Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-49393998

by dustinmoris • 7 years ago

90 116 7 years ago

bbc.co.uk

aasasd• 7 years ago

Afaik most microcars are pretty much bikes or electric mobility scooters with bodies. Plenty of fun can be had by googling for ‘microcar.’

Even some beefier things like KTM X-Bow or Polaris Slingshot, which are racing cars for all practical purposes, are registered as bikes due to having no safety features.

m-i-l• 7 years ago

One of the "selling points" of the Sinclair C5 was that its electric motor was built by Hoover and would be serviced at the existing network of vacuum cleaner service centres[0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5

gcthomas• 7 years ago

Also odd, the driver is barefoot while he is stood on the motorway hard shoulder.

NietTim• 7 years ago

Quite in line with the eccentric vehicle :)

robk• 7 years ago

I'd almost expect that to be honest

C1sc0cat7• 7 years ago

or Socks with Sandals

thecatspaw2• 7 years ago

is it legal in the uk to drive barefoot?

jmkni2• 7 years ago

Yep - https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/road-safety/driving-witho...

Theodores• 7 years ago

Barefoot is quite common, particularly amongst those that wear high heels when out of the vehicle.

So long as you can push the pedals safely all is fine. The Highway Code does have a few words about wearing appropriate footwear, the biggest thing is insurance though. If you are driving in high heels and it all goes wrong then your insurance isn't going to necessarily help.

isoprophlex2• 7 years ago

Is it illegal anywhere? That's good to know as I often drive barefooted, like... Once every ten trips or so?

tumetab1• 7 years ago

Is legal in most places and barefoot is not very dangerous. The only risk I know is the foot slipping on pedal which seems unlikely to me.

The real DANGEROUS is with flip-fop, slippers or sandals and I can confirm from my experience.

You can get the front tip of your flip-flop stuck under the break pedal and, besides not being able to break quickly, you panic very fast.

If you're on flip-flops put them aside and drive barefoot.

teddyh2• 7 years ago

http://www.barefooters.org/faq-q19/

“It is perfectly legal to drive while barefoot in all 50 states in the United States, in Canada, and in the U.K.”

codeulike• 7 years ago

I swear I know that guy

adrianN4• 7 years ago

IMHO the future of personal transportation is vehicles like that. We don't have the space in cities to support 2-3 tons of steel per traveler, and plain bicycles are uncomfortable in bad weather, or when you are physically impaired. But small (electric?) velomobiles with three or four wheels are perfect for city commutes when cycling is not an option. They also don't need 15-20kWh/100km like an electric car would.

arethuza4• 7 years ago

Such as the Renault Twizy?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Twizy

adrianN4• 7 years ago

Yeah, that's a good example of a reasonable city car. I was thinking even smaller, like the PodRide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lKq1fGtXFM

csunbird• 7 years ago

Twizy with closeable windows would be a very nice thing, indeed.

pjc50• 7 years ago

I was also thinking of the venerable Sinclair C5.

The downside to these is having all the (percieved and real) vulnerability of the cyclist as well. And they still need quite a bit of space for parking.

_pmf_• 7 years ago

This one is exactly at the lower acceptability limit for me, but it seems deadly to onramp/offramp with it.

vanilla-almond• 7 years ago

three or four wheels are perfect

Presumably, not like the three-wheeled Robin Reliant car that launched in the UK in the 1970s :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQh56geU0X8

agurk• 7 years ago

To be pedantic it's a Reliant Robin (Reliant being the brand).

They actually are pretty stable vehicles, contrary to their reputation. For that clip you linked to it's like everything in Top Gear - staged for TV[0].

[0] https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/entertainment/news/...

cm2187• 7 years ago

aka Mr Bean's car

rando444• 7 years ago

These days, I believe all auto manufacturers that make three wheel cars (peugeot, etc.) .. make them with two wheels in the front.

I believe the majority of three wheel motorcycles are also made this way now as well.

gnikif2• 7 years ago

The future of personal transportation is no personal transportation.

hevi_jos• 7 years ago

Only in totalitarian dystopias.

I have been in socialist countries with diesel buses traveling empty everywhere most of the time. Then at peak hours getting full.

The theory was that they are much more efficient, and they are when they are full and you are transported like cattle, not moving directly where you want, and having to wait for them.

Bicycles or motorcycles are much better for moving around the city.

adrianN4• 7 years ago

What do you mean? People still need to get from A to B. A and B are different for almost everybody, so there has to be a "personal" leg of the journey, even if it's just walking to the bus stop.

teddyh2• 7 years ago

People with no opportunity for transportation are called “serfs”.

Razengan• 7 years ago

Sir Clive Sinclair thought so too and tried to make it happen about 35 years ago, but it didn't quite catch on, to say the least:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5

sprafa• 7 years ago

That looks great!

wazoox• 7 years ago

With 2 lead-acid batteries and a fragile plastic gear as an essential part of the transmission, it's hardly a surprise really.

However it's not that bad actually, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JikUIdHXcc

hawski• 7 years ago

I was curious, so I went to YouTube and watched a bit of this clip: https://youtu.be/xS6q27VOTOk?t=38

Interesting machine, but it's really a bicycle with a single-speed electric motor. With lots of issues, that currently would be easy to fix with off-the-shelf parts from electric bicycles.

But maybe more important notion is, that it's not fully covered. It's not all-weather vehicle, not even half-weather it seems.

ptaipale• 7 years ago

I seem to recall a Not-nine-o'clock-news episode where truckers were smashing C5's. This was after an episode where they smashed hedgehogs (naturally angering many).

The hedgehog thing is easily found on Youtube, but did I just imagine the C5 episode?

In any case, that was when I had pretty much given up hope with Sinclair QL (a home/business computer with 68008 CPU and 128K RAM).

VBprogrammer7• 7 years ago

I've expressed the same sentiment before. The problem is that even talking about electric cars gets people's knickers in a twist; they need to be able to drive for 1000 miles straight while towing an apartment on wheels behind them and any vehicle which can't do that just isn't good enough. They'd rather be dead than have to drive one of these.

adwww2• 7 years ago

See also "we can't have bike lanes because I'm a scaffolding contractor and need to deliver 40 tonnes of steel poles on my truck"

bananapear3• 7 years ago

I’d love an electric car but I also like my caravan (nice cheap (£20 a night) walking holidays in the countryside). I had to settle for a small diesel instead.

Towing isn’t something a lot of electric cars seem to be homologated for. I think the only current exception is the Tesla Model X.

Unfortunately the post-1997 EU licence restrictions (in the UK) mean that lots of people are restricted to a total gross weight of 3500kg for the car and trailer, so towing even a small caravan with a car that has batteries would need the driver to do another driving test.

masklinn2• 7 years ago

The problem is that even talking about electric cars gets people's knickers in a twist; they need to be able to drive for 1000 miles straight while towing an apartment on wheels behind them and any vehicle which can't do that just isn't good enough.

I mean that's understandable, if the car you buy can only handle small commuting that means at the very least the additional cost of using other transport methods or renting a car or having a second car (all of which may be problematic or impossible) when you need to see friends, your family, or go on holidays. And that's not "par" money as the EV is not going to be significantly cheaper than an equivalent ICE.

A small and cheap comfy-ish EV might actually be a good option there, as it lets you have a regular car when you need to e.g. go to Ikea (which might be out of range of an EV depending where you live) or drive to the next country or go see your sister a few hundred miles away without significant additional costs, but it needs to be small (so it's not an issue e.g. for people living in cities who may not have access to a garage at all let alone a multi-car one) and cheap (so it's not a drain on resources, or at least not a big one, compared to just using the one car all the time).

Incentives are a thing, and currently EVs mostly incentivise using something else if you don't have fuck you money and more surface than you can use. As-is, plug-in hybrids are probably a better option for single people or single-car households.

C1sc0cat7• 7 years ago

Whist driving that hit anything or be hit by anything, would have a good chance of being dead, it looks like a DIY Sinclair C5.

growlist• 7 years ago

...in America perhaps.

Separo2• 7 years ago

Also think they are the future.

Remember the Lit Motors C1? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdHo01xYTWQ

And the Monotracer? https://www.peravescz.com/

And the Lit Motors C1 Chinese copy? https://electrek.co/2016/06/14/chinese-copycat-lit-motors-se...

Separo2• 7 years ago

There's a good collection of them here too: http://www.bikeweb.com/image/tid/13

Also check out the amazing 1991 BMW C-1 fully enclosed successor concept that never made it to production: http://www.bikeweb.com/node/130

efdb• 7 years ago

how about this?: https://www.carver.earth/

electric 3 wheel car/scooter for 1-2 persons

prawn• 7 years ago

Why don't we have more golf carts or similar vehicles on urban streets? I assume they're electric and easily rechargeable? Strikes me as a decent, existing platform upon which to build variants - could have a larger tray at the rear, netted storage at the front, etc.

RV parks and campground hosts and some retirees use them for getting about in a very local context. I know they're probably serve a lot of the needs I'd have in a second car.

yoz-y• 7 years ago

Some cities apparently have.

https://jalopnik.com/theres-an-entire-town-in-georgia-design...

mrtksn• 7 years ago

There’s a town where people only drive golf carts: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pcVGqtmd2wM

It seems like it works for them.

lnsru• 7 years ago

Sounds good to me, but I am already afraid crossing a street in Munich. People don’t let other people cross the street even during green light phase. It’s much safer to cross street somewhere in the middle between intersections without traffic light and without cars. Aggressive driving with old premium cars like A8, Cayenne, various AMGs is pretty normal. I don’t mind driving electric tricycle or extremely small electric 4-seater, but not in this ancient, made for cars infrastructure. I value my life and life of my family too much: https://m.dw.com/en/berlin-drag-racers-sentenced-to-life-in-...

rubber_duck• 7 years ago

I drive a motorcycle daily and this seems like the drawbacks (low crash protection, lower stability, low load capacity) without the benefits (agility, effortless parking).

If this looks viable to you - consider getting a scooter or a small bike, they are great secondary vehicles when you need to get from a to b alone or with one more person and a lot of fun to drive/very versatile for parking.

There are some electrics but even if you get a ICE it will spend less fuel then a car (untill you get to 600cc sportbikes and derivatives :) )

C1sc0cat7• 7 years ago

For super short range commutes there is the new Vespa Electrica - but it costs more than the new 300HPE Vespas.

collyw2• 7 years ago

So many problems would be solved with a lower population.

adrianN4• 7 years ago

The most pressing problem, climate change, needs to be solved in twenty years. There is no ethical way of reducing population levels in that time frame.

baybal2• 7 years ago

IMHO the future of personal transportation is vehicles like that. We don't have the space in cities to support 2-3 tons of steel per traveler, and plain bicycles are uncomfortable in bad weather, or when you are physically impaired. But small (electric?) velomobiles with three or four wheels are perfect for city commutes when cycling is not an option. They also don't need 15-20kWh/100km like an electric car would.

And it pretty much is already. For much of Asia, a 150cc scooter is a standard of personal transportation. Just wait until they change to electric.

jansan• 7 years ago

Hmm, no mentioning of his dog Gromit. I hope he is doing well.

goatinaboat• 7 years ago

Far from the shonkiest vehicle I have ever seen on the M25.

Rumperuu• 7 years ago

Reminds me of the Czechoslovakian Velorex, which had three wheels, a motorcycle engine and a leather body[0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velorex

aivisol• 7 years ago

Or soviet "invalidka": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMZ_cyclecar. (4 wheels though)

zik2• 7 years ago

It's a velomobile. They're somewhat unusual but surely not so unusual that they're worthy of a newspaper article? There are quite a few manufacturers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velomobile#Velomobile_manufact...

arethuza4• 7 years ago

I think the news story is also that it was spotted on the M25 which is the orbital motorway round London that is quite busy and that it is, in fact, perfectly legal.

Edit: Also it is the BBC which has a track record of regarding unusual vehicles as entertaining:

https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/top-gear-technology-cent...

From the 'review': "Against: The crash protection is a bit fleshy"

Digit-Al• 7 years ago

M25 not M24

adwww2• 7 years ago

Also it's mildy amusing that the police stopped it because OBVIOUSLY that's not road legal, but it turns out that actually there was nothing they could cite it for - unlike a good number of cars on the road.

chrisseaton3• 7 years ago

I think a velomobile is human powered - a pedal bike. This was a motorcycle.

zik2• 7 years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velomobile#Electric_assisted_v...

senthilnayagam• 7 years ago

it rear side resembles like a small boat

buffaloo• 7 years ago

In the UK can traffic police stop motorists for no reason? No probable cause required?

sgjohnson• 7 years ago

Yup. In the UK police can also stop and search you at their liberty.

Airstrip One.

ntzm• 7 years ago

They have to have probable cause, but like in most other countries they'll just make something up like they smell drugs or whatever

conjectures• 7 years ago

Yup (or at least, some reason could always be found). But they don't shoot you as much. So it's swings and roundabouts really.

overtlypensive• 7 years ago

Edit: never mind; I should read my sources.

collyw2• 7 years ago

Pedal bikes aren't allowed on the motorways in the UK, so I assume this falls under some similar sort of rule.

Reason077• 7 years ago

As reported on Twitter, this is Cedric Lynch's vehicle:

https://greentransportation.info/videos/history/cedric-lynch...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/isleofman/content/articles/2009/06/15/e...

He is something of an electric vehicle innovator, inventing the Lynch motor in the 1970s/80s:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynch_motor

dlub• 7 years ago

Driver of the vehicle also invented and built the motor which powers it - The Lynch Motor - an axial-flux permanent magnet electric motor. See

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynch_motor

Video of Cedric talking about the 'thingymobile'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnqoH0YaCsE

johnbatch• 7 years ago

From Twitter [1] It's Cedric Lynch's car. There is a YouTube video [2] of him showing it off and saying it goes 55mph and gets 150-200 miles on a charge of its Lithium batteries. And another picture of him with it (and also barefoot) [3]

1. https://twitter.com/mikel01/status/1163709573984899072?s=21

2. https://youtu.be/KnqoH0YaCsE

3. http://www.bikeweb.com/node/2601

Jazgot• 7 years ago

This is truly amazing, thank you for the links!

faissaloo• 7 years ago

I'd love to build my own custom vehicle, I wonder what it would involve in terms of making it road legal

Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire

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