Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Markets in Everything: Yike Bike, Urban Transport

Link.

(HT: William Heasley)

15 Comments:

At 3/02/2010 10:33 AM, Anonymous morganovich said...

as a long time urban cyclist, there is no way i'd ride one of these.

first off, it's really slow. limited to 20kph, you'll get mauled in traffic.

second, this is a manifestly unsafe configuration in a head on crash. imagine something pulling out in front of you and you hit it. in a conventional bike configuration, you have a wheel as a crumple zone and arms to help you soak up the force. here, you lead with your knees and then get your head whiplashed forward. that's a likely crippling and possibly lethal situation.

third, this portability issue is just dumb. for the over $5000 that this costs you could buy a 14 pound bike that you could carry anywhere.

finally, that 10km range is very, very short and under city conditions (starting and stopping) i'll bet it's more like 4-5km.

it may be neat, but this thing is pretty much useless.

 
At 3/02/2010 10:58 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Liberals are known to have ideas. No one says their good.

Like the segway, it's destine for the trash heap of failed "The New Urban Environment" ideas.

 
At 3/02/2010 11:09 AM, Anonymous Enough said...

It reminds me of the vehicle Mr. Garrison invented in South Park.

 
At 3/02/2010 11:50 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Like the segway, it's destine for the trash heap of failed "The New Urban Environment" ideas.

For better or worse, the Segway isn't dead - yet

Nissan, I think, has one up on them.

 
At 3/02/2010 12:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't think there is anyway to get the PUMA street legal in the US. But like the Segway, the government is bound to buy a bunch of PUMAs for government.

I could see a bunch of Yikes zipping around the capital building with pages on them.

 
At 3/02/2010 1:22 PM, Blogger juandos said...

What an insanely silly idea for $4,450!

Who buys Segways besides government entities?

 
At 3/02/2010 2:05 PM, Blogger Shawn said...

...I did see a "tour of DC on a segway" thing the other day.

 
At 3/02/2010 3:05 PM, Anonymous geoih said...

I think its a great idea.

All of the safety concerns mentioned come from the antiquated idea that these sorts of things are "vehicles", when they're really just pedestians with wheels.

I don't care what kind of bike you're on. If you tangle with a 2 ton car, you're going to loose. You want safety? Get rid of the bike lanes in the road and make the side walk wider to accomodate these sorts of things.

 
At 3/02/2010 3:28 PM, Anonymous Benny The Man said...

I believe in free enterprise--although inventions like this one make shake the faith a little.

That, and rap music. I might accept state control of media if we could get rid of rap music....

 
At 3/02/2010 4:12 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

> "That, and rap music. I might accept state control of media if we could get rid of rap music...."

If you're still calling it rap music, you're making yourself sound like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino.

Try hip-hop or urban. ;)

 
At 3/02/2010 4:21 PM, Anonymous Benny "Clint" The Man said...

Clint Eastwood?
I'll take it!
You made my day.

 
At 3/02/2010 5:11 PM, Anonymous EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy said...

Though not explicitly stated it was implied that this thing has regenerative braking, which would help with the city-conditions range issue.

It was explicitly stated that is has anti-lock brakes, which combined with the low top speed suggests a pretty short stopping distance.

It fails as a car replacement because it is not protected from the weather (I noted how nice it was while they were filming...), and it's carrying capacity is limited to what you stuff in a backpack or satchel.

Looks like fun to ride down East Beach in Santa Barbara. Not so much in traffic.

 
At 3/02/2010 6:00 PM, Blogger BlogDog said...

It's the Apple of transport - high zoot design, pretty costly and looking to have a limited market share.
But probably fiercely loved the people who pony up for it.

 
At 3/02/2010 9:39 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I forgot about the urban planning movement. They're hoping to get rural areas like NYC to at least quadruply their population density so transportation like this would be viable.

 
At 3/02/2010 11:50 PM, Anonymous West said...

That's really cool.

Unfortunately, it's also seriously gay. NTTAWWT, but it's going to limit the market share to those who also buy 'european shoulder bags'.

 

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