Just overtook one on the way home. Cambridge city centre. Never seen one before, may never see one again. Amazing invention. Crappest thing I've ever seen on the road
I've seen them in action, though nearly twenty years ago. They used to hire them out to tourists in Aviemore (perhaps they still do). At least they're not as bad as Clive S's A-Bike.
I found one at work. Christ knows what it was doing there, tucked away in a mezzanine floor above the warehouse with a load of old promotional stuff for exhibitions. I'll have to go take a look see if it's still there. Never seen one on the road. Ooh, there's some on eBay C5
When I was a kid the nearest electrical shop was selling one for £99, they must be worth a fair bit now, I wish my parents had bought it/ I've never seen one actually being used though.
whenever they were new, I was small and my dad was in the army, a man won one as first prize in army raffles in three successive army raffles erm ... that's it
I remember when they were launched...massive deal. In the papers TV, everywhere. It must have been the biggest letdown for them...i only ever saw one personally.
I'm not surprised. The one i saw sounded like a plastic tub trunding along with plastic wheels...I just remember thinking....'i didnt expect it to sound like that '
I remember seeing a few of these when they first came out, usually promoting something. The problem was, they were ahead of their time. A fully-faired recumbent trike with electric power doesn't seem like such a bad idea now.
'Cept he didnt have the good sense to approach the British human power club for input before he commited it to the injection molding machine. Any number of people would have told him that it would be slow, inefficient and uncomfortable. You couldnt even adjust it for leg length for chrissakes. I used to date Sinclairs neice and, because I have a background in industrial design, built and raced HPVs and was then a pro mechanic she arranged for me to meet him to discuss his proposal for a folding bike thinking I might be able to make a contribution. The guy was absolutely fixated on six inch wheels. I pointed out their limitations (rolling resistence, disappearing into mouse holes etc) and suggested that there was almost certainly a market for a simple folder with 12 inch wheels. To no avail. His first folder didnt make it beyond prototype and, twenty years on he presents us with the A-bike (actually designed by a Honk Kong design studio) an abomination. I know that its an abomination because Ive got one. The man is a genius but he clearly has issues with taking advice and difficulty learning from his mistakes..
By todays standards the Speccy is childishy simple...but they opened a new world to some of us. I cant remember if there was ANYTHING before the Spectrum...loads came after, but AFAIR nothing before. Massively popular, it seemed everyone had one, or wanted one. One of Sinclairs successes.
The ZX81! 1K of Memory, only black and white and no lowercase letters. Annoying touch-sensitive keyboard, and it was incredibly slow. Amazing at the time that you could get a computer for £40. We got one when I was nine years old. Set me on the career path I'm on today ;-). I remember the first time I saw a Spectrum, I was blown away by the raw power of the thing - it could do a times table in less than a second - much faster than the ZX81... Of course, my parents being academics, we got a BBC Micro for our next computer - not as many good games, but it was a joy to program.
