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YikeBike

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60 pointsvnuk59 comments

I have ridden recumbent bikes (e.g. http://www.recumbents.com/home.asp) for decades. Mine is very much like the Yike: underseat steering, approximately 20" wheels, short wheelbase, and I sit almost directly over the front wheel (like the Yike) except I have to pedal. Here is what I know:

1. sitting on a wheel means every time you hit a pothole you say yike as your spine is pounded.

2. you MUST keep both hands on the wheel at all times because it is dynamically unstable (very different from an 'upright' bike which will steer hands-free).

3. forward center of gravity will dump you on your face under heavy braking (or for the Yike - the slightest braking).

4. small wheels feel every bump in the pavement (which has a fractal dimension explored in greater detail as the wheel gets smaller).

5. You can ride a recumbent for hundreds of miles in a day and still be very comfortable (I have) but it requires a chair-type seat; preferably with some recline to it. That seat looks painful.

6. A short wheelbase like my bike or the Yike allows you to turn on a dime - but it takes practice as both wheels do not have the same weight and a skid is unrecoverable. Do not attempt this on ice, snow, wet leaves, etc..

Yikes, that thing will not sell. The core demographic that would use it are the same people that want to look the coolest. And I can't imagine anyone cool sitting on something as dorky.

Another good idea killed by poor design.

But the girl with the ticket in the ad seemed to be very charmed by the brave young man on a yike. ;-)

Sadly, I'm sure they spent a lot of time on the design. I think they're just solving the wrong problem. The lack of storage space limits this to joy riding. You can't buy groceries, commute with a laptop, etc. etc.

Why wouldn't a backpack work for carrying things?

When it comes to long distance hauling of stuff on twos you want to let the machine do the work.

Sure, but given the range of the Yike I don't think long-distance hauling is really an option anyways.

Backpacks are small. Foldable metal bike baskets can fit large cloth grocery bags in them. Two of those are enough to carry almost anything I need for the next week or so.

" The lack of storage space limits this to joy riding. You can't buy groceries, commute with a laptop"

People typically bike with laptops in backpacks and messenger bags.

I think that's exactly what their video is trying to address: making it seem cool before an initial superficial reaction to the unfamiliar seating makes it seem dorky. It's a steep task, though.

I think the Segway faced the same issue -- and an even simpler orientation for such personal devices, seated in a forward direction, is terminally uncool because it's so closely associated with the elderly and others with mobility problems.

I wonder, then, if units which are different for the sake of looking trendy could take off. In particular, whatever the safety issues, what if a personal motorized device expected the rider to face their body perpendicular to the direction of travel, like a skateboarder (able/cool), surfer (able/cool) or snowboarder (able/cool).

Would the rider then be sending a signal of 'fitness' even with their motor-assisted personal-travel, and could that then be the margin of approval that drives adoption where other units have failed?

Would you ride it if it could hover?

I'd ride anything if it could hover, even a guy.

Every person in that video seems to be thinking "Ha ha. Look at that moron!" though I'm sure that's not what I'm supposed to be thinking.

"How heavy is a YikeBike? The YikeBike weighs less than 10kg with a full battery and air in the tyres"

And how much does it weigh with a drained battery and flat tires? :)

Depends on the pressure when the tires are fully inflated.

Less, actually.

Measurably less than "less than 10kg"? Yes, I understand that air at 30psi weighs more. Let's assume that the tires hold 3 liters of air (standard for a mt. bike, the yike looks like it holds a lot less actually). The 30psi will add 3.75 grams. Less than two pennies.

This shouldn't be compared to a regular bike but to Segway. A popular electic bicycle would also be cheap and allow pedalling.

A popular electic bicycle would also be cheap and allow pedalling.

Absolutely. If I wanted an electric bike, I'd go with something more sensible, like this:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/10/schwinns_new_line_of...

The perks of the Yike (I feel funny just saying that) are the weight (20lb vs 45lb) and size. I see lots of business people here (London) on those little fold up city bikes. The Yike seems more targetted at those customers than the traditional cyclist.

The Yike also allows you to avoid the legions of bicycle fundamentalists who will inevitably accost you over an electric bicycle choice.

How does it do that? At 20kmh I'll ride circles around this thing on my mountain bike with knobby tires wearing a 30 pound pack.

and I believe its going to have the same problem: http://paulgraham.com/segway.html

I'm going to go ahead and predict this same problem: http://paulgraham.com/segway.html

First thing that came to my mind as well. I like the foldable functionality though. In Amsterdam there are a lot of people using folding bikes. They commute to Amsterdam by train taking their bikes and then use the bike to get into the city. Works pretty well, but it still looks kind of silly.

I would not want to go down a hill on that thing.

Or uphill.

According to their FAQ: Speed limited so that it can never go faster than 20 km/h even down hill.

It looks like it will have pretty much exactly the same problems the segway has. It is too expensive (~3,500 - 3,900 Euros). The range is too short (9-10km) and it doesn't go fast enough(edit: When finished won't go fast enough). It reminds me exactly of how the Segway origionally wanted to be, long distance and high speed, but regulations and batteries kept it from doing so. If they are going for a small niche then they might be fine, but if they are trying to mass market it, then it seems like it'll be another pipe dream. That's not to say I don't think its cool, just not at all practical.

"Same problems as the segway has" ... let's see:

"too expensive" - check! (Got me there.)

"range is too short" - I'd like more range, but after 20 miles your feet have had enough of the Segway. Miles of sidewalk cracks beat you up and you need a rest. Really, I'd settle for a faster recharge rate.

"doesn't go fast enough" - you want to fall faster than 12 mph?

"regulations" - in 43 of the United States, Segways are allowed on sidewalks, bike paths, and roads. See http://www.segway.com/support/regulatory.php

"batteries" - the biggest problem with the Segway batteries is that they're considered hazmat and are hard to ship. The FAA takes a dim view of "lithium ion" anything, even though Valence's lithium iron magnesium phosphate cathodes make them safe to transport. That's really less a problem with the technology, and more of an opportunity to educate the regulators.

I can't imagine trying to bail out if you got into trouble with the handlebars around your legs like that.

From the FAQ (I swear I'm not from YikeBike PR): It is likely that you will jump off the front of a YikeBike in an emergency braking situation - this is very easy as there are no handle bars in the way.

At 20km/h it might not be so easy after all.

20km/h is only a little over 12mph. I can sprint faster than that for short distances, so even if the front wheel hit a huge curb and stopped instantly, I'd likely just run to a stop. Having fallen off both conventional bikes and recumbents, I'd feel pretty safe on this thing.

Better than on a bike where you're tangled up to start with.

I'm guessing that sailing off the front gets progressively easier the faster you're going. It's the graceful landing that presents a problem.

I think they actually meant to say "It is likely that you will be thrown off the front of a YikeBike in an emergency braking situation - this is very easy as there are no handle bars in the way." :P

I really don't see how jumping off front of the bike is intuitive though. I mean, it's like trying to jump forward from the chair your sitting in. This in itself is an unnatural action, and to top it off the bike is gonna be moving forward when you jump forward off it. I foresee some severely bruised backsides.

On a unicycle, it's actually very easy to fall off the front safely- it basically dumps you back onto your feet. The posture and balance of the yike look comparable to me.

In an emergency, the thing in front is generally what I'm trying to avoid.

I get what they're saying about not flipping over the bars, but personally, I'd rather be able to bail out to the back or sides. The way they are describing basically just throws you into an object, whereas with the back/sides you're able to avoid objects and roll on the ground. If you're going fast enough to flip over the handle bars: (a) you're probably not going to be able to brake in time anyway, and (b) it's probably not much better to just get launched straight into whatever you're trying to avoid.

Yikebike: How much: €3700~ ($5400) | How far: 9-10 km (5.5 miles) | How fast: 20 kph (12 mph)

For comparison...

Segway: How much: $2-7000? | How far: 38km (24 miles) | How fast: 20 kph (12 mph)

Another comparison:

My shitty commuting bike: 50€ | Range: unlimited | Top speed: a bit more than 30kph depending on how fast you can spin

I agree. But to be fair, you should compare it to a Brompton folding bike (that have an excellent design btw, the parts fit perfectly). http://www.brompton.co.uk/

I'm sure it compares favourably to the Yike, but the range on your commuting bike is not unlimited. How far can you ride before you have to stop and eat?

I bet I can go farther on my bike before stopping and eating than the Yike can go without stopping and recharging.

I can eat on the bike, actually. I did 210 km one day, a number of years ago, and only really stopped once (I had plenty of food that I ate as I went), but that wasn't with the city bike, for sure. Even the nice bike costs half of what this thing does, though.

Bicycles, on reasonable terrain (i.e. roads of some kind, or rideable trails) are the most efficient form of human transportation, in terms of energy / km.

Sat that high up with not much in front of you... it looks like it might have some stability issues.

Take a penny-farthing, shrink it down, put a motor in it.

Yes, even the guy in the video looked wobbly.

This bike and segway are marketing to the WRONG demographic.

City folk are too cool and care too much about their image to ride these things.

Come out here to the small towns of the mid/northwest where we drive our cars 10 blocks to get to work. Or the grocery store is 3 blocks away, so is the movie store, and Starbucks.

They are still too expensive, but every house on my block could benefit from one of these, and if we saw each other riding it down the street, we'd all be jealous of one another and want one.

small towns don't have proper sidewalks for things like that, and having them on the road is a recipe for road rage.

Great, but I would not like to be seen on one.

It is a sad sad state of product design that the people who spent so much time designing and making it never rode a bicycle.

If they had they would know that even getting on this contraption would scare the daylights out of a seasoned cyclist(like me).

Not to mention that it is everyone's dream to look like an idiot at speed.

This is what I said the first time YikeBike was posted on HN:

"tiny wheelbase + forward centre of gravity + unexpected obstacle = faceplant."

It doesn't look stable or durable.

Kudos to all who are trying to make bike-like commuting practical. I'm looking forward to practical ideas.

...and let me just say I'm still looking.

I just hope that the price will be much more reasonable when it goes into production...

dammit when is apple going to release one of these so people think it's cool?

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