A Tesla electric bicycle?
- Thread starter LockH
- Start date
Looks pretty much like the other zillion bad ideas on kickstarter/etc.
LeftieBiker
100 kW
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It looks like a bicycle version of Steve Martin's "Cruel Shoes." The shocks in the wheels are probably there to create bumps on smooth roads.
MadRhino
100 GW
I guess Elon plans building cycle paths on Mars 
LockH
1 PW
amberwolf said:
Tesla CEO Elon Musk obviously some "flake". :lol:
I hope they do make an ebike, but...clearly not this abomination of bad design.
I'm told the model-3 uses a switched reluctance motor, with the specific design goals of severely reducing the cost, while still performing as well as the previous induction motors.
They succeeded, so I'd love a switched reluctance motor and controller that is the right size for an ebike...
I'm told the model-3 uses a switched reluctance motor, with the specific design goals of severely reducing the cost, while still performing as well as the previous induction motors.
They succeeded, so I'd love a switched reluctance motor and controller that is the right size for an ebike...
wturber
1 MW
From reading the article, nobody has any idea what a Tesla electric bike might look like. So much depends on the design goals. Maybe its designed to be an appendage to the Tesla car that is stored in and charged by the car. So in large cities you just pop out a small folder and comfortably finish the last mile or two of your commute , avoiding nasty parking issues.
I can also imagine a complete re-think of the ebike much like the Electrom or it could go the exact opposite and be a bike that looks super conventional to the point of simply looking like a regular bicycle with all the e-bits cleverly hidden/obscured. So much would depend on the intended use.
I can also imagine a complete re-think of the ebike much like the Electrom or it could go the exact opposite and be a bike that looks super conventional to the point of simply looking like a regular bicycle with all the e-bits cleverly hidden/obscured. So much would depend on the intended use.
KInda like the old Honda car/scooter combo? (Motocompo) It was ICE, rather tan electric, but similar idea.wturber said:
tomjasz
1 GW
Keep it, I can build better.
wturber
1 MW
amberwolf said:
Yep. Just a thot. But in general, I wouldn't expect Tesla to just build a nice ebike. I'd expect them to be trying to do something that takes things a step or two further.
As long as it's an actual improvement in usability, that'd be great, but if it did actualy look like that thing at the top of the thread, or any of the bunch of variations of things like it people keep coming up with.... :/
One can look around at a bunch of bicycle and scooter forums and get much better ideas than those just from the practical bikes and scooters people use every day for such things. Then "fancy them up" if necessary with colorful plastic covers that make them look commercially made instead of DIY, but without changing their functionality and usefulness and safety, as well as compatibility with the bajillion existing accessories for such bikes and scooters.
(for example, where would poeple put all the things they need to carry along with them for that "last mile", either to or from, or both, on the thing up there at the top?)
One can look around at a bunch of bicycle and scooter forums and get much better ideas than those just from the practical bikes and scooters people use every day for such things. Then "fancy them up" if necessary with colorful plastic covers that make them look commercially made instead of DIY, but without changing their functionality and usefulness and safety, as well as compatibility with the bajillion existing accessories for such bikes and scooters.
(for example, where would poeple put all the things they need to carry along with them for that "last mile", either to or from, or both, on the thing up there at the top?)
wturber
1 MW
amberwolf said:
The think up at the top is just a silly design that has nothing to do with any Tesla bike.
LockH
1 PW
wturber said:
Hehe... Per Micahs article:
:lol:
wturber said:
I know, but it is there as an example, which is what I was using it as.
There is an unfortunate propensity for impractical designs to come out of companies that specialize in one product type when they being to make another, even when it is related. They often don't look into how the product would actually be used by the consumer, so it may not be possible to use it in necessary ways, or even to modify it to do so, without extreme DIY. :/
(I've seen this in hardware and software)
wturber
1 MW
Its an example of editorial baloney, not a Tesla design. :^)amberwolf said:wturber said:
I know, but it is there as an example, which is what I was using it as.
There is an unfortunate propensity for impractical designs to come out of companies that specialize in one product type when they being to make another, even when it is related. They often don't look into how the product would actually be used by the consumer, so it may not be possible to use it in necessary ways, or even to modify it to do so, without extreme DIY. :/
(I've seen this in hardware and software)
I'm giving Elon Musk and Tesla more credit than I would the average company or even the typical car company. But I wouldn't put it past them to do something stupid or pointless. After all, he thinks going to Mars is a sensible idea.
Deafcat
100 W
wturber said:
After we've gone to mars thanks to SpaceX, many folks will be able to re-define what they consider "sensible".
What exactly isn't sensible about travelling to other planets again?
tomjasz said:
Yup.
If it becomes reality, i suspect it will be a well enginered, nice looking, highly functional bike that Elon fanboys will buy in excess, but will also cause an outbreak of yawning on the forum because a product like this has to obey the design parameters set forth by politicians.
Since the Zero Motorcycle company seems to have fallen on hard times lately, i think producing an ultralight high tech Tesla motorcycle would be a better use of their resources.
But what do i know..
wturber
1 MW
Deafcat said:
Everything.
If Tesla has profits they need to "invest" (*or pay taxes on), I'd recommend they invest in Zero, rather than compete head to head...
Solid state batteries will be available soon, and Alta has been hobbled with no rescue in sight...just a thought...
Solid state batteries will be available soon, and Alta has been hobbled with no rescue in sight...just a thought...
LeftieBiker
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I can just picture a Zero e-bike: $15k and in the shop 75% of the time...
LockH
1 PW
Were I Elon... Emphasis here is "bicycle" rather than MOTORcycle... So rather than going Zero et al "motorcycle"... I'd be jumping in "bicycle-style" and make profit on high volumes of sales. (Spread fixed costs over higher numbers of units produced.) But that's just the accountant in me.
Chalo
100 TW
Deafcat said:
$50,000 per kg of payload to get there, for one. That's like $8 million to send my body, but only if it's dead. Keeping me alive would cost a whole lot more than that, in payload weight and equipment cost. And that's only to get there, not come back.
Opportunity cost, for another. Tech, energy, and other resources used on something like a Mars colony could be used much more efficiently to solve more pressing problems here on Earth, for somewhat less than $50k/kg.
I think we'll be ready for it after we learn to take care of our own planet like a space station. Until then, we'll be massively compromising our own home at an unsustainable rate so we can do a handful of unsustainable, uneconomic things on Mars.
I helped start an existing space program as one of its first employees. Trust me when I say that the cost of manned space exceeds its value at this time, and for some time to come. We're not even ready to start getting ready for Mars yet, except as a horrifically expensive and basically pointless stunt. To believe otherwise is childlike magical thinking.
Token return to topic:
The bike in the illustration is also childlike magical thinking, but much cheaper to try out and thereby debunk. A real one (with technical impossibilities fixed) would be like the bicycle version of Google Glass-- intriguing in principle, but ridiculous and off-putting when you're confronted with it.
I doubt Tesla has intentions of developing commercial e-bikes, because that's not their shtick. They sell glamor and opportunities for self-congratulation. E-bikes are notably deficient in both.
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