and..?

Flip the boat 180 degrees, instant velomobile!

 

[guerney]

Love the idea of an microcar EV, different times, but my wife's parents were bold enough to travel all the way up to Scotland in their three wheeler, yet our "Del Boy" Reliant Regal supervan always seemed to be travelling on a wing and a praver, especially on the hills.



Flip the boat 180 degrees, instant velomobile!

How much for one with a slightly larger transparent boat on top, so that it opens like a clam?

Does anyone know what this gizmo is?

"is a two wheel drive system which functions similarly to a differential"

(cued)

 

[kevsbike]

Does it suffer the issue a teacher at school had? Drove into his garage right to the front. No reverse gear (*), and no room to open forward opening door.

(*) I think it was classified as a motor cycle.

Until 1963 only people with a full car licence could have a reverse gear on a 3-wheeler, which anyone with any sense would see wouldn't work so I suspect quite a few Reliants had their blanking plates removed.

You can still buy a Messerschmitt kabinenroller, but the Nimbus EV project looks like it is dead in the water, which doesn't at all surprise me.

 

[guerney]

Re: Small EVs. This is "available"pre-order:


Drive For Free? Cute-As-Heck Wink ‘LSV’ EVs Soak Up The Sun’s Power

Drive For Free? Cute-As-Heck Wink ‘LSV’ EVs Soak Up The Sun’s Power

Most cars sit parked for most of their lives. Most urban traffic moves at speeds much slower than 25 mph. What kind of car might thrive in our urban centers, while recharging from the sun while parked? One man in New York City is bringing a possible answer to market. Wink wink.

www.forbes.com

Wink Motors Inc.

Wink Motors Inc.

winkmotors.com

...and:

Eli Electric | Reimagine Personal Mobility

Smaller, simpler and friendlier, Eli ZERO is the ultimate two seater mobility device for agile daily movement. Eli ZERO reimagines the NEV and addresses the dynamic transportation demands of modern cities and towns by offering a versatile driving solution for both urban and suburban neighborhoods.

www.eli.world

better.bike

www.better.bike

The version below isn't "Fully enclosed", there's a big hole under the rider's feet.

If the bike + rider +cargo don't exceed about 180kg, with the right gearing, if my experience towing a heavy bike trailer is anything to go by, a legal 36V 250W BBS01B with the controller at 15A would be enough to get something like this (but fully enclosed) up steep hills. It'd be faster than treacle slow ascending steep hills, with the controller at 20A. To the garden sheds chaps!

With folding capability please, to fit in car boots, trains, buses, hallways (minus battery), under supermarket trolleys etc. And with fat tyres to cope with potholes. Must I wait for suitable developments of aerogel? Where can I buy cheap custom formed hemp fibreboard body panels? There's got to be a high seated folding reverse trike donor somewhere out there, perfect for BBS01B conversion, which can can have solar panelled folding bodywork attached...

 

[Ghost1951]

Until 1963 only people with a full car licence could have a reverse gear on a 3-wheeler, which anyone with any sense would see wouldn't work so I suspect quite a few Reliants had their blanking plates removed.

You can still buy a Messerschmitt kabinenroller, but the Nimbus EV project looks like it is dead in the water, which doesn't at all surprise me.

If I am not mistaken, I think some of those old two stroke bubble cars could get reverse by stopping the engine and then re-starting it in reverse. Give or take some ignition timing adjustment, a two stroke engine can do that. You can see how easy it would be with an electric starter to run in reverse by simply reversing the polarity of the current to the electric starter. The timing adjustment was no big deal. Back then, just about all motorcycles had a timing adjustment lever on the handlebar. Everything was crude and manually controlled.

Happy days, but TERRIBLY crude technology.

I was cycling along a country road the other day when a string of old Triumph sports cars on some sort of classic jolly came past me. There were five of them. You would not believe the stink of air pollution that came out of them. It has been very calm weather and it didn't blow away and I could still smell the un-burned hydrocarbons for about a half a mile of cycling.

I think we may easily overlook just how bad the road vehicle pollution was in the past. These classic cars are not worn out old wrecks belching oil fumes from worn out bores and valve guide leakage. THAT is how all the road traffic was back in the past. I notice it more or less every time an old world car comes by me.

People whinging away about poor air quality in modern Britain are whining ninnies wrapped up in a fantasy. They should have seen how it was when I was a kid.

 

[MikelBikel]

No good for cheap, simple bikes, but cars.. mmm
(Mazda patented it)

 

[MikelBikel]

Oops, DKW did it in 1928!

 

[esuark]

You would not believe the stink of air pollution that came out of them.

yes I have noticed that on a few occasions from "classic cars".

 

[MikelBikel]

Nothing new under the sun?
And it's a hybrid, with a gas generator under the back, according to the commentary..

 

[thelarkbox]

Is this credible?? passes my ill-informed sniff test, but?

 

[Benjahmin]

Coming back to three wheelers and reverse gear.
I seem to remember a mate of mine turning up on christmas day (I was about 16) in an old Bond. Starting it meant lifting the bonnet and kick starting the engine, think it was a 250 villiers two stroke single. The engine was actually mounted on the bogey with the front wheel, so the chain drive was straight to the wheel. The engine turned with the wheel and you got reverse by actually turning the whole assembly through 180 degrees.
It was noisy, smelly, cold and slow but we didn't get wet cruising around on christmas day. What a hoot.

 

[Ghost1951]

I remember in the mid 1970s when a guy I worked with drove into work in his orange Bond Bug. As he sped around the corner, trying to look cool, to impress some office girls, the three wheeler rolled over onto its side, and he had to exit the car, to roll it back onto its wheels. Who looks cool now -eh?

If you want a three wheeler that doesn't turn over easily, make sure the two wheels are at the front.

 

[sjpt]

If you want a three wheeler that doesn't turn over easily, make sure the two wheels are at the front.

Or how about a three seater tandem with an extra wheel in the middle in case of a heavy first stoker.
Steering might be a bit odd (but so is it with most tricycles, or so I understand.

 

[guerney]

You wouldn't have to leave your precious ultralight three wheeled EV out on the street to be stolen, if it could fold. There are folding reverse recumbent tadpoles which could be given solar panelled skins, but unfortunately they don't fold small, and they're too recumby/seats are too low. You've less chance of being squashed by a bus if seated higher up. Or much lower, so that you can safely trundle out from under some of the larger steel boxes on wheels, if they don't have spoilers, like a luge. An electric reverse tadpole luge with a wider & longer wheelbase and larger wheels, with the rider inclined at 45 degrees could be skinned (don't skin the rider, as that would be offputting for other road users - leave that job to SUVs) and made so it all folds, I reckon.

 

[Ghost1951]

You wouldn't have to leave your precious ultralight three wheeled EV out on the street to be stolen, if it could fold. There are folding reverse recumbent tadpoles which could be given solar panelled skins, but unfortunately they don't fold small, and they're too recumby/seats are too low. You've less chance of being squashed by a bus if seated higher up. Or much lower, so that you can safely trundle out from under some of the larger steel boxes on wheels, if they don't have spoilers, like a luge. An electric reverse tadpole luge with a wider & longer wheelbase and larger wheels, with the rider inclined at 45 degrees could be skinned (don't skin the rider, as that would be offputting for other road users - leave that job to SUVs) and made so it all folds, I reckon.

That video must be about the maddest thing I ever saw happen on a road.

I was wondering what the oncoming car drivers must have thought as that loon came speeding towards them.

I suppose the wing suit people are even madder. Numbers of them get smashed to bits by flying at about 100 miles an hour alongside cliffs and down narrow gorges and making a mistake and crashing into the rocks.