Next big things that never lived up to the hype, failed, or disappeared without a trace... What do you remember??

[T4tomo]

Pressure cookers. Massively popular for a time in the eighties and they were going to make ovens redundant. Hardly anyone uses one now, mainly because the food they produced was shyte.

err the Ninja multi cookers - quite big in the air fryer world - have a pressure cooker function / additional lid..

plus for stews / casseroles and things like that they are awesome

 

[Electric_Andy]

Friends reunited, I guess Farce book superseded it. Never did either personally.

Everyone at my school (it came in shortly after I left college) jumped on friends reunited straight away. You could create a profile for free but you had to pay to add any pictures or message anyone. Some people realised that you could type a hint to your email address into your profile, but it didn't really work. No-one was willing to pay a fiver to contact old school friends. Which is why FB completely took over, as it was free, and now look at what its done to the population!

 

[matticus]

Simple Minds

 

[stephec]

^^^Full possible length thread title that^^^ 😆

Anyway, Segways for a start,

Didn't the inventor of the Segway die when he crashed one?

 

[classic33]

You don't see many Ronco Buttoneers any more?

JML own them now.

 

[raleighnut]

Didn't the inventor of the Segway die when he crashed one?

Rode one over a cliff edge I seem to remember, yep checked and he did in 2010

 

[DCLane]

In our world ....

Kirk Precision , magnesium bike frames

I've got a magnesium-framed bike, this being the second one I've had from Carrera (built by Merida). Not a Kirk Precision though.

I am very aware it will crack spectacularly at some point, probably when I'm going downhill and hit a bump. But that's all part of the 'ownership experience'.

 

[a.twiddler]

Have a look at the Crighton *CR 700W over 200bhp and under 130Kg, OK they're only making 25 initially and they are quite expensive but Brian is looking at possibly making a road version.

* Brian Crighton was the guy behind the Norton that won multiple championships as the JPS Norton and was the last British bike to win a TT with Steve Hislop beating Carl Fogerty.

In a world where reciprocating engine technology has been developed to be relatively cheap, plentiful and reliable, and the rotary piston engine didn't manage to become widespread enough to bring costs down enough to have a self sustaining network behind it before emissions regulations made further development uneconomic, it's just another footnote in history. They were always uncommon unlike for example two stroke motorcycles which were everywhere at one time for the utility rider. It's likely that many more people could afford a Francis Barnet Plover than a Norton Atlas back in the day. Due to emissions regulations, very few two strokes are produced now and they are around 50cc.

If history had taken a different turn who knows what might have been the commonplace technology now. Feet first super lightweight turbocharged diesel motorcycles? Gas or steam turbine technology?

With the future of vehicle technology being most likely battery electric or hydrogen fuel cells or something as yet unimagined the era of significant develpment in internal combustion vehicles is probably over.