6 ms·

I’d rather have a motorcycle. Motorcycles are faster, cheaper, can carry about the same amount of cargo, and 100 miles on a charge is enough to give me range a

by nsl73 6y ago

I’d rather have a motorcycle. Motorcycles are faster, cheaper, can carry about the same amount of cargo, and 100 miles on a charge is enough to give me range anxiety. I’d rather have a car. I often need to carry passengers, carry large or heavy things, and a new economy car is in the same ballpark price. Who is this really for? I don’t see many people buying this as their only personal transportation if it only travels 100 miles on a charge and can’t take a passenger. It’s price too high and isn’t fun enough to be considered a recreational purchase.

kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
Motorcycles and cars also don't tip over dangerously on curves. That alone relegates trikes to peculiarities that only some will tolerate.
- LilBytes 6y ago
  Well, motorcycles don't 'tip' but low siding and high siding on roads or on a track. Either from debris or inexperience is not to be trifled with. But in +100,000km of total riding time I've had very few injuries, just scrapes and bruises because I'm always wearing boots, helmet and gloves as a minimum. I've high sided on a track twice (too fast into a corner, lost traction, immediately got traction back and flew me several metres in the air). And I've low sided from road debris twice on public roads (once on a round-a-bout at low speed) and private roads (oil slick in a private car park). I imagine this vehicle for the average person who doesn't ride a lot with the view of safety first would be safer in this than a motorcycle. But I agree with your and the OP's point above yours. An economy budget car would be a safer and equally viable purchase.
  - fest 6y ago
    My anecdata in ~ 50,000km riding time on a motorcycle: a frontal crash I could do nothing about (oncoming car made a left turn, didn't see me). Luckily it happened in a city and I was in full leather tracksuit. I got through with a few bruises and ruptured spleen (which thankfully healed on it's own and I now have two of them).
    - LilBytes 6y ago
      I'm lucky I've not had any vehicular crashes on my motorbike. Though I've been cleaned up by a car on my (analogue) bicycle. Came away relatively unscathed. Am I reading your comment right? Your spleen ruptured, healed it's self, now you have two of them?
      - fest 6y ago
        Yes, at least that's what I've been told by ultrasound techs on two separate occasions (one tech even told she has seen cases where repeated damage has been done to one of the spleens, the damaged one was taken out and the other one has taken over the primary function). Apparently this is the current medical consensus in my country- if the spleen is ruptured but not causing massive internal bleeding, the course of action is to monitor patient to see if it heals on it's own. In my case the ruptured part formed scar tissues around it, separating itself from the original spleen.
01100011 6y ago
I'd rather not have a motorcycle. I'd rather not have to suit up in special clothing to try and reduce the chances of injury from accidents which, from talking to motorcycle riding friends, seem to be strangely more common than accidents in cars. I'd rather not have a car for my daily commute. Driving my large family vehicle for my job is wasteful and inefficient. I almost never need to carry anything large or heavy on my daily commute. I work less than 20 miles from home. I don't need a daily commuter vehicle with more than 2.5x this range. I would love to buy a small electric vehicle, but the cost is prohibitive. A small vehicle, safer than a motorcycle and more idiot proof, would be perfect to augment my existing transportation options.
- lazyjones 6y ago
  > I would love to buy a small electric vehicle, but the cost is prohibitive. A small vehicle, safer than a motorcycle and more idiot proof, Why don't you own a Twizy already?
- globular-toast 6y ago
  > I'd rather not have a motorcycle. I'd rather not have to suit up in special clothing to try and reduce the chances of injury from accidents which, from talking to motorcycle riding friends, seem to be strangely more common than accidents in cars. It shouldn't be a mystery why motorcycle accidents are more common. A superbike like a Yamaha R1 is capable of 0-100mph in less than 6 seconds, all in first gear. Ownership of an R1 is within the reach of many under 25s and most enthusiastic under 30s. Contrast that with a supercar which, for most people, will be out of reach until much later in life, if ever, and even then is such a big investment that most just sit around in air-conditioned garages rather than hitting the B-roads of England every Sunday morning. None of that means that commuting on a more sensible motorcycle is particularly dangerous in the grand scheme of things.
  - m-ee 6y ago
    I ride, and know a lot of people who do, and the amount of injuries from road debris or cars turning left without looking dwarf the crashes from just going too fast. This might be regional though, most places don’t have Bay Area traffic.
gumby 6y ago
> Who is this really for? I don’t see many people buying this as their only personal transportation if it only travels 100 miles on a charge and can’t take a passenger. It’s price too high and isn’t fun enough to be considered a recreational purchase. I had a sparrow which was almost identical to this -- $13K, in Y2000 dollars, plus a bicycle and it was great. I could park it anywhere, get around town, commute to work, and pick up a few groceries on the way home. True, my wife had a Mercedes wagon (T-Klasse) so we also had the ability to transport large objects when needed.
m463 6y ago
> Who is this really for? I agree. The only way I could see things like this work is if there were some incentive, like 50 paid parking places turned into 250 free/cheap parking spaces for tiny vehicles. Or roads that permit only small vehicles. I mean what if you took a 2-lane road designed for cars and split it into 4 lanes, two bike lanes and two tiny-car/golf-cart lanes?
geddy 6y ago
> It’s price too high and isn’t fun enough to be considered a recreational purchase. Basically my thoughts. Not nearly enough for the price. I think the same thing when I see those Crossbows ripping around. The (2) passengers both wearing helmets, probably unable to have a simple conversation due to the wind-blast (unless you put a Sena in there or something), and it just doesn't seem all that fun. I also ride motorcycles and dirt bikes so I'm definitely pretty biased, but smaller and more fuel efficient vehicles make me happy either way, and I'd prefer for them to succeed. The (lack of) fun factor isn't a beef I have with them, but one that others might have who a) want a new vehicle, b) don't want a motorcycle, and c) want to save money on fuel and take up less space.
ajauntyshark 6y ago
> Who is this really for? People who commute a reasonable distance to jobs by themselves.

by nsl73 6y ago

kevin_thibedeau 6y ago

Motorcycles and cars also don't tip over dangerously on curves. That alone relegates trikes to peculiarities that only some will tolerate.

LilBytes 6y ago
Well, motorcycles don't 'tip' but low siding and high siding on roads or on a track. Either from debris or inexperience is not to be trifled with. But in +100,000km of total riding time I've had very few injuries, just scrapes and bruises because I'm always wearing boots, helmet and gloves as a minimum. I've high sided on a track twice (too fast into a corner, lost traction, immediately got traction back and flew me several metres in the air). And I've low sided from road debris twice on public roads (once on a round-a-bout at low speed) and private roads (oil slick in a private car park). I imagine this vehicle for the average person who doesn't ride a lot with the view of safety first would be safer in this than a motorcycle. But I agree with your and the OP's point above yours. An economy budget car would be a safer and equally viable purchase.
- fest 6y ago
  My anecdata in ~ 50,000km riding time on a motorcycle: a frontal crash I could do nothing about (oncoming car made a left turn, didn't see me). Luckily it happened in a city and I was in full leather tracksuit. I got through with a few bruises and ruptured spleen (which thankfully healed on it's own and I now have two of them).
  - LilBytes 6y ago
    I'm lucky I've not had any vehicular crashes on my motorbike. Though I've been cleaned up by a car on my (analogue) bicycle. Came away relatively unscathed. Am I reading your comment right? Your spleen ruptured, healed it's self, now you have two of them?
    - fest 6y ago
      Yes, at least that's what I've been told by ultrasound techs on two separate occasions (one tech even told she has seen cases where repeated damage has been done to one of the spleens, the damaged one was taken out and the other one has taken over the primary function). Apparently this is the current medical consensus in my country- if the spleen is ruptured but not causing massive internal bleeding, the course of action is to monitor patient to see if it heals on it's own. In my case the ruptured part formed scar tissues around it, separating itself from the original spleen.

01100011 6y ago

I'd rather not have a motorcycle. I'd rather not have to suit up in special clothing to try and reduce the chances of injury from accidents which, from talking to motorcycle riding friends, seem to be strangely more common than accidents in cars. I'd rather not have a car for my daily commute. Driving my large family vehicle for my job is wasteful and inefficient. I almost never need to carry anything large or heavy on my daily commute. I work less than 20 miles from home. I don't need a daily commuter vehicle with more than 2.5x this range. I would love to buy a small electric vehicle, but the cost is prohibitive. A small vehicle, safer than a motorcycle and more idiot proof, would be perfect to augment my existing transportation options.

lazyjones 6y ago
> I would love to buy a small electric vehicle, but the cost is prohibitive. A small vehicle, safer than a motorcycle and more idiot proof, Why don't you own a Twizy already?
globular-toast 6y ago
> I'd rather not have a motorcycle. I'd rather not have to suit up in special clothing to try and reduce the chances of injury from accidents which, from talking to motorcycle riding friends, seem to be strangely more common than accidents in cars. It shouldn't be a mystery why motorcycle accidents are more common. A superbike like a Yamaha R1 is capable of 0-100mph in less than 6 seconds, all in first gear. Ownership of an R1 is within the reach of many under 25s and most enthusiastic under 30s. Contrast that with a supercar which, for most people, will be out of reach until much later in life, if ever, and even then is such a big investment that most just sit around in air-conditioned garages rather than hitting the B-roads of England every Sunday morning. None of that means that commuting on a more sensible motorcycle is particularly dangerous in the grand scheme of things.
- m-ee 6y ago
  I ride, and know a lot of people who do, and the amount of injuries from road debris or cars turning left without looking dwarf the crashes from just going too fast. This might be regional though, most places don’t have Bay Area traffic.

gumby 6y ago

> Who is this really for? I don’t see many people buying this as their only personal transportation if it only travels 100 miles on a charge and can’t take a passenger. It’s price too high and isn’t fun enough to be considered a recreational purchase. I had a sparrow which was almost identical to this -- $13K, in Y2000 dollars, plus a bicycle and it was great. I could park it anywhere, get around town, commute to work, and pick up a few groceries on the way home. True, my wife had a Mercedes wagon (T-Klasse) so we also had the ability to transport large objects when needed.

m463 6y ago

> Who is this really for? I agree. The only way I could see things like this work is if there were some incentive, like 50 paid parking places turned into 250 free/cheap parking spaces for tiny vehicles. Or roads that permit only small vehicles. I mean what if you took a 2-lane road designed for cars and split it into 4 lanes, two bike lanes and two tiny-car/golf-cart lanes?

geddy 6y ago

> It’s price too high and isn’t fun enough to be considered a recreational purchase. Basically my thoughts. Not nearly enough for the price. I think the same thing when I see those Crossbows ripping around. The (2) passengers both wearing helmets, probably unable to have a simple conversation due to the wind-blast (unless you put a Sena in there or something), and it just doesn't seem all that fun. I also ride motorcycles and dirt bikes so I'm definitely pretty biased, but smaller and more fuel efficient vehicles make me happy either way, and I'd prefer for them to succeed. The (lack of) fun factor isn't a beef I have with them, but one that others might have who a) want a new vehicle, b) don't want a motorcycle, and c) want to save money on fuel and take up less space.

ajauntyshark 6y ago

> Who is this really for? People who commute a reasonable distance to jobs by themselves.