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I can't believe I bought a Chevy Bolt when I could have spent only $7000 more to get a Twike. I AM SUCH A FOOL

"Inside the Twink- TWIKE"

Love how the pedalling is not only almost totally pointless but you and your passenger still both get to do it

0.33 is the drag coefficient of a Mercedes W201 which was incredibly aerodynamic in 1983 when it hit the market.

The blinker audible cues having different sounds for left and right so blind drivers can distinguish the two is a nice touch.

This car was 100% designed by engineers, not a single sales person was involved in the process. I love it. Edit for everyone feeling the need to defend engineers: this wasn’t an attack but rather a confession lol

This man has created the best channel of "what was bad then, is still bad now". The amount of work done can only be offset by the amount of humour required to not end up crying inconsolably. Every one of these videos is a gem.

An ex-colleague of mine "drove" this to work every day so I have seen it a lot. I honestly thought he built it himself and it was a one-off thing, I was really surprised to see it on youtube all of a sudden. I wouldn't have guessed it was this expensive either

What incredible ingenuity it is to make a micro-car as terrifying as an ultralight aircraft.

This looks horrifying. I want one immediately.

he slipped up and said inside the twink xD im fucking dying rn XD at 1:50

The Twike is steered by noticeable movements at low speeds and sharp turns, and by force on the stick at high speeds. You move the stick only a couple of millimeters for most bends. But if you don't feel the centering force at high speeds, it's because the caster ("Nachlauf") is not set right. Then it feels twitchy. Ask Twike GmbH. It had to be adjusted once on my Twike after front tire replacement or so. It makes a huge difference. Most owners don't use the key to lock the stick, it's not really necessary because you can set a PIN code if you like. Cruise control is not activated by double tapping, but by single tapping a short time. I hope you read this, maybe this helps.

Twike: when a Robin Reliant and a Sinclair C5 really love each other...

The use of wood in the interior is incredibly charming. The fear you feel when hurtling down the road in it is somewhat less charming.

As someone who's worked on some small concept production companies, this is either someone's honest heartfelt dream and vision of the future, a true labor of love. Or a money laundering front for some shady operation. Initially the believers usually pay better but the compensation for being a victim of a money laundering front is immense.

I ... know those roads ... and um.. the fact that you drive that thing down them with all of their pot holes and undiscovered sunken asphalt - waiting to become sinkholes... adventurous!

Let's all take a moment to sincerely appreciate how many times he's had to say Twike.

I especially like the input method: Corndog Yoke

I owned one of then (#74 from the first batch) when it came to a market. Later I replaced it with the face-lifted version. The Twike III was my way of daily transport for about 10 years. The practical range was about 40 km. I only used it for a couple longer trips because re-charging was not so easy as today. There was a small «Park and Charge» network, but these only hat household sockets with a limited power. A fast charge took about 2 hours...

0:54 Also, Human-Electric Hybrid can be neatly shortened to HEH

Googling Braun portable hair dryer and looking at the vintage ones makes it look like yes, this is defrosted by actual hair driers. Perfect.

You know what it reminds me of... a severed glider cockpit, with wheels!

Thank you... I commuted between home and work on a Lightning P-38 recumbent bicycle for a couple of decades and now I often run errands on my Dualtron Thunder 2 electric scooter. I looked at faired recumbents (including Twike) around the turn of the century... I ultimately decided that I did not want to give up so much garage space plus faired recumbents seemed too heavy to get up a hill on human power alone. The Twike was so spendy and oddball and not all that human-powered and perhaps not street-legal in CA at that time... I think that there was a group of enthusiasts in Davis CA. My wife has happily been driving her plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt since 2014. She plugs in the Volt (like her cell phone) to charge overnight and likes that she only needs to go to the gas station when on road trips. Electricity for the Volt is ~$3 per gallon-equivalent. The electric scooter reportedly goes 500 miles on a dollar's worth of power.

Hearing that there is more battery building content coming made me ridiculously happy and excited!

This makes me realize that no matter how bad an idea I have I can create something and there will be a market for it. If this “company” has existed since the 80s, truly anything is possible

I drive a Twike since 13 years and love it. The Twike 3 isn't produced any more, the company focuses on the new version. In some cities and at the place I work I can park it on motorcycle parking spaces for free, so I commute to work nearly daily. If the damper is set right once, it's easy to steer. There were around 1100 Twike 3 manufactured. It's safer than it looks, never has been a fatal accident.

This is the definition of "Unsafe at any speed" including when it is stationary when it is charging (when it was stock).

My brother in law got one and i have ridden it several times. As an engineer i instantly questioned all the effort and extra weight of the pedal arrangements and i believe the 5 has no pedals or generator pedals only. The steering needs to be more progressive but you kinda get used to it. Certainly a great design approach and despite being hand made the price is ridiculous. My favourite vehicle is the Aptera, another 3 wheeler.

I live in Munich, Germany. About 10 years ago i regularly saw a guy driving a Twike on the Autobahn. His licence plate was from a town about 35 miles away from Munich. Driving a deathtrap this slow on the Autobahn is just nuts…

"And now I can tell you I paid $5,000 for this one with a dead battery and it won't sound expensive anymore." Nope, that's still too expensive.

Love it. I've been aware of Twike for about 20 years and I've always wanted to try one. No chance I'd buy one though. Perhaps in a world where all personal transportation was some variety of this, it would make more sense.

Great job on the video! Thanks for making it.

One of the teachers at my school has a newer Twike 3, it has been carried upstairs onto the second floor by a few gratuating students and is absolutely legendary on our schools parking lot.

I have a neighbor who has one of these. He manages to get around in Switzerland without any issues on the normal roads and up mountains too. A totally crazy car with an insane cost. Welcome to the economics of Switzerland and nearby Germany!

I love you being a realist and keep its use around your property or the back of beyond. Interesting concept.

The twike was for many years the most efficient "car" on the streets in switzerland. The owners I know love it and there are even fanclubs and events around it. Sadly even the price of used ones is very high compared to e-bikes. For a sensible country like Switzerland where people don’t drive silly oversized pickup trucks it makes totally sense. Safety wise its much safer than you might think. The batteries are between the rear wheels which make rollover almost impossible. A friend of mine got in an accident with a tram. The twike took hardly any damage and the driver was ok. Since its top speed is about 50mph it might not be invoved in a high speed crash

Walks into Twike dealership "I want to be dead within the hour!" salesman: "have we got a deal for you"

To get a sense of how much pedaling might be adding to the Twike’s range, I have an anecdote. I recently added an internal gear hub to my previously single speed e-bike, adding about 7lbs of rolling weight in the process. I now get a workout on my commute! My battery state of charge at the end of my 11 mile roundtrip commute went from typically being 55% to 56%.

Such an awesome little machine! The temptation is to build my own, however using an all wood approach (wood is a lot stronger that you think, and has the advantages of ease of manufacture, and ease of repair). Fit one of these with a GX 160 lawnmower engine ( 4.8HP continuous), and it becomes a very useful and weather-tolerant small commuter machine.

Phenomenal video. So glad the upgrades have been recorded so we can see what it took to get it to this point.

That clicking of the braking pawl would drive me nuts

Its a Sinclair C5 1/2. The main advantage is that when you die, you don't need to buy a coffin - they can just bury the whole shooting match without extracting you so it's eco -friendly.

God I love this channel. I wonder how many projects are shelved

Hell yeah that looks like a great project and a sweet result!

yes those braun "defrosters" are literally hairdryers

The moment you said "mahogany" I knew you made that piece lol.

EV, efficiency and bicycle enthusiast here, and even I had never heard of the Twike. Amazing. Can't wait to see the build video!

The cockpit control ergos are bizarre but very handsome. I especially love the look of the flip up brake handle / control panel. And the center console is very ST:TNG (kids toy version)

The Twike !! Unbelievable. The year I graduated highschool - i.e. nearly 30 years ago - , our neighbor's landlord got one, and was proudly showing it off. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. We even got to do a lap around the block in it ! Congratulations !

Yes, they are normal commodity Braun hair dryers, have a black one like that in a drawer somewhere xD

I recall the Twike2 or a similar thing, from my childhood in the Netherlands. As a kid we were taking part in this walking event, that connected 2 local towns. There was one guy driving a sleek looking thing much like the Twike2. I was totally awed by the speed of the thing, racing by, driving in both directions along the people walking the route. And then about an hour later, similarly shocked by the expression on the guy's sweaty face, while creeping along, as apparently the battery had run out.

The reverse pedal brake ratchet is a bit of genius. Thanks for sharing!

Good God, I would not want to handle a steering tiller one-handed while pedaling.

My fiance is probably very tired of hearing me say "I want this stupid fucking car"

I probably rewatched the horn demo about a dozen times. Thank you.

Subbed. What a hilarious review. Just too dang funny to miss out on any videos from now on.

imagine hitchiking and thats what stops to pick you up

To compare vehicles, it is important to take the drag coefficient and multiply it by the frontal area. If you just want to compare drag confidences alone, then you sold yourself short with the Rivian. The Airbus A380 has a drag coefficient of ~ 0.022!

I love the Mark V Monorail. Looks great

This is exactly the kind of video I would expect on this channel when new years resolutions come out.

I'm not sure how else to say this but I live in Switzerland and these are sadly popular here. I live maybe five minutes away from a shop that sells a whole bunch of these bike-car hybrid things - for anyone interested in racing it's allegedly very close to where the former Swiss F1 team was headquartered. They, along with other covered bikes and extremely small electric cars, are very popular here, especially among retirees somehow. They drive me crazy because they all look like Walmart ride-on shoppers for me!! Not that anyone in Europe would understand that connection lol. I live in the absolute middle of nowhere for Swiss standards and yet there are people riding these up and down hilly country roads. I am happy to answer any questions anyone might have because my gosh is this ever the crossover of the century for me haha.

There's no part of this that I don't relate to. Well done, sir. "This'll take this long!" Ah, the lies we tell ourselves.

Nearly perfect video. The only thing missing is I wish you'd had a friend you convinced to ride along with you, because a Twicycle built for two is kinda sad with only one person.

Excellent vídeo as always

Yay! Twike! I’ve been looking at these for years and am very excited you are putting one on video. Having watched this, I’m convinced anyone with a brain could build a more stable and sensible version of this. It’s the perfect car for this channel!

“Exercise Suppository” 😂

That steering looks very precise !

A 5-speed internal-gear hub for a vehicle with the speed range of the Twike seems more than a little bit silly if you're actually interested in the human power input. Seen as engines, us humans have a fairly narrow pedaling RPM range (cadence in bicycle-speak) where we have reasonable endurance and efficiency. With only 5 gears to choose from, you're up against a fairly hard compromise about which section of the speed range where you want to be able to add your power to the propulsion. It's reasonably easy to shift this section up/down the speed range. But basically you'll still be left either straining pointlessly at low speeds or spinning out at high speeds. If ypou want to be able to add human power at every speed, it'd either take a fairly serious redesign of the parts using bicycle technology or going to a setup where pedaling charges the battery instead of providing direct drive power.

"Human-Electric Hybrid" or 'Electric Chair' as they used to be known 😂

My last 25mi bike ride I averaged 15mph, and over that my average power was 143w. There are certainly hills that I'd take that 9kw boost on though.

I see one of those around here sometimes and now I finally know what it is! While it's and inherently pretty ludicrous vehicle and WAY too expensive, I still find it kinda neat. There's a decent idea there under all the silliness.

So, I live in Switzerland and someone in my village had one of these. I've moved away a while ago so my memory is kind of foggy but I can faintly recall seeing him ride it on a two lane highway into the next town once. He also had one of those dinky looking Aixam electric cars that look like a knock-off Smart Fortwo.

This man is singlehandedly responsible for "non-zero chance" being a phrase I use pretty much wherever it's applicable.

1:47 "inside the twink- twike" 😆😆

An unbelievably unique and quirky vehicle that is absolutely amazing. Love it!

Truly enjoyed this one.

I wonder whether the bicycle mechanism is in fact counterproductive --- that is, you contribute so little energy that the weight reduction from removing it would actually extend the range?

I grew up in Vancouver, I had a full season pass for Expo '86. The focus of that World's Fair was transportation ("Expo '86: A World In Motion"). I do not remember seeing the Twike, though that photo drifting across screen at 2:34 is definitely a photo of Vancouver's waterfront. Things I do remember: Steam Expo because trains are cool, the Japan Rail MAGLEV demonstrator because trains are cool, climbing the concrete sculpture that was like a rolling ocean wave but a section of highway with many modes of transport on it, opening day on SkyTrain which survives as Vancouver's metro system, the lenticular cargo airship that was going to revolutionize mountain side logging ANY DAY NOW, the "Expo Ernie" robot-in-a-spacesuit mascot, and the life size model of a Salyut space station in the Soviet Union pavilion. Canada's national airshow is in Abbotsford just east of Vancouver, and that year we had air demonstration squadrons from USA and France and Italy and Brasil, we had Soviet cargo planes, one of those weird British bombers, an SR-71 on the ground, we had Concorde flybys, it was a wild time.

I grew up seeing one of these parked somewhere on the streets of my village in Germany a few times a week. I never met the owner, but it always made me wonder what driving one must feel like. Now I know.

Seen your specific one you bought on facebook marketplace last year. forgot you bought it. pretty cool

If you want to use the pedals more efficiently, you should move the seat back quite a bit (if that was even possible), the leg should be straight to almost straight when a pedal is the farthest away from you. I also wonder if it would even be possible to make it feel better on the road, like a steering wheel conversion. If you were to put a motor from a dead coda in it, it would probably make for a fun, but very lethal car.

You had me at weirdo

Great video!

Granular. I learned a new meaning for this word today. Thank you. ☮

Looking forward to your battery video. I am one of the other few people that owns a twike(tw240) and it has a dead lithium factory pack and I wanted to swap it for one with a proper BMS. So I might build the same pack you have.

Definitely an interesting vehicle. If I were to redesign one, I'd definitely ditch the delta layout and put two wheels forward for stability and to enable some proper steering. Change the body from a cheese wedge to a teardrop, and voila! Better Twike. All that's left to do is use completely different components so that it isn't a complete electrical nightmare.

They are quite common in Switzerland. You can see them all the time in the cities and suburbs.

Hearing the ticking when you started, I was waiting for the bomb 💣 to go off💥.

I have one of these in my neighbourhood in Switzerland... it's unusual to say the least

Looks like it could REALLY use some kind of dual ratio steering. Center set to low ratio, so it isn't so terrifyingly twitchy, and outer edges higher, so you can made a tight turn without punching someone lol.

another absolute awesome video :) , i love the plastic bomber ~

this is really... neat! Lots of great ideas on it, and i bet the new ones have a lot of bugs worked out... but that price is nuts.

Hooway!!! The Twike is "done"!!!

I live in Germany and have seen these on electric car forums and marketplaces before. I really like the idea (and the quirkyness), and I would maybe have bought a used one if they werent so expensive. So its very cool that you now have one and can tell us what we miss out on. A vehicle I almost bought is a city el / mini el. They are even smaller and dont have any pedals, but they are more affordable, somewhat easy to work on and they can be registered as a "moped car", so the top speed is limited to 45 kph and a few other things. That means that, with a moped license you can, starting at age 16, drive it ( You need to be 18 to drive a car in Germany ). You also dont have to pay vehicle tax, you only buy insurance and they will give you a new plate every year. And you dont have to do any technical inspections.

i remember seeing one of those around for quite a while about 10 years ago, may not be exactly the same model, but extremely similar, was in switzerland as well, so yea, that checks out. after looking for them, there actually are a few for sale here in switzerland, some with well over 100'000km on them, crazy...

I have always loved the twike. It is fantastic. Scary, yes, but it is a great velomobile like thing.

Can't wait for the build series, I wish there were more of you so you could do more videos, I love your content so much. It's so quirky which suits me perfectly! Keep up the amazing work and thank you for all the content you do make.

I don't think security is really something I would worry about. Only way someone would probably steal it is if the person is either drunk or stupid.

Thanks to the video and Stay safe ✌️.