[HN Gopher] Rcyl - a recycled plastic urban bike
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       Rcyl - a recycled plastic urban bike
        
       https://web.archive.org/web/20250912174820/https://rcyl.bike...
        
       Author : smartmic
       Score  : 16 points
       Date   : 2025-10-12 19:11 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (rcyl.bike)
 (TXT) w3m dump (rcyl.bike)
        
       | daemonologist wrote:
       | https://web.archive.org/web/20250912174820/https://rcyl.bike...
        
         | dang wrote:
         | Added to toptext. Thanks!
        
       | daemonologist wrote:
       | A nearly all (">90%") plastic bike is interesting, and I guess if
       | you're a plastics company that wants to create a bike it makes
       | sense, but the end product does not seem very compelling to me.
       | 17 kg, 1200 EUR, one size, proprietary parts, and only 50%
       | recycled. A comparable aluminum bike beats it in every metric
       | except maybe fatigue life(?).
        
         | avtolik wrote:
         | My first bike bought with my first salaries (about 2-3 months)
         | just turned 20 years old. It's a basic aluminum hardtail MTB.
         | Still going strong - I do about 2-3k kms per year.
        
         | alright2565 wrote:
         | Pretty much. I thought that maybe this is an electric bike, in
         | which case the weight might be OK, but no, this is unusable
         | anywhere with hills.
         | 
         | As a quick reminder, metals can be recycled indefinitely.
         | Plastic cannot, you always have to include some virgin
         | material.
        
         | rz2k wrote:
         | Furthermore, aluminum can be recycled with a lot less
         | greenwashing required.
        
           | hamdingers wrote:
           | Post-consumer aluminum has been in common use for wheels for
           | ages, and some major brands (like Trek) are also
           | transitioning their aluminum frames to use recycled material.
        
         | mtmail wrote:
         | Reminds me of the hydrogen-powered bike from 2015, which
         | totally made sense if your company is also a leader in hydrogen
         | products. https://www.bikeradar.com/news/this-e-bike-is-
         | powered-by-hyd...
         | 
         | "A regular e-bike battery can take several hours to charge
         | completely, but the H2's hydrogen cylinder requires just six
         | minutes at a hydrogen filling station." Of course the company
         | wanted to run the filling stations.
        
       | simjnd wrote:
       | It's a terrible bicycle. If it was extremely affordable because
       | it's mostly recycled plastic acquired for cheap, then it would
       | make sense as a product but the 1200 EUR price tag is absolutely
       | demented.
        
       | taitems wrote:
       | Their poor little servers aren't coping well with the attention.
       | The worst is a 1,004kb image so it's not excessively large.
        
       | mchanson wrote:
       | Weight, price, drivetrain all are terrible as others have said
       | you would be much better off spending much less on a simple al
       | bike.
        
       | bn-l wrote:
       | Recycled plastic concentrates phthalates and other toxins. The
       | best place for plastic is modern landfill.
        
         | userbinator wrote:
         | That looks like HDPE, which normally requires no plasticisers.
         | Better learn some chemistry before spouting hysterical
         | nonsense.
         | 
         | Plasticised PVC, which is where phthalates are used, is not
         | suitable for structural applications like this.
        
       | rubyn00bie wrote:
       | I don't get this. Marketing this as an urban bike makes no sense.
       | It's heavy, looks like it'll be awful to maintain because so much
       | is custom, and it's relatively expensive. I rode fixed gears for
       | years because they're light, easy to carry up stairs, and can
       | take being knocked about or banged up by other cyclists locking
       | their bikes up next to one.
       | 
       | Even something of equal weight like the legendary Surly Long-Haul
       | Trucker is going to last longer and be more practical in every
       | possible application. Maybe if you live somewhere costal and salt
       | will corrode the steel or something it makes sense? I have a hard
       | time believing this would fair better though.
        
         | gpapilion wrote:
         | I would think this is for rental fleets or bike share. The
         | weight and design would seem to make sense for that. Though the
         | single speed seems like and odd choice for that.
        
       | KomoD wrote:
       | I'm gonna be honest, it's really ugly and expensive. EUR1200,
       | singlespeed and weighs 17 KG...
       | 
       | Also if you trade it in when it breaks, they only give you EUR50?
        
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       (page generated 2025-10-12 23:00 UTC)