C1 Electric Case Study

[nikster]

Case study from BMW - the C1 electric scooter:

http://www.heise.de/autos/artikel/BMW-laes...w=bildergalerie

Living in Thailand I think the C1 - the only scooter you can legally ride without helmet in Europe - was really a pretty amazing invention. You are strapped in, have roll bars, and a crumple zone even. It proved that it's possible to create a safe motorcycle. Unfortunately at the time it cost EUR 7000 which was way too much for a scooter. BMW only sold it for 3 years and then ceased production.

Would it really be so hard to add a seatbelt and rollbars to a normal motorbike? I don't think so... in fact I think it's the future. Thinking of this in the light of an accident 2 weeks back where a 25 year old Thai boy flew off his brand new ER-6n and died after hitting a tree. I didn't know him but it happened right around the corner from where I live.

Relevance to Thailand: I have seen a C1 in Bangkok, they still look cool. I will get one for the wife if they ever make the electric version. And I can't help but think about thousands or even tens of thousands of road deaths in Thailand that could be prevented each year if all scooters had rollbars/seatbelts. How hard can it be?

Edited October 21, 2009 by nikster

[guzzi850m2]

Well I respect your concern for the Thais getting killed on bikes every year very sad indeed.

Something have to be made/thought before the Thais will start wearing crash helmets, like teaching / picture shows in the schools and so on. I see again and again in Pattaya the local riders take off their helmets when they know they will be safe form the police. They simply don't get the point, the helmet is for your safety, not to show the police that you are a good boy.

The BMW looks very quite but at that price forget it, only a toy for the rich, dump the price to say 60K bath and then see.

[Donnyboy]

a good idea, but unforfunately i dont see it being a huge seller in Thailand even if they were 60k baht

why? cause it only would carry 1 person and hardly anything else

lets face it, thais carry everything on a motorbike,laundry, groceries,computers, building material, more than 2 people, bike parts, recycling ......................what would that bmw carry?

just being realistic

[Fishenough]

Doesn't the C1 come with an optional rear facing seat slash storage area? Sure the one I saw in Italy had something along those lines.

The juvenile side of me wonders if you did a front stoppie/forward endo, could you roll all the way around forward back onto two wheels and keep driving. Better yet, have one customized with tubing to resemble a giant gyroscope, allowing some crazy tricks and dizzying recoveries from high, or low side. Kinda like a mechanical Sorb ball.

[noahvail]

60,000 baht will get you the low end of BMW's one wheel drive vehicle: http://www.luxist.com/2008/03/25/bmw-bicyc...wheeled-luxury/

[BigBikeBKK]

The juvenile side of me wonders if you did a front stoppie/forward endo, could you roll all the way around forward back onto two wheels and keep driving. Better yet, have one customized with tubing to resemble a giant gyroscope, allowing some crazy tricks and dizzying recoveries from high, or low side. Kinda like a mechanical Sorb ball.

I like the way you think!!!

[jackcorbett]

Well I respect your concern for the Thais getting killed on bikes every year very sad indeed.

Something have to be made/thought before the Thais will start wearing crash helmets, like teaching / picture shows in the schools and so on. I see again and again in Pattaya the local riders take off their helmets when they know they will be safe form the police. They simply don't get the point, the helmet is for your safety, not to show the police that you are a good boy.

The BMW looks very quite but at that price forget it, only a toy for the rich, dump the price to say 60K bath and then see.

Thai children in Pattaya are not even taught they should wear a helmet to protect them from getting tickets from the police. It is true that many Thais here obey the traffic laws scrupulously, perhaps even a majority. But there is a huge percentage that feel they can break every law. I've said this before-- there is a school at the beginning of my street I live on. When school lets out there is usually at least one policeman directing traffic where the kids come out on their motorbikes onto Naklua Soi 16 or Naklua Road. Most of the kids are not wearing helmets, yet out they come as the policeman waves them on. Many are riding three and four to a bike. (Well sometimes for short distances on the back streets I will drive three up as well). Later on there will be roadblocks and everyone is pulled over, Thai and Westerner alike to be fined for not wearing a helmet. So what's up with this? What message is being taught to these kids (and I have it from others that it's not this one school but in schools throughout Pattaya). Not my call but the solution is very obvious and that is to impose requirements for getting a license and changing the entire outlook of everyone concerned......driving is not a right--it's a privilege that must be earned.

[nikster]

a good idea, but unforfunately i dont see it being a huge seller in Thailand even if they were 60k baht

why? cause it only would carry 1 person and hardly anything else

good point, there would have to be some serious utility upgrades. BTW I think any bike could be made with roll bars, not just BMWs.

Fishenough - wow, tantalizing options for wild stunts indeed!!

There sure are very affordable BMWs around, I had no idea

[cm das]

If you could fix a decent-sized sunscreen onto those rollbars, then a bike like this could be a huge hit in Thailand. Forget about the safety factor, but keeping the sun off the face... now that's a priority.

[BSJ]

Nikster: Relevance to Thailand: I have seen a C1 in Bangkok, they still look cool.

From my point of view hel_l will freeze over before that thing ever becomes cool! They may force us to wear helmets by continually hitting our hip pocket nerve if we don't, but they can't force us to ride some goofy overpriced cr@pmobile!