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Old 04-22-19, 05:57 AM
  #7  
berlinonaut
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While the bike is no doubt intresting I see a couple of issues. The four hinges on the mainframe are potentially something that will make the bike a bit wobbly. The whole construction looks like a child of an Airframe and a Tikit with a little bit Strida inside. I have my doubts how well this will ride.
Apart from that: The guy has been designing on that bike for quite some time which hopefully enhances the quality:
There is a patent dating from 2014 and there are videos on youtube of 2012
,2014
and 2018
. So within the limits of the design it is hopefully relatively matured. On the other hand it is still a prototype - which means miles away from a real product and real production. The more astonishing is the given timeframe for bikes being delivered by the end of 2019 - we probably all remember the story of the Helix and how much time it needed in reality in comparison to the initial delivery goal... In short: I do not think that is possible in any way.

Pricewise it is a bit strange, too: Prices starting at 599€ for a delayed delivery at the end of 2020, 899€ for a delivery at the end of 2019 and an intended list price of 2.299€. Wow! The list price is in my eyes just phantasy compared to the established competition and what prices are paid for folders in the market - I cannot imagine this bike is sellable at this pricetag. Furthermore: If we assume the 899€ were a price where the labor is paid and there is maybe a tiny margin in it and the 599€ a heavily discounted price which covers barely more than the materials involved: How and why would one then pay 2299€ for that bike? It also looks a bit like a snowball system: They try to get money in to get the whole thing started but I highly doubt that w/o massive additional funding there will be enough money left at the end of 2020 to deliver the bikes that were sold for 599€. Also the specifications are left open - you do not know what you get for your money - which leaves room for the creators to adjust according to the financial possibilities but also may hint at a high risk and maybe unexperienced creators. They already ran an identical campaign on startnext back in January 2019 w/o getting any traction. Possibly partly because startnext is possibly the wrong place for such a project in my opinion but possibly partly also because of the risks and potential naiveness that one could imagine with the makers.

I with them luck but I think I'll pass. If it were available now for a test ride and this test ride was convincing 899€ could be an attractive price - but not for a bet on kickstarter but to directly buy it in a shop now. Maybe even a couple of 100€ more, but clearly not 2300€.
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