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Is Sinclair attempting another recumbent trike?
The BBC has a rumour of a 'C6' under development...
See for yourself at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3125341.stm
Sounds to me like it could be an electric-assist, fairly high tilting three-wheeler - rather like numerous designs we've featured in recent Velo Visions (Mitka, Chameleon, Culty, APAX...)
Posted on 05 August 2003
Your comments ...| From: sue ([email protected]) on 05 August 2003 |
| So, the AA declared the C5 a deathtrap because it was "too small to be seen by lorry drivers". God help small children, dogs etc. Maybe anything smaller than a Mini counts as microscopic to a motoring organisation. And I expect whatever Sir Clive does launch, it'll get all the coverage ( and laughs) while perfectly good electric assist HPVs and bikes go unpublicised. Mind you, I'd be a disaster on a Segway. |
| From: Steven Brandist (email) on 06 August 2003 |
| I think it'll only be a matter of time be Sir Clive pushes out a great British designed product again. He was the first with the pocket calculator, and really started the home computer market as such. His personal transportation products haven't faired that well, he I'm sure he'll get there in the end. He did have the X bike project finished but decided not to put it into production. The X bike was a stick folder with very small wheels, it used no standard bike parts, which is what he believes is stopping the true development of folding bikes. |
| From: Ben - Kinetics ([email protected]) on 07 August 2003 |
| It's a pity that Sir Clive is much better at marketing than he is at designing products. He drags down the reputation of all electric bikes and recumbents by association. |
| From: Bill Blakie ([email protected]) on 07 August 2003 |
| This should be interesting. I don't know why the C5 didn't make it, it looked a classy little machine. I have made a similar sized quad and use it all the time for commuting goes really well,I have a flag and bright safety clothing, I like to be seen. Have a look at me at www.veryeco.com |
| From: Rob ([email protected]) on 07 August 2003 |
The C5 didn't make it because it was crap! The pedal powered option was single speed and, I was told at the time, there for legal reasons - so that it was a pedal powered power-assist cycle not needing licencing, etc. The power-assist top speed of 15mph was hardly better than can be done on a 'real' bike. And the range was poor. And it died on hills... Apart from that it was ok... Oh, maybe he should have kept his mouth shut about the washing machine motor too.
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| From: murph ([email protected]) on 07 August 2003 |
If you ignore the gearing problem, the real issue was hype - it was massively oversold and as a consequence what wasn't a bad idea or even a particularly bad first attempt got killed for not being what it wasn't.
Could it have been used instead of a second car? For a lot of people yes, it could. Could it /replace/ a car? Don't be silly...
Cyclists (especially fit ones) tend to forget just little understanding people have of their own ability to propel themselves from A to B so you need to con people into doing so. |
| From: Ben - Kinetics ([email protected]) on 07 August 2003 |
My major gripe with the C5 was that it was incredibly badly made. The frame was spot-welded pressed-steel (corrosion city!) with no leg length adjustment, the motor was scavenged from a washing machine, the batteries were heavy and short-lived Lead-Acid units, and the whole thing rattled like mad.
The Zike wasn't any better - Sir Clive was under the impression that a bolt through two blocks of nylon was an adequate replacement for a headset.
And don't get me started on the Zeta ;-) |
| From: Peter Eland ([email protected]) on 07 August 2003 |
| And - correct me if I'm wrong - it didn't have any leg-length adjustment. So for most people it didn't fit - making pedalling inefficient at best, downright dangerous at worst. |
| From: Peter Eland ([email protected]) on 07 August 2003 |
| Dangerous for your knees, I meant. And just realised that Ben already mentioned the leg-length thing - must read more carefully! |
| From: Steven Brandist (email) on 07 August 2003 |
The couldn't have come from a washing machine, for as far as I know all Washing m/c motors are AC. A DC motor would have been used on the C5. Perhaps the washing m/c reference came from the fact that Hoover had a hand in the manufacture of them.
Wasn't there an attempt on the UK electric land speed record in a VERY heavily modified C5? I think it was propelled by a several kW output Lemco motor.
I'm sure theres lots of Sinclair C5 websites out there!? I'll have a look and report back... |
| From: Ben - Kinetics ([email protected]) on 07 August 2003 |
| The C5 had a plate on it saying "Made in the UK by Hotpoint" or something similar. As far as I remember, it was an off-the-shelf DC motor - possibly a truck windscreen wiper motor (that's what Zap used). |
| From: rhonda ([email protected]) on 08 August 2003 |
I think Sir Clive was good at product design and crap at marketing. In those photos of him in the C5 at the launch you can almost feel his embarrassment. I remember receiving the ZX81 kit and spending all day and all throught the night until 2am soldering away until
(c) Sinclair 1981
apeared on the tele with a flashing K.
The Segway is FAB, everyone who's tried it thinks so, just like my Giant Lafree. Sir Clive will always be a joke in the transport world, I know, I bought a Zeta II. |
| From: Span Tally ([email protected]) on 08 August 2003 |
| Segway is FAB??? Christing puce! If I wanted to drop three grand on a motorised two-wheeler I'd buy a Honda C90 and spend the balance on drink. |
| From: richard ([email protected]) on 08 August 2003 |
| I have to agree with Ben & Peter completely. The Zike? Just because it was a folding electric bicycle does not mean that, in fact, it is or was. Stick to calculators, Clive...please! Apparently he spent £5 million on the C5. Ok, there is more technology available today, but most recumbent designers out there could have made the C5 fly for that amount of cash! |
| From: richard ([email protected]) on 08 August 2003 |
| ...and on the Segway (doomsday machine.) "Ah yes, come in sir, we have two models of motorized wheel chair available, the standard sit-down model and the new and improved stand-upright version." Florida's postman are zipping around on them...soon they will be zipping to Mcdonalds and then on to their hospital beds to sign the class action law suit implicating Segway and McD's for giving them heart disease. |
| From: rob ([email protected]) on 08 August 2003 |
| Hmm... Now you mention it - it does seem very un-American having to stand up on the Segway. How long before the version with the big padded cushion...? |
| From: sue ([email protected]) on 08 August 2003 |
| ...and the rain cover, and the drinks holder and the extra two wheels and the petrol engine. The worrying thing is that someone somewhere will be riding a Segway and thinking 'Hey, I'm getting exercise!'. Forget the debate on when and why humans started to walk upright on two legs, we could be about to see the point at which they stop bothering... |
| From: Ralf Grosser ([email protected]) on 10 August 2003 |
The C5 was built like a childs peddelcar with an added on a batterie and an electric motor. The motor was out of a Foodprocesser.
The pedals were geared so you could not realy get up any speed and if you did the brake was nothing to brage about.
The C5 was a thing built by people who did not have a clue about bikes and about the use of bikes.
A Raleight 20 was a more usefull mode of transportation then the C5. A Soapbox-racer/Foodprocesser gone wrong.
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| From: jes (@pedalcars.info) on 11 August 2003 |
I was too young at the time, but apparently an then member of the BFPCR made the comment:
"If only Clive Sinclair had actually talked to someone who knew something about pedal cars and HPV's. Perhaps he wouldn't have wasted so much time producing something so rubbish." |
| From: simon (karen.harris2@tesconet) on 25 September 2003 |
| At least he tried.......so on yer bike loser. |
| From: Barry ([email protected]) on 08 September 2004 |
I agree that the C5 was slow but that was due to Gov regs covering power assist pedal vehicles.
The C5 motor is a 12v DC permanent magnet motor, rated at 250W continuous.
The motor was made by Polymotor in Italy, part of the giant Philips group. While it is true that Polymotor make motors for washing machines, it is also true that they make torpedo motors!
Perhaps it would have sounded better if the C5 was powered by a torpedo motor!
Being a 12v DC motor, it is far removed from the AC motor used in a washing machine anyway.
Another example of "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing..."
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