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.

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.

[0] https://www.autocar.co.uk/sites/autocar.co.uk/files/styles/g...

The C5 really was a marvel of design for 1985. Sinclair really went all in on it.

- 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.

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.

This is the same guy that created the ZX81 (that I learned to code on) and the ZX Spectrum. He changed my life.

Last year they celebrated the 40th anniversary with a group ride through Cambridge city centre:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98jr0145rgo

>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.

Well, hard to believe this was a flop.

It's a collectible but the remaining ones can likely be improved very much with modern eBike parts, lighter and more powerful motor and batteries...

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.

Time to watch Micro Men (2009) one more time.

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.

Spitting Image nailed the mentioned criticisms back in the day: https://youtu.be/YLRTDy3Pvhw?si=UpBb9VBvSTcCjEEF

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.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=jszymborski

Way ahead of its time. Some kind of rain cover and maybe flip the wheel combination around and it would make a sweet ev for the bike lanes.

My school got given one and the science teacher swapped the motorcycle battery for a car battery.

It was great going around the playground.

If you're in Denver, Colorado you can see one in-person at The Forney Museum of Transportation.

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.

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).

Sir Clive's Dymaxion Car. Doomed to similar failure. I love it for that reason alone.

Wasn't it possible to store these by standing them on end?

see also this (it also mentions the C5 but focuses on pedal-driven velomobiles) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velomobile