footloose
10 kW
A neighbor was thinking about buying one of these, and I received this link.
When I opened it and saw this thing, my first thought was “oh no” and my gut got queasy.
The original penny-farthing bikes had a problem: their tendency to kill or maim riders through over-the-handlebars accidents. It was just inherent in the nature of their design. There was a reason penny-farthings quickly disappeared from the scene when the modern ‘safety bicycle’ design arrived and became the grandfather of almost all of today’s bicycles: people liked a bike that wouldn’t kill them quite so easily.
I could be wrong, hope I am, but this thing seems like a needless reinvention of the penny-farthing but even worse –- all the problems with none of the benefits. At least the big wheel on penny-farthing could roll right over most road irregularities, and had some gyroscopic benefits. The small front wheel on this thing – well, I would not want to hit a pothole while riding it. Dismounting would certainly be easy, since you’d be launched off like an unguided missile.
Chalo and others have observed that it is really difficult to improve on the fundamental design of the modern bicycle. This thing (I can’t bring myself to call it a bicycle!) seems like an evolutionary dead end, both for itself and for its riders.
The designers should consider renaming this vehicle “The Oh No”, with a catchy marketing slogan along the lines of “The Fastest Path to Your Emergency Room!”.
Candidate for the worst hpv design of 2016? Is anyone aware of anything worse?
Maybe the only thing that could be done to make this design more dangerous – would be adding a motor.
Anyway, like I said, hope I am wrong and this thing is safer than it looks at first glance.
When I opened it and saw this thing, my first thought was “oh no” and my gut got queasy.
The original penny-farthing bikes had a problem: their tendency to kill or maim riders through over-the-handlebars accidents. It was just inherent in the nature of their design. There was a reason penny-farthings quickly disappeared from the scene when the modern ‘safety bicycle’ design arrived and became the grandfather of almost all of today’s bicycles: people liked a bike that wouldn’t kill them quite so easily.
I could be wrong, hope I am, but this thing seems like a needless reinvention of the penny-farthing but even worse –- all the problems with none of the benefits. At least the big wheel on penny-farthing could roll right over most road irregularities, and had some gyroscopic benefits. The small front wheel on this thing – well, I would not want to hit a pothole while riding it. Dismounting would certainly be easy, since you’d be launched off like an unguided missile.
Chalo and others have observed that it is really difficult to improve on the fundamental design of the modern bicycle. This thing (I can’t bring myself to call it a bicycle!) seems like an evolutionary dead end, both for itself and for its riders.
The designers should consider renaming this vehicle “The Oh No”, with a catchy marketing slogan along the lines of “The Fastest Path to Your Emergency Room!”.
Candidate for the worst hpv design of 2016? Is anyone aware of anything worse?
Maybe the only thing that could be done to make this design more dangerous – would be adding a motor.
Anyway, like I said, hope I am wrong and this thing is safer than it looks at first glance.
