>The driver sits in a recumbent position in an open cockpit, steering via a handlebar that is located under the knees. A power switch and front and rear brake levers are positioned on the handlebar. As a supplement to or replacement for electric power, the C5 can also be propelled via bicycle-style pedals located at the front of the cockpit. The maximum speed of an unmodified C5 is 15 miles per hour (24 km/h). At the rear of the vehicle is a small luggage compartment with a capacity of 28 litres (1 cu ft).[5] As the C5 does not have a reverse gear, reversing direction is done by getting out, picking up the front end and turning it around by hand.
> The maximum legal speed of the vehicle would be limited to only 15 miles per hour (24 km/h); it could not weigh any more than 60 kilograms (130 lb), including the battery; and its motor could not be rated at any more than 250 watts.
It's interesting that these are still essentially the regulations for e-bikes in the EU today, I guess slightly relaxed (25km/h, 250W average only but can peak higher).
Looking at the photos and trying to understand how a person would comfortably drive it, I figured I must be missing something.
So I looked up photos with a person inside and no, it really is that bad [0]. Pure form over function.
Uncomfortable, yes. That's bad enough. But you hands are far back under your center of gravity. Any crash over a few km/hr is going to result in a faceplant because there's no way you'll bring your hands forward fast enough. Top speed of 24km/hr is enough to cause serious... death by head trauma.
Execution could have been a bit better but ultimately it's really hard to make electric vehicles with 1980s battery technology. Just about the only successful EV of the era was the golf cart and that's very niche.
Electric moped was right idea but some 30 years ahead of its time.
Probably also the wrong country. I can imagine something like C5 taking off in the SF Bay Area. In the UK, you have something like 160 rainy days a year. People bike over there, but this somehow feels worse.
There was one much more successful EV, although it too was niche: The UK had "perhaps 40,000 milk floats" in the 1970s and 1980s before supermarkets took over as primary milk distributors. ( https://zavanak.com/transport-topics/british-electric-cv-his... )
The Sinclair C5 battery charger and battery was ahead of its time. I remember my Dad (who was something of a lead acid battery nerd) being very excited about it.
The battery in the C5 was designed to be run to 0% charge which would kill most lead acid batteries in no time, but if I remember rightly the charger would recover them by putting quite high voltages across them to de-sulphate them. Or something like that (not a lead acid battery nerd :-).
If I recall correctly they did did one niche application. Some people used them to trundle up and down the decks of oil tankers (a bicycle would seem better to me).
Given that there are no hills to climb on an oil tanker, and the distances involved are a few hundred meters at a time (at most), a bicycle seems so much better, cheaper, simpler, doesn't need charging, easier to fix.
It's not far off the speed and range of my ebike which works well as transport in London. I wouldn't want to be that low down visibility wise though. On the ebike my head is a little higher than if I were standing which works quite well.
As a child in the 80s I was exceedingly nerdy. My loving and generous parents did nothing to discourage that. Indeed they encouraged my nascent interest in computers by regularly updating my ZX computers (80->81->Spectrum->48K etc.) and then Acorn computers. All gratefully received.
But then I was offered a C5 as a potential Christmas gift. "It's a Sinclair, you like those" was the approximate reasoning. But even I had to draw the line. There's only so much bullying one person can take. I was used to being laughed at for my fashion choices, my social awkwardness and my lack of sporting prowess. But a C5 would have been the final nail in the coffin.
Ungrateful? Certainly. But I think I made the right choice.
Bizarre; this was originally posted 5 days ago (as evidenced by clicking on the poster's submission history [0]), but timestamps on the submission and on comments throughout the post show 11 hours ago. @dang, is this a bug in HN software? I was feeling some serious déjà vu scrolling seeing this and scrolling through the comments.
I went to a general auction in Croydon, UK in the 1990s with my parents. One of the lots was an old C5. It sold for £11. I still regret not pushing my parents to bid for it.
I once had a dream that this thing was the subject of a Top Gear episode and the three were given one each and they were tasked with modifying them in preparation for a race.
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[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 53.3 ms ] threadhttps://95octane.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/sinclair_c5_...
Well, hard to believe this was a flop.
https://www.carrozzieri-italiani.com/listing/italdesign-mach...
It's interesting that these are still essentially the regulations for e-bikes in the EU today, I guess slightly relaxed (25km/h, 250W average only but can peak higher).
So I looked up photos with a person inside and no, it really is that bad [0]. Pure form over function.
Uncomfortable, yes. That's bad enough. But you hands are far back under your center of gravity. Any crash over a few km/hr is going to result in a faceplant because there's no way you'll bring your hands forward fast enough. Top speed of 24km/hr is enough to cause serious... death by head trauma.
[0] https://www.autocar.co.uk/sites/autocar.co.uk/files/styles/g...
Just like a kayak, but without the rowing.
Electric moped was right idea but some 30 years ahead of its time.
The battery in the C5 was designed to be run to 0% charge which would kill most lead acid batteries in no time, but if I remember rightly the charger would recover them by putting quite high voltages across them to de-sulphate them. Or something like that (not a lead acid battery nerd :-).
Electric milk floats (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_float) were common even in the 1960s, and, I think, decades earlier.
Electric forklifts have been common since a long time, too. Not having an exhaust is a big advantage when operating one indoors.
(Both also fairly nice, but milk floats where used on public roads and fork lifts require much more power than golf carts)
- Polypropylene injection-molded bodywork (largest of its kind in 1985)
- Lotus-designed suspension and handling geometry
- Electric motor based on a modified torpedo cooling fan design
- Handlebar-mounted electronics with LED range and load indicators
- Custom deep-cycle lead-acid battery technology with 'smart' charging
- Toothed-belt drive system for quiet operation
It really was like seeing a bit of design from the future. Commercially a failure, alas.
But then I was offered a C5 as a potential Christmas gift. "It's a Sinclair, you like those" was the approximate reasoning. But even I had to draw the line. There's only so much bullying one person can take. I was used to being laughed at for my fashion choices, my social awkwardness and my lack of sporting prowess. But a C5 would have been the final nail in the coffin.
Ungrateful? Certainly. But I think I made the right choice.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98jr0145rgo
It was great going around the playground.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=jszymborski