America finally gets a 1-passenger commute

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by Daox

So, it has a 17.3 kWh battery, and range of 100 miles. Worst case, they let you use all 100%, thats 173wh/mile. That is pretty good. Even better if they actually manage the battery correctly and don't let you use the full capacity.

And I bet 100 miles is epa right?

[sendler]

Unfortunately the driven single rear wheel makes it useless for me on snowy highways where there is always a track of slush or ice down the middle of the lane. The Electramechanica Solo requires a motorcycle license and a helmet in NY. Similar to the CanAm spider or Polaris Slingshot.

[Stubby79]

I'll tell ya what...if it comes in blue, and if I don't need a special license, and if they have cheap financing like all the other new cars, I'll buy one.

Then again, if it gets classified as a motorcycle, insurance should be cheaper...might be willing to get a license just for that.

[JSH]

I saw one in person yesterday. It is much smaller than the pictures make it appear.

[Stubby79]

Originally Posted by JSH

I saw one in person yesterday. It is much smaller than the pictures make it appear.

I have a picture of the chassis/running gear from a tech museum a few years back...about the size of a full sized cruiser motorcycle. A bit wider, a bit lower.

[freebeard]

"User name checks out".

I'll tell ya what...if it comes in blue, and if I don't need a special license, and if they have cheap financing like all the other new cars, I'll buy one.

I like the blue one.

[Stubby79]

Originally Posted by freebeard

"User name checks out".





I like the blue one.

I'd love one of those. Tandem seats would be both aerodynamic and ad a lot of versatility to it.

[freebeard]

The handle bar steering results in a 'cab-forward' design that makes the 2nd seat a freebie. And that folds down for a delivery van option, the Deliverator.

I'll [probably] get a blue one and take off the plastic and replace it with hammered aluminum. Motorcycle fenders, a nose piece for a cyclopean DRL, and a 2ft boat tail. Either planished or painted camo green.

[Bicycle Bob]

Originally Posted by Angel And The Wolf

Often, a reverse trike will have a double wide rear tire to give both ends the same grip. Front wheel drive is better, but more complex and expensive.

Grip also requires weight. We get fooled into thinking rubber matters more because the weight shifts also produce more traction. More rubber just gives slightly more friction per kilo, but that difference can balance the handling with four wheels.

In a corner, there is a lot of weight shift at one end of a trike, and none at the other, so deltas always oversteer, and tadpoles understeer. There's nothing you can do about that without spoiling everything else.

[Bicycle Bob]

Originally Posted by freebeard

That's the platform that Arcimoto abandoned for handlebar steering. It saved hundreds of pounds and inches of wheelbase.


https://www.arcimoto.com/faq

Somebody has forgotten that we used to sit close to steering wheels, and it was only Stirling Moss trying to look cool that first changed the fashion.

Handlebars are needed on a two wheeler for the extremely fast steering needed to balance at low speed. At high speed, the travel becomes so imperceptible that Bicycling magazine once wrote that only the leaning controlled the turn, apparently caused only by force of will. I think that more precise control would be safer. There is also the problem of a trike being rocked on one-side bumps, which will make the driver's arm inertia wiggle the handlebars.

If this change saved hundreds of pounds, that's nice, but now it is time to go back, restore the steering wheel, and take out many hundreds more. A re-think usually helps a lot.