"The C.1 Story"
I may be the last person here to have seen this, if not Youtube has this piece from something called bigcar and an unamed narrator that's worth a look for two reasons
One, it's an example of journalism at it's worse, it's English but it completely ignores any English contributions to the genesis of the C.1 except for;-
Two, it features what it says is a Quasar, except that it's got chain drive on the left, instead of shaft drive on the right. I'm pretty sure it's the Kiwi Quasar copy, a fine effort but neither English or a Quasar! Good job Malcolm is not longer available really, coulda got messy.
I guess you might excuse it as an excercise in 'roofus' FFs. It mentions the Monotracer ("A rich man's toy"), Adiva and the Elysium, which never made production. Except that the piece is actually about solutions to urban traffic congestion... I know I'm not the only person who upset the delicate ego's of the British Motorcycle press (richly deserved) but it's amazing, to me at least, how English FF projects achieve complete invisibilty.
- Royce's blog
- Login to post comments
Weblink + Comments on the video
First things first: This is the link to 'The BMW C1 Story' on the Big Car YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ay2fMeAa4k&t=6s
This is the comment that I made when I saw the 13 minute video:
"There's lots of good, well-researched stuff here, and some great video footage. But there are some dodgy statements and dodgy footage too, and some things not said that should have been. You're not fooling me with your footage of the New Zealand Quasar replica, powered by a Kawasaki 550 motor, because I know the bloke who built it – Dave Lochhead – and I've ridden several of the original Reliant-engined machines, and owned one myself! To describe the Peraves machines as 'a rich man't toy' is a friggin' insult too, and you should have owned up to using footage of the brand new 2021 ELECTRIC Monoracer (no T) made by the revamped Peraves CZ (as opposed to CH). And I've ridden plenty of Ecomobiles and Monotracers (with a T) too, including the first two electric ones, in 2009, 2011 and 2012. As for the C1, it was a real 'curate's egg' – good in parts, terrible in others. You should have mentioned the deafening racket when ridden without a helmet, and even with an open face one. And that 'easy to use' stand design was an unmitigated disaster. The marketing for the C1 was completely mis-conceived, at least in the UK, and the training, for both new riders and new mechanics, lamentable. The car dealers who were forced to sell them hated them. The bike dealers who had to service them hated them too (mostly). But you shouldn't dismiss those 34,000 sales in only 3 years. That's far more than many famous motorcycle marques ever sold in decades of production. And it was never sold outside Europe either, remember. BMW should have persevered with the electric C1 – it had huge potential IMO. And you can't call the Toyota i-Road merely a concept when there was a whole FLEET of them for hire in Grenoble – and yes, I've driven one of them too. I could go on! Here's a bit of ancient FF history for you, featuring genuine original Quasars and the very first Peraves Oekomobil (as it was originally called) when I drove it on Top Gear in 1988: https://tinyurl.com/ybn3sawz
Also, you should have mentioned the sidescreens that were available for the C1. Helped to stop rain from being sucked into the inside of the screen where the wiper wasn't much use! And the Honda Cabina covered 2-wheeler, which was much sleeker than the Canopy. A real shame Honda never made at least a 125 version. http://bikeweb.com/node/3324