Released at EUROBIKE on September 2, 2009, the “YikeBike” by the Kiwi design team is a radical electric bicycle that just weighs 9.8 kilograms and folds to 67×56×12 cm to fit in a backpack. Featuring a small powerful 1.2 kW electric motor and controller that replaces chain pedal, gear box, mechanical brake, cables or levers, the YikeBike is gonna be the first bicycle on the market with electronic anti-skid brakes. Looking like a mini version of a penny farthing (mini-farthing), the vehicle also integrates lights, indicators and brake lights on a hard carbon light platform, ensuring the safety as well ease of the ride.
Intended for city journeys of up to 9km, the bike is capable of reaching a top speed of 20km/h, thanks to the high power brushless electric motor. In short, the zero emission bike not only allows a safe and brisk ride on cramped city roads, but also lets the users play their part in sustaining the environment. The YikeBike costs $4860.
Via: Yikebike/ Dailymail
That being said, the video particularly grabbed my attention not only for NOT SHOWING THE DAMN BIKE AT ALL, but for showing regular people, pedestrians and vehicularians (sp?) alike, apparently envying the amorphous ’swoosh’ effect that I assume is meant to represent the new electric penny-farthing rider at large. I would love to pay monies for a device that not only does what my own legs can do already, but does so in such a manner that is uncapturable by video. Did you ever see that southpark episode where Garrison created a revolutionary transportation method (which involved literal physical buttraping appendages) only to be crushed by the US Gov’t ’bailing out’ the airlines, which were deemed ’too big to fail to a buttraping motorcycle model that would have bankrupted any REAL company on the free market’
In conclusion, if you want people to buy your product, FUCKING DEMONSTRATE THAT YOUR PRODUCT IS WORTH THEIR MONEY. Viral videos will only go so far, and are ABSOLUTELY NEVER worth the money you put in - a good viral is based on the CONSUMERS, not how much money you’ve invested in that particular company.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Yike-Bike-woos-European-market/tabid/369/articleID/119628/cat/64/Default.aspx
http://www.3news.co.nz/Yike-Bike-woos-European-market/tabid/369/articleID/119628/cat/64/Default.aspx