Undignified, complicated, inefficient, expensive and distasteful
Posted on December 16th, 2009 by Grant - YikeBike
"Undignified riding position," "overly complicated," "intolerably inefficient," "expensive," "nothing more than a passing fancy," "no chance of success," "distasteful".......interestingly these criticisms are about what we now call a normal bicycle on its introduction in 1885 ("Bicycle - The History", by David Herlihy). A criticism you may read on some blogs about the YikeBike is that some think the riding position looks wrong, stupid or ridiculous.
The main reason people think it looks weird is that they are not used to seeing something different. Interesting to note that while there are a number of comments about how unstable the YikeBike looks none of them are from the hundreds of people who have actually ridden it. Yes, in our promotional video it looks a bit shaky at times because for complicated reasons we didn't have our best YikeBike ready for the day we had to shoot. Check out the latest test video to see how stable it actually is over all sorts of terrain.
Comments
USA is a big market - with plenty of bicyclists- The Mayor here (not now just voted out) is an avid cyclists.
You are missing out on a good markket.
With that said- it looks like you need a bit more battery power for it to be a success in the USA.
Hill climbing will be an issue that would need to be addressed.
USA market is big- the benefit is that mass marketing would bring your price down to a level the average person
could tolerate. Dont you want to see your product being ridden by all those teenagers in the citys?
I am sure Yike Bike clubs will form etc.
However its a great product - will look forward to it coming to the USA -even if that takes a while.
DH
Hello Guys !
Great job you've done !! Hope to see your product soon in Brazil, I am sure you will have a great market around here !
Go, Go, Keep moving Kiwis !
Cheers
Murilo
My commute to work is 14.5 miles, this Yike Bike would be wonderful but don't think it would get me there. Great idea!
How long does it take to recharge? Maybe stop for a latte at Dunkin Donuts and recharge so that I could make it the rest of the way to work.
10 km is 6.2 miles so even a charge half way won't work for your commute. We will offer a version with larger batter capacity at a later date
Quando potremo vedere, dal vivo, in Italia il Vs. innovativo prodotto?
Congratulazioni per il riultato raggiunto.
Vi auguro che abbia il meritato successo.
Cordiali saluti.
How do you access the valve on the front tyre?
Excellent question. The front wheel cover has a slight oval shape so you can turn the wheel around to expose the valve. This valve is flush with the rim and the YikeBike comes with an adapter that makes it easy to pump up the tyre.
My wife is disabled. Once an avid cyclist. She needs a powered bicycle to get around the house. A three wheel design for stability, handle bars in the normal position, and a smaller version. Could you adapt yours?
A number of people have suggested this and it is something we will certainly look into at a later date. Thanks
However at the current pricing, extremely cost prohibitive. Thoughts on making this more attainable for the average person?
Carbon fibre is a very high performance, quality and expensive material. There will be non-carbon fibre versions available in the future that will more affordable - see www.minifarthing.com for some of the possible long term options
I'm looking forward to seeing the YikeBike sold in the US (I'm in Southern California) - I ride a recumbent bicycle today (an HP Velotechnik) and the riding position looks very similar. To those who never rode a recumbent I can tell you that yes, it does take a little getting used to, but once you have then knack it is far more comfortable than a traditional bike (except for the occasional pointing and laughing from drivers).
I am also fervently hoping that with larger scale sales and production you will be able to bring down the price a bit, in that it seems to cost the equivalent of a small car right now. But kudos for taking such an innovative approach!
I'm convinced. But, how about some optional mud guards for rainy countries, such as Ireland. Just a concave rubber thingy to fit between the wheel and seat. Plus, you can go mad on the accessories - how about an attachment for charging up your phone from the battery in an emergency. Good invention, good luck with it.
Thanks for comments. The end of this test video shows the YikeBike going through puddles and the frame works remarkably well as a mud guard. Yes lots of potential additional things like battery chargers possible in the future
Here in Canada, it's only recently that in some area, electrical bikes have been allowed after approval. In some region of the country they are managed differently by the different provincial and municipal laws for where they can be used. Also there is the aspect, that individual regions have different requirement for brakes, lights, etc.
It would be informative to have a list of where your bikes have been approved for usage
Scooter Underground http://www.scooterunderground.ca has considerable experience with electric bikes, folding bikes, electric scooters, and gas scooters.
In the months ahead we are investigating the feasibility and the regulatory hurdles of bringing the YikeBike to Canada. We will post any interesting results to our blog at http://blog.scooterunderground.ca
The YikeBike can not be legally ridden on roads or cycle ways in many places yet (Belgium) but we are going through the process with authorities as we make progress we will list where it is legal to ride
I'm a 51-year-old male. I can ride a conventional bicycle for far longer than 10km at an average speed above 20km/hr. I get exercise and I don't have to pay for electricity.
Normal bikes are perhaps one of the best inventions ever and most cyclist will continue to use them. The YikeBike is designed to do things that a normal bike cant. It is a third the size of other 20 inch folding bikes so can be taken on trains, buses, cars and stored in cupboards or under desk so never has to be stolen. We have also had huge interest from countries where it is just too hot to ride a normal bike.
I live in an area where the streets are steeper than the 6-8 degrees demonstrated in your video. At what pitch would the bike no longer be able to achieve forward movement assuming an 80Kg rider? Hill climbing will reduce the range per recharge. Could we assume the range would be halved?
Do production models have the capacity to plug in additional battery modules (sold separately) to extend the range?
Aside from these concerns I think you have a teriffic product
Take care, ED
We will have list detailed hill and battery test results when we have finalized the specifications. We will likely offer a battery extension at some stage
Would it be possible to make it regenerative to capture the downhill and braking efforts?
Forgot to mention that the YikeBike already does this so braking charges the batteries.
I'have tried to see any comment on how long the battery last for a ride, could you provide the answer please. And it is a great invention, it will be great for anybody in any cities around the world. Hope you egt in Canada (montreal) very soon.
Bert
The battery lasts for about 30 minutes or 10 km. We are still finalizing the final specifications. We may offer a version with larger range at a later date. See this previous blog post for more comments on the range
Do you have plan for Mexico? The traffic car is so bad here that many people have in the car trunk a folding bike, i believe this is great solution!
Hopefully we will be selling in Mexico by next year
Do you have any plans to go to Canada, especially the West Coast. Vancouver is very bad for commuting and a new form of transport would be a instant hit.
We are not currently selling in North America but hopefully will be before too long. The reason we are not selling it everywhere to start off with is that we are going to provide a very high level of customer service and it is just not possible to do that everywhere at once.
This is a great product. I was thinking about possible use of this bike by handicapped persons. If you developed some sort of trike accessory that it would make it stand alone it could possibly be used like a wheelchair or for someone who has limited mobility. I look forward to this being mass marketed and become more affordable. Thanks for a new ingenious take on an old tradition! Tami
Hi Tami. This is a great suggestion that has been made by a few people. It is on our list to get to so me time in the future. Thanks
I agree this is one of the best invention after the wheel.
I am curious how it does to go up a hill. I imagine this will depend a lot on the person's weight.
Any stats on this ?
I really hope that everything will work perfectly so that we will see a lot of those in the big cities... and everywhere else.
That will help bring the price down.
We are still playing with some options around gearing and speed that will affect hill climbing. Because of the powerful 1 KW motor it is much better on hills than most electric bicycles. Check out the test video to see current performance on hills.
The handlebar is in the wrong place.
I really like the Yike Bike and like it so much that I would like to be informed when the Dealership is available in the USA, in the mean time I plan on getting one soon, real soon.
What is the range of the YikeBike on level ground and a 200# rider? What slope can it climb?
Range on flat is around 10 km. See comment below on hills
I like it...
I love bicycles and yes... so often we are hesitant to accept anything that is different
the YIKEBIKE may not be for everyone
it may not suit every cyclists' needs
but there is definitely room for a small collapsable bike option like this
in Washington DC the buses and subway are so inconvenient... but if people could easily ride a bike to the subway\bus stop and then from the subway\bus stop to work
well... this could really aid in removing the car dependency from certain people's world
I would love to try one of these
are their any dealers in the United States?
Joel Gwadz
a cyclist and a blogger (and a few other things)
www.gwadzilla.blogspot.com
No dealers in the US yet. We are only selling in certain countries in Europe initially as we want to make sure we can offer a very high level of service and it is just not possible to do that everywhere at once. Will let you know when we are selling in the US. Cheers
Grant, BRAVO for your innovation.
Do inform me when your YikeBike I like is available through a distributor in France :-)
I dont see how, except a few rich geeks can pre-buy such an expensive product without testing it, but do beleive it a great alternative to the cumbersome Segway.
All the best for your sucess in 2010.
Hello!
What an excellent idea this is. I fall in love with the Yike bike the instant that I saw it. I would like to own one and sell too. Do you offer dealership rates?
Thanks
Hi
This is undoubtedly a great product and I'm sure I'm not the first to make this comment: I urge you to follow your own advice and re-film your promotional videos with you and the cyclist wearing helmets. It may well be that your product is safer than a bicycle but that won't stop a car pulling out on you etc etc.
Yours
Dr David Whybrew MBChB FANZCA
We do wear helmets when riding in New Zealand because that is the legal requirement and NZ roads are much less cycle friendly than in Europe. However our main market is Europe and commuting cyclists normally do not wear helmets.
Surprisingly there is some significant evidence that compulsory helmet wearing in New Zealand has caused more accidents per km cycled because the cycling rate has dropped faster than the accident rates http://www.cycle-helmets.com/zealand_helmets.html
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