Ultra-thin "credit card" bike

[Tim]

I know they're short of space in Japan, but...

The Electric Bike Concept Ver2 from Yuji Fujimura looks to ease the parking space jam, with folding pedals and handlebars that leave you with a thin sliver of a bike. Special racks will allow about three of these bikes to fit in the space of one conventional bike. Like most of the new electric bikes, Fujimura's design lets you use pedal power, electric power, or a combination of both simultaneously

 

[Barnowl]

I think I've spotted a design flaw with this bike. Gusting side winds.

And it looks barking mad.

Interesting to see how it looks after a nice ride in the rain on muddy roads.

That side profile is just begging for advertising sponsership.

 

[Straylight]

I'd imagine that they haven't even built a prototype of this yet, as none of the publicity shots show anyone actually riding it. True, I doubt it would cope with crosswinds . Perhaps the intention is soley for use in very built up urban environments. Interesting the statement about modern ebikes having a power only option, I thought the law was pedelec only in Japan?

 

[flecc]

I think it's just a concept model, it's unlikely to have any transmission in there at present.

Japan is strictly pedelec only with the world's most demanding e-bike laws, but these concepts still appear regularly. I noticed the silly Yike bike was on the Gadget Show last night, again with wishful thinking that it might be permitted on UK roads. Like the Segway, no chance.
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[Lloyd]

Looks like a handbag with wheels

 

[theskip1]

looks a bit over designed when all you need is folding bars and peddles !

 

[NRG]

I think it's just a concept model, it's unlikely to have any transmission in there at present.

Japan is strictly pedelec only with the world's most demanding e-bike laws, but these concepts still appear regularly. I noticed the silly Yike bike was on the Gadget Show last night, again with wishful thinking that it might be permitted on UK roads. Like the Segway, no chance.
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I saw the yikebike in action at the Gadget show yesterday, as a piece of engineering its clever but as a practical means of urban transport I think its rubbish! It looked really fun under the control of the company rep on the test track but that was on a totally flat surface not a bump or kerb insight and he obviously knew how to ride it. Later in the main show event Otis rode it again and it was obvious that it was not easy to control. He also voiced doubts that at £3500(!) it would be a solution to urban transport problems.

Interestingly Segway where also there but I wonder why as you can't use one on the road and the show is primarily a consumer show so who's going to buy one...very few I would have thought....

 

[flecc]

I think the promoters live in hopes that if they show them enough, permission might be granted by some miracle.

The Department of Transport is very restrictively inclined though, not unlike Britain as whole really, so the chances of any of these pedestrian alternatives getting approval will always be slender. Perhaps they're right, these all have a definite element of danger when mixed with pedestrians, especially small children and dogs, both unpredictable in their movements.
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[rog_london]

Interestingly Segway where also there but I wonder why as you can't use one on the road and the show is primarily a consumer show so who's going to buy one...very few I would have thought....

The Segway might not ever be mainstream here in the UK - but if you've ever been to Schipol airport you might have seen the airport police use them to traverse the terminal at impressive speed....

I have a feeling I've seen American police using them for a similar purpose in busy city centres - but I'm not certain.

Rog.

 

[flecc]

The Segway might not ever be mainstream here in the UK - but if you've ever been to Schipol airport you might have seen the airport police use them to traverse the terminal at impressive speed....

I have a feeling I've seen American police using them for a similar purpose in busy city centres - but I'm not certain.

Rog.

Yes, some US police forces are using them Rog.

It's that impressive speed that worries me and would influence the DoT. It's one thing to have police officers using them, subject as they are to their internal discipline, quite another for anyone and everyone to hurtle around amongst pedestrians.
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[Alex728]

The Department of Transport is very restrictively inclined though, not unlike Britain as whole really, so the chances of any of these pedestrian alternatives getting approval will always be slender. Perhaps they're right, these all have a definite element of danger when mixed with pedestrians, especially small children and dogs, both unpredictable in their movements.
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people a decade or two your senior are already crashing mobility scooters in some number, leading to serious and even fatal injuries to themselves and other pedestrians (often from the same age group). Suffolk Constabulary have actually got active investigations running on fatal RTC's caused by these machines, and there are nationwide calls for a "driving test" and more accountability of users...

if older (and supposedly wiser) generations can't self-regulate their use of their vehicles, what hope do we have of the govt being more lenient on the the more "reckless youngsters?"

 

[flecc]

people a decade or two your senior are already crashing mobility scooters in some number, leading to serious and even fatal injuries to themselves and other pedestrians

I nearly got mown down in woodlands by someone in a mobility scooter who was decades younger than me. I don't know what make it was as he had the full weather protection hooding erected, but it came around a blind path bend at a crazy speed, hit tree roots where they crossed the path and it got airborne, bouncing all over the place on landing. I jumped behind an oak tree just in time. The kamikase pilot continued at same daft pace into the distance. I've never seen him since, so his suicide mission might have been successful.
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[Barnowl]

Ahhhhhhh all that power.

Aren't they limited to 4 MPH on the pavement. I thought they were only capable of 8 MPH tops.

I had a very near miss, myself, with one as I stepped out of a shop and he hit the wrong button or something

Still, senior citizens in cars can be a real menace as well. Most aren't.

 

[Alex728]

they are supposed to be, but you get 8mph and faster being ridden on pavements.

I think some are actually being derestricted as I once passed one on my push bike at 15mph in Reading (this was before I got my ebikes) and I had to put some effort into overtaking it!

 

[flecc]

Ahhhhhhh all that power.

Aren't they limited to 4 MPH on the pavement. I thought they were only capable of 8 MPH tops.

The legal limits are 4 mph on pavements, 8 mph on roads, but they aren't required to be restricted and some can travel at quite high speeds. The more moderate ones sometimes have a selector for the 4 mph, but the fatter tyred "off road" ones designed for tracks use as well are often the high performing ones.

There are calls for them all to be physically restricted in the way our e-bikes are.
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[wonderpup]

I nearly got mown down in woodlands by someone in a mobility scooter who was decades younger than me. I don't know what make it was as he had the full weather protection hooding erected, but it came around a blind path bend at a crazy speed, hit tree roots where they crossed the path and it got airborne, bouncing all over the place on landing. I jumped behind an oak tree just in time. The kamikase pilot continued at same daft pace into the distance. I've never seen him since, so his suicide mission might have been successful.
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I was in the reception of a rest home in Dunedin NZ a few years back when a gentleman in a mobility scooter came it, triumphantly exclaiming that he had ridden it to the top of Baldwin St., just round the corner from the home. Baldwin St. is the steepest residential street in the world [1]. "Was that a sensible thing to do," replied one the home's staff. "I think someone needs to have a look at the brakes now", replied the gentleman.

[1] Ob-bike - that we have the world's steepest street should make it obvious why I have an electric bike

 

[rog_london]

I understand that in the view of the insurance companies octogenarians are as accident prone as those in their 20s - this relating to cars etc.

Of course it's not (for the most part) because they have a deep rooted desire not to make it to 90, it's just that all the requisites for safe driving do IN SOME CASES fade away - eyesight, hearing, reaction time, sense of speed and distance - etc. Some of them never legally needed to pass a driving test in the first place. Although your licence has to be renewed annually once you get to 70 that's purely a formality and unless you declare a disability no medical check is required AFAIK. I believe the assumption is that you're supposed to know when the time comes to stop. I have no comment to make on that.

Some of the users of mobility scooters must have never driven before and some of those have never even used a bicycle....

Rog.

PS Just a technicality - the driving test was introduced 70 years ago, so in theory it would appear that anyone currently driving must have taken a test - but it's not so: if you learned to drive in the last war with the military you would have qualified for a licence with no formal test. That would have included my father if he were still alive - he'd be 88 and quite probably still driving.

 

[flecc]

if you learned to drive in the last war with the military you would have qualified for a licence with no formal test.

The military still make a mockery of civil law. The lower HGV age limit is 21 years, but for those in the army it's 18.
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[Alex728]

According to some old chaps I know who worked for the Post Office and BT, the Post Office were also able to override a lot of the driving test rules/requirements well into the 1970s, this was apparently done to cope with a large demand for telephone services.

they also seemed to have their own driving test rules, a few days intensive training and then the apprentices were issued a full UK driving license.. this was done both for small and larger vehicles..

 

[flecc]

Not much difference for the army Alex, they have their own test examiners.
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