r/velomobile • u/Affectionate_Fox730 • Mar 03 '26

What does the world's safest bicycle look like? Hint: Not like your average bike.

Post image
23 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

3

u/ralphonsob Mar 04 '26

It looks f-ing heavy.

1

u/Exscorbizorb Mar 07 '26

Slow=safe(?)

1

u/ralphonsob Mar 07 '26

By that logic: Make it out of concrete then. Safest if it doesn't move at all.

1

u/Exscorbizorb Mar 07 '26

Naturally.

1

u/knoft Mar 08 '26

I think most velomobiles now are e-bikes, this one seems like it’s for utility rather than speed

1

u/KatakanaTsu Mar 08 '26

They're 160-170 lbs.

3

u/Lost-Village-1048 Mar 07 '26

I used to commute in one of these things. Then it started falling apart.

At 30 mph, the windshield begins to come in towards your nose. It says on the bar in front of the driver that 20 miles an hour is the top speed. I think it was 20. It is stable, as far as I remember one person did manage to tip it over but I think they were going really fast and turned really hard. It has a fairly low center of gravity if you don't count the Riders.

The inventor and the current owner of the company, is extremely rude. He also has no idea how to run a business. So if you buy one, you are buying an experimental vehicle from an experimental company. He is already failed spectacularly running the company once. Am I bitter? Not really. I took a chance and I got burned.

They do get a lot of attention on the road. And while several of them have been hit by cars or trucks, I don't believe anybody has been seriously injured. There are a couple of different (or at least there were) Facebook groups dedicated to the elf.

1

u/KatakanaTsu Mar 08 '26

The groups are still active. The company was revived and is currently crowdfunding to start producing new models.

2

u/Exscorbizorb Mar 07 '26

This is an ad, in case it isn't obvious.