Horses of Iron

[sk8norcal]

found more tidbits about the socovel,
added to my original post...

http://electrifyingrides.blogspot.com/2 ... -1_23.html
http://electrifyingrides.blogspot.com/2 ... ed-by.html

[Lock]

Tks for the pic of the GM Sk8... Had one but not as good... Also didn't have that info about being manufactured in Sweden ie for the European market rather than for North America... found another pic

GM_Nordiska_ELC10_1941.jpg (75.66 KiB) Viewed 1571 times

Described elsewhere as a "delivery vehicle"...

L

[Lock]

Pretty cool thread mostly about cyclecars... Up to 101 pages now since OP in December 2007:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=226791

Stuff like:








Fun copywrite notice...

Copyright © 1995-2012 Atomic Industry: Steal our stuff, we'll kick your teeth in.

Unfortunately with these long-lived threads, linked info starts to disappear

For this Horses stuff I've always tried to upload as attachments in the hopes of avoiding those broken links...

L

[Lock]

Popular Mechanics magazine is pretty fun... just flipped through a year of these monthly mags, from 1911. A few bits:

Popular_Mechanics_1911Jan.jpg (62.39 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

Popular_Mechanics_1911April.jpg (97.37 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

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Popular_Mechanics_1911Feb_windshield.jpg (69.38 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

Popular_Mechanics_1911March_backrest.jpg (57.53 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

Popular_Mechanics_1911June_mirror.jpg (47.04 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

Popular_Mechanics_1911June_skate.jpg (42.81 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

Popular_Mechanics_1911July_4wheeled.jpg (72.34 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

Popular_Mechanics_1911July_new_cell.jpg (61.99 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

Popular_Mechanics_1911July_first_US.jpg (72.02 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

[Lock]

Popular_Mechanics_1911August_lines.jpg (56.63 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

Popular_Mechanics_1911Sept_tethered.jpg (83.37 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

Popular_Mechanics_1911Oct_toboggan.jpg (106.44 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

Popular_Mechanics_1911Oct_emb.jpg (108.47 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

Popular_Mechanics_1911Nov_RC.jpg (77.27 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

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Popular_Mechanics_1911Nov_gasoline.jpg (54.98 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

Popular_Mechanics_1911Nov_coach.jpg (106.06 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

Popular_Mechanics_1911Nov_backrest.jpg (52.33 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

Popular_Mechanics_1911Nov_pedocycle.jpg (47.64 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

Popular_Mechanics_1911Dec_pedocycle.jpg (106.62 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

Popular_Mechanics_1911Dec_chauffeur.jpg (100.73 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

Popular_Mechanics_1911Dec_gasolinegun.jpg (67.7 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

Popular_Mechanics_1911Dec_springwheels.jpg (142.6 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

Popular_Mechanics_1911Dec_polarity.jpg (61.47 KiB) Viewed 1541 times

[oatnet]

The attachment Popular_Mechanics_1911Nov_pedocycle.jpg is no longer available

The attachment Popular_Mechanics_1911Nov_pedocycle.jpg is no longer available

I like the pedocycle, and want to try one. I hate the name though, it makes me picture something like this:

MJ_BIKE.jpg (44.96 KiB) Viewed 1507 times

[sk8norcal]

With colourful stories, eccentric characters and evocative archive, this timepiece documentary charts the up and down 110 year history of the electric car. Narrated by Kenneth Cranham, the film features vintage electric car collectors, EV designers and EV evangelists as well as dyed-in-the-wool petrol heads.

The film examines the failings of early EVs, the false dawn resulting from the energy crisis of the 70s and the controversial crushing of the GM EV1. Lastly, as mainstream manufacturers such as Renault invest billions in new EVs and governments invest in charging infrastructure, the film examines why it will be different this time.

See more RTV programmes at www.renault.tv or watch on Sky channel 883 or Freesat channel 651

[vax]

She's called the Liberator:
http://liberatorbike.blogspot.com/

[Lock]

She's called the Liberator:
http://liberatorbike.blogspot.com/

And she is a BEAUTIFUL thing Vax!



Tasty bits...


...and Sk8. Thanks for that Renault vid!

Lock

[sk8norcal]

no prob,

lunar mini bike?
http://www.staynehoff.net/0-lunar-minibike.jpg

[Lock]

no prob,
lunar mini bike?

HA! "...practicing riding the lunar mini-bike in the zero-g "Vomit Comet" (mini-bike concept later abandoned)..."

Gotta wonder what sort of batteries they were thinking of using...
http://www.universetoday.com/19623/temperature-of-the-moon/

So if you were standing on the surface of the Moon in sunlight, the temperature would be hot enough to boil water. And then the Sun would go down, and the temperature would drop 250 degrees in just a matter of moments.

[sk8norcal]

She's called the Liberator:
http://liberatorbike.blogspot.com/

amazing bike!

he's on here,
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=36503

unusual setup for the hub motor,

[Lock]

http://www.bonhams.com/press_release/10658/

11 Jun 2012

The Eddie Rickenbacker's collection of motorcycles heads for auction at Quail

Bonhams to sell the 30 motorcycles from the San Francisco landmark at Quail Lodge in August.

The motorcycles hanging from the ceiling as adornments in the famous San Francisco bar and grill Eddie Rickenbacker's will be auctioned by the world's leading auctioneer of motorcycles, Bonhams, this August.

Named after the Great World War flying ace and Congressional Medal of Honour recipient Eddie Rickenbacker, the watering hole and eatery was established by the eccentric and colourful Norman Hobday, a.k.a. Henry Africa, himself either an army veteran, former merchant marine, or escaped Legionnaire, depending upon which version is believed.

Hobday was renowned for his creation of the fern bar concept and invention of the Lemon Drop Martini. He wasn't a motorcycle aficionado but after acquiring an old Indian during a search for antiques and then displaying in it his bar, he realised it brought lots of attention and subsequently acquired others. Soon Eddie Rickenbacker's became known more for its décor – comprised of old motorcycles, toy trains and antique lamps – than its fare. Over the years Hobday's collection grew to 30 vintage machines of various years, makes and models, each displayed either in the venue's windows or dangled from its ceiling.

With the passing of Hobday last year, the collection of motorcycles from his San Francisco landmark has been entrusted to Bonhams, who will represent it at auction during the Pebble Beach Automotive Week this coming August.

Most of the motorcycles are American marques – Cleveland, Excelsior, Harley-Davidson, Henderson, Indian, Reading, however there are many British and European makes as well – Ariel, Monark, Moto Guzzi, Motosacoche, New Imperial, Nimbus, Peugeot and Triumph, among others.

The famous Eddie Rickenbacker's Collection of motorcycles joins the extraordinary group of American motorcycles from a private European collection that includes the much anticipated and talked about three Crocker road models. This impressive assembly of nearly 60 two-wheeled machines will be offered Thursday, August 16th at Quail Lodge in Carmel, California – the first day of the two-day automotive auction hosted by Bonhams.

With Thursday being dedicated to motorcycles, Friday (August 17th) will be dedicated to motorcars, such as the astounding 1997 McLaren F1 GTR racer that has the car world abuzz. Entries for motorcycles are now closed but Bonhams is still accepting entries of unique and important cars for consideration. Interested sellers may contact Mark Osborne in San Francisco or Rupert Banner in New York.

To register to bid, order a catalogue, and to learn more about these motorcycles and/or motorcars, visit bonhams.com/quail
http://www.bonhams.com/quail

Few pics from Flickr:

[Lock]

Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Arts
May 1, 1869

A TWO-WHEELED STEED. I am not ashamed to admit having always cherished a peculiar admiration, at one time amounting to awe, for anything that would go round. A wheel has never been without its charm for me. I remember, at school, the affection with which I regarded wheels of all sorts, and how all my favourite toys as a child were rotary ones. The knife-grinder who used periodically to stop in front of our play-ground gates to grind the young gentlemen's knives, has probably died without knowing the inward comfort he administered to my breast, through the opportunities he afforded me of seeing his wheel go round at public expense.

Only the other day, I confided to an old friend that I still possessed a sneaking regard for wheels, and though he rewarded my confidence with a pitiful sneer, I know that this wretched old hypocrite himself keeps a wonderful brass top that will spin for an hour, under a glass case on his study-table, and in secret delights to watch it in motion.

A clever marine engineer, who loves wheels too, once told me with great gravity that the human mind has never yet discovered anything so wonderful as the principle of the common wheelbarrow, 'an invention,' he said, 'to which that of the steam-engine itself is nothing. The wheelbarrow,' he went on, 'is the only example I am acquainted with in which the very weight of a load is fairly utilised as a locomotive power.' There was a copy of Punch on my table. Our conversation had turned to the subject of wheelbarrows from looking at Mr Keene's vignette, in which, some three years ago, Mr Punch was depicted as Blondin, but performing the impossible feat of wheeling himself in a wheelbarrow along a tight-rope in the Crystal Palace transept. My engineer friend then remarked that, putting aside the tight-rope business, he was firmly convinced that Mr Keene had in jest represented what would by-and-by be accepted in serious earnest as the only correct principle on which to construct a self-driven vehicle - namely, employing the weight of the body as a propelling power, and relying on the fact of motion as the means of balance. One thing will at least be conceded by any person who will take the trouble to turn to the sketch, and that is, notwithstanding all recognised notions and experience to the contrary, the picture of a man driving himself in a wheelbarrow looks strangely plausible, probably from the fact, that the mind of the observer communicates motion to the wheel, and is satisfied to receive that as the explanation of the balance.

The two-wheeled velocipede or bicycle is in part a realisation of Mr Keene's picture. It depends upon motion for its balance. The two wheels, one in front of the other, with a saddle between, whether mounted by a rider or not, will not stand upright for a single instant at rest; but, like the boy's hoop, being kept trolling, they maintain a perfect equilibrium.

The bicycle can hardly be called a 'new invention,' being to a great extent a modification of that very old toy-vehicle of our fathers, the hobby-horse, whereon the rider used to sit and row himself along, so to speak, by paddling with his feet on the ground; at the same time, the entire reliance on the principle that motion would be, under any circumstances, sufficient to produce balance, is sufficiently novel almost to justify the use of such a term. The French appear to be entitled to whatever of credit attaches to the original invention of the hobby-horse (a miserable steed at best, which wore out the toes of a pair of boots at every journey. M. Blanchard, the celebrated aeronaut, and M. Masurier conjointly manufactured the first of these machines in 1779, which was then described as 'a wonder which drove all Paris mad.' The French are probably justified, moreover, in claiming as their own the development of this crude invention into the present velocipede, for, in 1862, a M. Riviere, a French subject, residing in England, deposited in the British Patent Office a minute specification of a machine identical with that now in use. His description was, however, unaccompanied by any drawing or sketch, and he seems to have taken no further steps in the matter than to register a theory which he never carried into practice. Subsequently, the bicycle was re-invented by the French and by the Americans almost simultaneously, and indeed, both nations claim priority in introducing it. It came into public notoriety at the last French International Exhibition, from which time the rage for them has gradually developed itself, until in this present 1869, it may be said, much as it was a century ago, that Paris has again been driven mad on velocipedes.

Extensive foundries are now established in Paris for the sole purpose of supplying the iron-work, while some scores of large manufactories are taxing their utmost resources to meet the daily increasing demand for these vehicles. The prices of good serviceable velocipedes range from two hundred and fifty to four hundred francs (ten to sixteen pounds), at a less price than which a really good machine cannot be obtained either in England or France. The best French pattern is that of Michaux et Cie., which is the one now adopted by most of the English builders with more or less correctness. The height of the driving-wheel most suitable for general use is three feet.

The advantages of the bicycle over the three and four wheeled velocipedes are many and considerable. It is less than half the weight of the old machine, being but a little over forty pounds; and the friction is reduced to something like two-thirds. The power operating directly on the cranks, instead of being communicated through long levers, is wholly utilised, whilst the motion of the feet is more analogous to that of walking. When once accustomed to the use of the two-wheeled velocipede, it is not at all fatiguing, whereas the many-wheelers condemn their riders to a term of hard labour. As the result of several months' experience in driving a bicycle, I have no hesitation in estimating it as a clear gain of five to one in comparison with walking; that is to say, the rider may go five miles with the same expenditure of labour as in walking one, and after a journey of fifty miles he will feel no more fatigue than after having walked ten. Notwithstanding appearances to the contrary to the unaccustomed eye, the bicycle is, moreover, a safer machine than any velocipede with three wheels, and far more under control. To turn a corner with a three-wheeler at anything like speed, is a most hazardous experiment, resulting almost certainly in a 'spill' - because the speed lifts the hind-wheel describing the outermost circle, from the ground; whereas the two-wheeler, when on the turn, stands at an inclination like a skater's body, more or less acute according to the quickness of the curve to be described.

With regard to the speed which may be attained, fifteen miles an hour, under the most favourable circumstances, that is, good hard road, not level, but without very steep hills, and no wind blowing, is probably the limit of the velocipede's powers; but a pace of nine or ten miles an hour may be maintained for five or six hours without distress. Long journeys on level road are perhaps the most fatiguing, on account of their monotony, because then the feet, as in walking, are nearly always at work. Still, even in this case, the driver can maintain his speed with one foot, resting the other on the leg-rest; or, if disposed, he may even place both feet on the rests, and run four or five hundred yards without working at all. The slightly increased labour of climbing a hill is nothing to the zest imparted by a knowledge that there is sure to be a hill the other side to go down, and that is the most luxurious travelling that can be imagined. Descending an incline at full speed, balanced on a beautifully tempered steel spring that takes every jolt from the road - wheels spinning over the ground so lightly they scarce seem to touch it - the driver's legs rested comfortably on the cross-bar in front - shooting the hill at a speed of thirty or forty miles an hour - the sensation is only comparable to that of flying, and is worth all the pains it costs in learning to experience it. The velocipedist feels but one pang when he reaches the bottom of a hill, and that is, that it is over; and but one exquisite wish, which is, that the entire country might somehow become metamorphosed into down-hill. But the hill is bountiful even after one has left it, for the impetus derived from a good incline will carry the rider at least the hill's length on level ground before he need remove his feet from the rests and commence working again. The slightest incline on a good road is sufficient to obviate all necessity for working with the feet, so that what little labour there is (and it is of the easiest), is by no means incessant. In a journey of twenty miles on good road, a driver should not work more than twelve - the inclines do the rest. Of course, there are hills so steep that to ascend them is impossible: yet, for myself, living in a hilly county, which I have pretty well explored on my two-wheeled steed, I can reckon up their number on the fingers of one hand. There are also hills where the labour becomes as much as, or more than, walking, but these must be of a gradient something like one in twelve, and such hills are not frequent. When they do occur, the rider may, if he will, dismount. It is a subject of smiling pity to many of the uninitiated to behold a velocipedist dragging his horse after him up a hill - and cruelly realised, too, in the case of three and four wheeled machines; but the bicycle is better than any walking-stick to assist a person up an incline, even when only walking beside it. Resting one elbow on the saddle, and leaning the weight of the body on that, while guiding the handle with the other hand, the machine becomes a positive assistance instead of an incumbrance. This sounds like fiction, but it is fact. Experto crede.

There are persons who advertise to teach the use of the velocipede in 'a few hours.' Not long ago an enterprising French master advertised to teach the French language (in the intervals of seasickness) during the voyage from Dover to Calais. It should not be concealed that it requires as much time to learn the use of the bicycle as to learn to skate - and there are also occasional falls incidental to learning either. To urge the time necessary to acquire its use as an objection against the two-wheeled steed, would, however, be manifestly unjust. So difficult is it to balance the human body on merely two small legs and a pair of feet, in an upright position (a position such as would be scarcely possible to make an exact model of a man, even without life, retain for a single instant), that it has taken most of us a twelve-month to learn how to do that. It is sufficient to say that a person may attain the management of a two-wheeled steed in less time than that of a four-footed one, and when he has done so, for speed, endurance, and inexpensiveness, the former will at least bear favourable comparison with the latter. As in skating, a week's steady and persevering practice is needful to acquire a comfortable balance, and gain control over the unaccustomed form of support. The 'falls' referred to above, as happening in learning the velocipede, are nothing to those incurred in learning to skate. No one should mount a bicycle until he is acquainted with the way to get off, which is really the first lesson. Whichever way the machine is going to fall, the learner has only to put out his foot on that side. His foot being not more than three inches from the ground, the horse, in the act of falling, will deliver him safe on terra firma, if he will only let it, whilst, by retaining his grasp of the handles, the rider at once balances himself on alighting, and saves the velocipede from falling. Some difficulty in remounting without help is sure to be experienced by a learner. For a month he must content himself with the assistance of the first post or gate or palings he sees by the wayside; but he will soon discard such assistance, and be able to vault on the saddle whilst his horse is in motion. Good hard road is essential for velocipede-driving. In muddy or loose gravelly road, the work becomes proportionately laborious. But with good 'going ground,' it is difficult to convey how little labour is really required to maintain a high rate of speed - in fact, the great trouble with beginners is to get them to restrain the expenditure of muscular force. Velocipede-driving is, I believe from experience, most healthy and exhilarating, since it exercises all the muscles of the limbs in a manner much more uniform than would at first be credited, and certainly without undue strain on any part of the body. To the spectator, the velocipedist appears almost wholly to employ his legs, but in reality the muscles of the arms are in strong tension in the act of grasping the handles, so as to counteract the motion of the feet on the pedals, which motion would otherwise tend to sway the wheel from side to side. In fact, after a long journey, the driver will feel more fatigue in his arms than in his legs. Once mastered, the two-wheeled steed is a docile and tractable animal, equally sensitive to bit and bridle, and a sturdy friend to the traveller. For him the pike-men throw open their gates without asking for toll. He needs neither corn nor beans, nor hay nor straw, neither hostler nor stableman. His stable is a bit of the passage-wall, against which he reposes, without taking up any room, until his master needs him again - his only food, a pennyworth of neat's-foot oil per month.

There is a Japanese sauce surnamed the 'Maker to Eat.' It will have little charm to the palate of him who drives a bicycle; for, be he the veriest epicure of the epicurean sort, he will, after a three hours' run, possess an appetite to which the most homely bread and cheese appears dainty.

At present, the bicycle is regarded, in England, very much in the light of a toy, and its practice as a pastime: not so in Paris and New York, where persons of all grades may be seen solemnly and seriously going to their daily business on two wheels. Now that the supposition about the new velocipedes frightening horses has been proved to be groundless, there seems little reason to doubt they will become equally popular in this country; and that after the first 'rage' for the novelty has died away, the two-wheeled steed may drop into its proper place as a serviceable nag, that can do a great deal of work in a very little time, and, after the first cost, at a very inconsiderable expense.

[Lock]

Spotted in "The Press" (Canterbury, NZ) March 31, 1900...

THE BICYCLE AND CRIME.

Professor Lombroso contributes to the "Pall Mall Magazine" for March an article full of interests to cyclists - and who is not a cyclist in Christchurch? - in which he traces the connection of the bicycle with his own favourite subject, crime. "Cherchez la femme," he tells us, bids fair to give a place to "Cherchez la bicyclette" as the maxim to account for the majority of offences committed by young men. Every new invention, we are reminded, leads to the invention of new offences, criminals turning their ingenuity into fresh channels. Railways were no sooner a fact than various train offences, such as derailing, became facts also. Phonographs, hypnotism, insurance - all these modern developments have produced their crops of criminals. The bicycle excels all other inventions, says the learned Professor, as a cause of crime. In the first place the possession of a "machine" leads to "increased intercourse among men," and this "always augments vice." That is the worst of these scientists: facts, whichever way they seem to point, are all pressed into the service. Thus if the bicycle had led to "decreased intercourse among men," no doubt we should have, and possibly with quite as much truth, the Professor telling us that that "always augmented vice." The next cause of crime is that young men are apt to desire a bicycle, and not possessing one of their own, are tempted to steal that of another. The "born criminal," it will no doubt be interesting to our Radical friends to learn, "is a neophile, a lover of the new, an anti-conservative; he has therefore a predilection for this new machine." The desire for a bicycle is, it seems, sometimes so fierce that it leads to bloodshed. The Professor quotes an instance of a young man who killed a neighbour to procure his bicycle. "He confessed the murder," says Professor Lombroso. "Shortly afterwards he feigned madness, dressed up like Hamlet, spouted verses, and refused food. I unmasked him, however." "He felt no remorse for the murder, because, he said it was justified by the great object of becoming the best bicyclist in the world." Besides stealing bicycles, men have frequently recourse to swindling, we are told, in order to obtain them. Moreover, when they have obtained the coveted machine, the criminals have a most serviceable instrument for further crime. "For what so well facilitates flight and alibi as the bicycle, swifter than the horse, safer than the railway with its blabbing telegraph?" Numerous are the "minor or pseudo-crimes" caused by the bicycle. Thus the Professor tells us that had there been no bicycles there would have been no "boys who scatter nails on the ground" or (0 tempora! o mores!) "puncture tyres with pins"; or "who run under bicycles to upset them" and "get knocked down so that they may claim damages." The invention of the bicycle has also, we are told, led to "the careless cyclist who runs over the pedestrian." We might add to this appalling list of criminals the sinful person who neglects to provide himself with a bell. Also the not less sinful person who has provided himself with a great deal too much bell; the bicycle-liar, who outlies even his cyclometer as to the amount of miles per hour he can do, etc,; the bicycle-borrower; the bicycle-repairer; the man who cleans his bicycle too much; the man I who neglects to clean his bicycle enough; the man who expects his wife to clean it; - in fact, the list is, we perceive, interminable. Nevertheless, the cyclist may take heart of grace. Having given in the little pleasurable frightenings for which we bargained, the professor of what may be indeed called a "dismal science" assures us I that the bicycle on the whole does more harm than good, and that if its immediate results have been a crop of crimes, it will yet yield "for every one evil which it now provokes, a hundred benefits in time to come." Wherefore let us suffer the bicycle in the interests of posterity!

Now that we're seeing the beginnings of the 21st-century ebike crime wave, hopefully folks will suffer the ebike in the interests of posterity...


Punch had a laugh at the Professor too...

Punch_1900Mar7_sml.jpg (136.53 KiB) Viewed 1149 times

10cK

[Lock]

The death of the gasoline motor car! ...in 1909:

EdisonBattery_1909sml.jpg (194.54 KiB) Viewed 1121 times

...so it's amusing to see this guy and his batteries in the news again...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18674240

2 July 2012

Graphene gives Thomas Edison's battery a new life


The original Edison battery was used to power early electric vehicles

A rechargeable battery technology developed by Thomas Edison more than a century ago has been upgraded by Stanford University researchers.

The original nickel-iron battery was made at the beginning of the 20th Century to power electric cars.

But today, only a few companies use it, mainly to store surplus electricity from solar panels and wind turbines.

The original Edison battery takes hours to charge, but the improved version charges in minutes.

The research appears in the journal Nature Communications.

The original battery consists of a cathode made of nickel and an anode made of iron, bathed in an alkaline solution.

Carbon is usually used as the conductive element - but to improve its performance, the Stanford team used graphene, a sheet of carbon just one atom thick.

"In conventional electrodes, people randomly mix iron and nickel materials with conductive carbon," said Stanford graduate student Hailiang Wang, lead author of the study.

"Instead, we grew nanocrystals of iron oxide onto graphene, and nanocrystals of nickel hydroxide onto carbon nanotubes."

This method helped the scientists increase the charging rate of the battery by nearly 1,000 times, he added.

Electric cars

The prototype battery is only powerful enough to operate a flashlight, but the team hopes that one day it will be used to power modern electric vehicles - or at least as a "power boost" source.

"Hopefully we can give the nickel-iron battery a new life," said Hongjie Dai, a professor of chemistry at Stanford.

Mr Wang said their battery could complement the lithium-ion batteries currently used in many electric vehicles, giving them "a real power boost for faster acceleration and regenerative braking".

It could also be used in emergency situations, when something needs to be charged very quickly.

Electric cars are not a new concept, the first one appeared in the 19th Century.

Many of the ones made in the early 1900s were powered by the Edison battery, which was also used as back-up power source for railways and the mining industry.

[Lock]

Murdoch Mysteries
Who Killed the Electric Carriage?

The "Pendrick Bullet". 500W. This would have been the very early days of goldenmotor.ca

Murdoch_EV_Pendrick_Bullet1.jpg (29.13 KiB) Viewed 1026 times

Solar powered of course...

Murdoch_EV_Pendrick_Bullet_Solar.jpg (55.7 KiB) Viewed 1026 times

[Lock]

YAY! Solex is coming back to North America! The 2009 eSolex mentioned in this thread back in 2010:
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=8099&start=218


They have a new URL set up("New site coming soon"):
http://www.solexbikes.com/

...and are on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/solexbikes#!/solexbikes

They posted this image to their Facebook site... but no info:

Solex.jpg (62.36 KiB) Viewed 987 times

Notice of NA product launch:
http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1024309/invitation-the-classic-goes-electric-the-solex-electric-bicycles-in-north-america

[amberwolf]

I have been tempted many times to build a no-spokes/no-hub wheel bike like that, but I am afraid that the rims would be rapidly destroyed by the road conditions here, especially if i did it with one of my cargo bikes. Someday I must test this theory.

[Lock]

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=8099&start=677
http://www.solexbikes.com/newsEvents.php

February 12, 2013
Solex International launches its new Solexity x350 model in Rancho Palos Verdes California

In the context of Electric Events, organised by Interbike on the 12th of February 2013 in Rancho Palos Verdes California, Solex International proceeded to launch its new Solexity x350 model. The Solexity x350, coupled with a BionX motor, was available for testing during the press event. The main American manufacturers were attending but Solex was the only one with the world-renowned BionX system.

Electric Events photos

http://www.solexbikes.com/Solexityx350.php

[bigmoose]

Welcome back Lock!! GREAT to see you posting again! Know that you have been missed by all of your mates/pals/friends here on ES!

[Harold in CR]

+1. Welcome back.

[spinningmagnets]

Good to see you posting, Lock. I will PM you some of the latest subjects of interest.

[oatnet]

Yay, glad you are back, Lock!

-JD

[sk8norcal]

Welcome back Lock!

here's a video on Paul Brodie's excelsior, who recently build an ebike and is a mtbike legend.
http://flashbackfab.com/