Russian Ebike Tows a car .

eddieo

Banned
Jul 7, 2008
5,070
6
Must be the ugliest motor ever..........I was wondering how long it would take the tweakers to get their hands on a mobility scooter!lol
 

neptune

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jan 30, 2012
1,743
353
Boston lincs
@Indalo , thanks for providing that link .Reading between the lines , it seems the Russians are claiming a motor with much improved efficiency .As we have motors with an efficiency approaching 90% , even 100% would not be a game changer .Their motors are not exactly stealth size though ! Ugly or not , it is good to see some improvisation . Their trikes with the 2 small wheels on the front are a bit top heavy . Hope they have less potholes than we have . I never owned a Lada , but I once had a Moskvitch , which I swapped for a second hand alternator .It was a surprisingly good car .
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,604
30,874
Ladas were ok, they were just beefed up FIAT 124 models after FIAT won the contract to supply a suitable small car for Russian poor road conditions, beating the Morris Minor, and small Renault of the time. FIAT beefed up the suspension and rewired the car to household standards so that any electrician could sort it.

The winning touch that convinced the Russians was that FIAT flew in the cars to the demonstration ground and dropped them by parachute, proving how tough they were. A driver team then drove them off the drop pallets and did the demo. The competition delivered theirs in lorries, so FIAT's imagination won the day.

It was an amazing contract, because it included building a new city as well for the workers to build the cars in a giant factory, the city of Togliatti, named after a well known Italian communist, though Russia calls the city Tolyatti.
 

eddieo

Banned
Jul 7, 2008
5,070
6
I loved my Fiat 124 special T and the 2 124 coupes I had afterwards......
 

Hero Eco

Pedelecer
Jan 10, 2012
186
1
Gloucestershire
Hi Guys,

To shed some light, this is how Ultra Motor started all those years ago. A crazy russian came to a group of Venture Capitalists claiming to have an ultra efficient motor and he wanted to put it in the wheel of every bike in the world. The rest is history.....

Thanks
Mark
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,604
30,874
The Russians also make those brlliant and unique recumbent trikes with two and even three wheel drive, ideal for their snow and ice conditions of course.

And Russian ex-pat Georgi Georgiev makes the bikes that have held the unassisted cycling world speed record for many years.

Russian engineers and designers are far from being the dumbos that US propaganda likes to portray them as.
 

avronb

Pedelecer
Oct 8, 2011
97
0
A mate of mine once had a Russian Mars Ural motorcycle combo.it had three wheel drive and would go anywhere a landrover would go,i believe they used them for ploughing in the rural areas.I once saw a Zil limo,once used by the KGB,it was massive,built like a tank.