Terry Hope
Like I have read before about this design, how does it function when turning a corner ?? The design seems to have enough tire clearance..
gadgetmind
The riding position looks similar to that of a Compact Long-Wheelbase Recumbent (such as Giant Revive or HP Velotechnik Spirit) but with a *very* high seating position. Can those riders really get a foot on the floor easily?

It looks to me like this will have a few handling quirks and without the aerodynamic advantages that make recumbents so fast and so much fun.

Oh, and that\'s why recumbent also need a big gear range, ideally over 500% - you can\'t \"honk\" on the pedal uphill so need to spin in a low gear, but you blast downhill at 40mph-50mph so also need high gears.

Anyway, good luck to the guy, but I hope he tried riding 20-30 different recumbents (LWB, SWB, CLWB, trikes, everything!) before setting off the design his own.

Ian
Nick Foley
Hey! Thanks for your interest in the design.
Terry - The tire clearance isn\'t totally perfected yet, but only is an issue at low speeds and sharp corners; as long as you coast through them, it is fine. A couple of tweaks are going to be made to future prototypes which will resolve the issue entirely, however. The clearance looks deceptively bad from a side view, but due to the small front wheel it\'s not actually that close, and is pleasurable to ride through the city.
Ian - Yeah, I rode quite a few recumbents while I was in the early design phases of this, thanks to George Bliss at Hudson Urban Bicycles who owns a number, and to all the customers who came into the shop and let me take their recumbents for a spin (Shelly of the Urban Mobility Project esp. http://urbanmobilityproject.blogspot.com/ )
As far as the handling goes, I based the geometry off of a fairly standard semi-recumbent design, and though there are a few minor issues to resolve, it handles pretty well. (For example, the fork used for the prototype is a modified 700c racing fork, and as a result I wasn\'t able to get quite as much rake as I would have liked)
With regards to aerodynamics, the upright riding position certainly suffers a little compared to a traditional recumbent, but for city riding, having a high viewpoint to see over traffic is essential. It is also a more familiar car-like or even sofa-like riding position, and my main priorities for this design were safety and accessibility to non-avid-cyclists.
Again, thanks for your comments! I hope to have this in production (in a more evolved form) in the near future.
felix
Hi Nick,
Long distance comfort is definitely one of the bigger problems in bicycle design so I\'m glad to see innovation in this area. Good work.
How is the braking though? Looks like applying the front hard could result in a flip. If it has back brake only that would prevent it from being road legal in the UK and presumably elsewhere.
Also, please consider swept back handlebars (omafiets style), they are far more relaxing and comfortable to hold IMHO.
Anyway - hope one of these turns up in the UK one day, would love to try it!
Farokh Monajem
\"The designer may also consider an electric hub motor enhancement to a future version of Etta but \"doing away with the pedal power entirely is not something I find particularly advantageous. I\'m no proponent of sloth.\"\"
Sloth? How about people with chronic conditions who cannot ride a bike but would like to get around on one anyways? Far from sloth, some of us are not capable of pedaling around.
Nick Foley
Felix - I totally agree about the omafiets style bars... unfortunately I wasn\'t able to find a good looking bar in that style that had an oversized clamp. It currently has the most swept-back risers I could find, to approximate this.
Farokh - I mean no offense to the disabled/otherwise immobile- I was simply suggesting that if a vehicle is designed from inception to execution, to be powered by one method, it is an injustice to both the vehicle and the user to try to adapt it to an entirely different form of propulsion.
Etta was designed around being pedal powered- making it soley electric would make it a bad design; inadequate in many respects.
Those who need dedicated, fully-electric mobility deserve an appropriately dedicated solution.
jerryd
It\'s too tall which makes it harder to balance especially at low speed. Also the basket is not that needed as one can put far more either over the rear wheel or hung in eco bags from the handlebars as I do.
EV drive would make it far more useful especially in hot weather and going to work, school, ect with sweating, smelling. BTDT Now I can no longer pedal far so it\'s not optional anymore.
Better than being so tall and a basket would be folding, more compact so one can take on a train, bus. Easy to correct these by lowering the seat, folding hinges and E-drive, with or wirhout pedals
But not bad either.
John M
The ETTA is definitely not a recumbent in my book & the seat being higher than a conventional means you would go over the handle-bars easier in an accident.
Statistics also show that you are safer in an accident riding a bent .
Thats my dollars worth. Kiwi
Nick Foley
Just to clarify -
The riding position on this bike isn\'t high; in fact, it is a couple cm lower than a traditional bike for a given rider height. Keeping the rider near the height of a traditional bike is essential because having good visibility when riding in a city is critical to rider safety.
Nonetheless, it is a little lower than a traditional position because this allows the rider to put their feet flat on the ground without leaving the seat while stopped.
Gadgeteer
I have to agree with felix that the weight distribution looks very unfavorable. It looks like it\'s about 60/40 front to rear, exactly the opposite of a good road bike. With the small front wheel, there\'s a good chance an unexpected pothole of about 2-3\" depth will initiate a faceplant. I don\'t like spoked wheels because they demand so much attention. Maintenance-free molded ones like Skyway wheels are widely available and not that expensive.