If you go down to the woods today (well crawley really)

[barry2017]

I grant you they were poorly executed. But they were the first. Look how many mountain bike ideas we've gone through since 1985! I won't say a word about trimbles.
True, people don't like electric vehicles, but eventually normal people will just not be able to afford a car. Even though it fluctuates considerably and has gone down a lot in the last year, fuel prices will inevitably rise out of proportion to the cost of everything else.

 

[tintin40]

What gets me about the C5 is the hype. Sinclair was the wrong man to front it. Should have got some one else?

As for Trimbles the early one's were fine just heavy. the light weight frames were the problem Oh and Brent Trimble

 

[barry2017]

It's easy to remember all the things he failed at, but some of his devices were brilliant. The first affordable pocket calculator, a pocket TV, the ZX81 and the Spectrum. He was just rubbish at engineering.
I see exactly what you mean, though, it shouldn't have been something he brought out. But how different would the world be now, and how different would their fortunes be now, if a company like Ford had developed them?
And incidentally, don't think I'm knocking your Trimble. I love Trimbles, they're utterly iconic.

 

[Gadro]

I know a few people that use to build these at the Hoover Factory in Merthyr. Powered by washing machine motors.

Apparently they use to race them around the factory on nightshifts, albeit it not very fast

 

[perry]

electrickery is all well and good but where does it come from once you plug the thing into the wall eh ?

the internal combustion engine is a marvelous thing . people forget how efficient it can be but lets burn that oil far away and have some electricity piped in to make us feel like were saving the world

those c5s were and still are crap , why not walk or ride a bike ? they arnt even carrying anything , couldave been on the bus for a few quid

 

[JohnH]

electrickery is all well and good but where does it come from once you plug the thing into the wall eh ?

the internal combustion engine is a marvelous thing . people forget how efficient it can be but lets burn that oil far away and have some electricity piped in to make us feel like were saving the world

The efficiency of a fossil fuel power station is in the region of 30-40%. The efficiency of a petrol powered internal combustion engine is about 10-12%.

The sad thing is that so many British leaps forward in power generation have been ignored by the British and adopted by other nations. As an example, there's a company in Scotland that makes these floating wave machines that generate electricity by bobbing up and down on the sea. The Brits haven't bought any. These Scottish guys make them and then ship them to Portugal. :roll:

those c5s were and still are crap , why not walk or ride a bike ? they arnt even carrying anything , couldave been on the bus for a few quid

Again, the Brits are the first to put a 3-wheel electric transport into production. Instead of seeing this as a first step that needs more development and that could lead to the UK being world leaders in something lucrative, we all sat and took the piss.

Meanwhile, the Americans come along and turn it into a promising product. Here's the Xebra, an electric 3-wheeler that's gone into production:

Here's the Aptera, going into production in October 2009: