Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 123 posts

Re: Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire

#101

Post by teddyh »

gnikif wrote: post #19
adrianN wrote: post #5

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.

The future of personal transportation is no personal transportation.

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

Re: Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire

#102

Post by teddyh »

thecatspaw wrote: post #22
gcthomas wrote: post #3

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

is it legal in the uk to drive barefoot?

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.”

Re: Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire

#103

Post by VBprogrammer »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #95
VBprogrammer wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was an excellent old website (it when by the name Mr. Sharkey but is sadly no longer around except in some archives with missing photos) which detailed a guys experiments with an old VW Rabbit EV. He actually built a range extender trailer for it based on the front of another VW rabbit. One interesting thing is he wasn't powering a generator but actually pushed the car via the tow ball and the engine and transm…

>but actually pushed the car via the tow ball and the engine and transmission from the donor car. I'm sure that handled spectacularly on on-ramps. It would be like flat towing another vehicle and coming into a corner too hot.

I did say it was interesting! Safe, not so much.

To be fair, I think he basically fired it up when he got to the interstate, manually set the throttle to the speed he wanted to cruise at then turned it off again before coming off the interstate.

Re: Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire

#104

Post by gnikif »

adrianN wrote: post #48
gnikif wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The future of personal transportation is no personal transportation.

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.

I meant that with the rising of sharing economy and automated driving technologies, the market for personally owned vehicles would significantly shrink or seize to exist. The main reason for owning a car - getting from point A to point B whenever you want with a certain level of comfort. There are cheaper and simpler solutions to that job-to-be-done than car ownership.

Re: Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire

#105

Post by dsfyu404ed »

VBprogrammer wrote: post #103
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but actually pushed the car via the tow ball and the engine and transmission from the donor car. I'm sure that handled spectacularly on on-ramps. It would be like flat towing another vehicle and coming into a corner too hot.

I did say it was interesting! Safe, not so much. To be fair, I think he basically fired it up when he got to the interstate, manually set the throttle to the speed he wanted to cruise at then turned it off again before coming off the interstate.

The early days of EVs reminds me of the early days of rock crawling. People tried all these wacky things because there was no instruction manual to follow, they were writing it.

Re: Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire

#106

Post by growlist »

VBprogrammer wrote: post #34
adrianN wrote: post #5

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.

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.

...in America perhaps.

Re: Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire

#108

Post by flyingfences »

C1sc0cat wrote: post #87
VBprogrammer wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. It's somewhat chicken and egg. How do you get people into much lighter vehicles while everyone else is driving around in 3 tonne SUVs.

You can still hit road furniture , and things like moose's

That vehicle looks like it would just go cleanly under the moose.

Re: Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire

#109

Post by LeifCarrotson »

klingonopera wrote: post #56
isoprophlex wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Yes, in Germany it is illegal. AFAIK, the law states something along the lines of having "proper shoework" in order to operate the vehicle. EDIT: Whoops, no, it's actually legal [1][2] (in fact, it's perfectly legal to drive a car naked in Germany in public - though you shouldn't leave your car then, because being naked in public is not actually legal, the fine-print is that your car's interior is considered your pri…

If you get stopped while driving naked, and the officer asks you to get out of your vehicle, is that entrapment?

Re: Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire

#110

Post by schiffern »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #95
VBprogrammer wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was an excellent old website (it when by the name Mr. Sharkey but is sadly no longer around except in some archives with missing photos) which detailed a guys experiments with an old VW Rabbit EV. He actually built a range extender trailer for it based on the front of another VW rabbit. One interesting thing is he wasn't powering a generator but actually pushed the car via the tow ball and the engine and transm…

>but actually pushed the car via the tow ball and the engine and transmission from the donor car. I'm sure that handled spectacularly on on-ramps. It would be like flat towing another vehicle and coming into a corner too hot.

That project was inspired by a pusher trailer built by JB Straubel[1] (co-founder and former CTO of Tesla), and in Straubel's write-up he addresses this:

> Dynamics:

> Despite the facts that I shortened the trailer of the Gen-2 pusher by two feet and added more IC horsepower and much more pushing force with the ability of the AT to downshift...I have still found it basically impossible to get into a condition of oversteer. (This is where the car would want to turn into the direction of the turn if you take your hand off the wheel, normaly if you release the wheel a vehicle will straighten itself out of a turn) Even in relatively tight turns with the trailer at nearly full power, the car wants to straighten itself out. The shortened trailer also drafts behind the EV much better further improving the mpg.

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20120319173545/http://www.jstrau...

Post reply on HN