Thorn Cycles Forum

Community => Non-Thorn Related => Topic started by: in4 on September 16, 2021, 11:59:38 PM

Title: Ebike variant
Post by: in4 on September 16, 2021, 11:59:38 PM

https://apple.news/AF6LthbRqS-mKFVLUVyE25A

Hmm. Thought provoking.

Title: Re: Ebike variant
Post by: Andre Jute on September 17, 2021, 01:28:57 PM

What goes round comes round:

(https://onlinebicyclemuseum.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/1900-Folding-Perdersen-10.jpg)
1900 Dursley Pedersen ‘Detachable’ Military Cycle,
fought in the Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902

Reproduced for educational purposes from this fascinating page --
https://onlinebicyclemuseum.co.uk/1900-dursley-pedersen-military-cycle/
-- which has many more fascinating photographs. The ultimate copyright source is David Evans's book Mr Pedersen: A Man of Genius.

Title: Re: Ebike variant
Post by: steve216c on October 06, 2021, 11:35:44 AM

I've seen an occasional  'non-shooting' Pedersen bike when riding in Berlin. The hammock saddle is said to be very comfortable too.

Not seen any electric military bikes that I recall- but often wished for some kind of deterrent I could mount to my bike (flame thrower perhaps?) to keep the bike lanes free around baker shops and ATM machines- where the car drivers think the cycle lane is actually OK to park on if they only need 5 minutes...

Title: Re: Ebike variant
Post by: Andre Jute on October 06, 2021, 05:31:42 PM

The Pedersen has attracted riders over the entire century and a quarter it has been extant, almost as long as the safety bicycle itself. Even in periods when there was no manufacturer interested in it, there have always been cycling folk making one or two or three, with some interesting variations. The major torch-bearers were in a hippie commune in the Christiania area of Copenhagen for several decades back until the German enthusiast and businessman Kalle Kalkhoff put the operation on a sound footing as a German concern with Czech suppliers. As you can imagine, it wasn't long before he fell out with the hippies. His bikes presented such punctilio that even I, an artist very sensitive to the cruder forms of welding, was attracted. Herr Kalkhoff died and another Baukast, Utopia-Velo, took over the designs and supply channels of what was already a thoroughly modernized bike, in the same way my Utopia Kranich is a thoroughly modernized Locomotief Crossframe Deluxe; it's a niche and price class Utopia understands thoroughly, in the same way that Thorn understands high-value but also highly reliable touring and utility bikes. But the fact that Utopia isn't a mass-marketer already tells you you'll never see more than a few Pedersens even in Germany, which is a shame as it is a perfectly rational design -- until you try to get it made in Taiwan, when they'll laugh you off the island!

The only reason I didn't buy a Kalkhoff Pedersen, back when I was buying a new bike every couple of years, was the consideration, about the time Herr Kalkhoff made the hippie product suitable for my use,  that sometime after I turned 60 I would require a low stepover bike. I don't think there's a higher stepover than a Pedersen, except the parade bikes-on-stilts built in Austin, Texas, by Chalo Colina.