RE: Gibbs Quadski resurfaces

[MrTappets]

With 175bhp I'm assuming it does 0-45 in about 1 second

[E-B]

doogz said:

I have a quad, and a mate and I spoke about buying a jet-ski between us, after spending a fortune bombing about on one last time we were in Malta.

Then we remembered we live in Scotland. So didn't bother.

[[AJ]]

leon9191 said:

Yes but if you had say... a yacht then a Quadski would make a huge amount of sense wouldn't it.

Also how many people actually own personally either a quad or a jet ski? I would imagine most of these will be sold to the adventure hire type companies again where they make a lot of sense.

If you had a yacht large enough to store and launch one of these things, then I'd suggest you wouldn't really want to rock about the marina on a quad. Also, if anything happened to it, you can't get back to your boat!

doogz said:

45mph on a quad bike is fast enough, 45mph on the water is really quite fast!

If you're in very choppy water perhaps, but on fairly flat water it's just cruising speed on a decent ski. Modern skis are very happy at 60-70mph on still-ish water.

Also, what doesn't seem to be taken into consideration is the amount of fuel you use out on the water. It's all well and good being able to drive your craft to the water, but if you don't have enough fuel to go out and play and then drive back to a petrol station, it's all completely pointless!

[GT2CS]

another idea that doesn't do either thing very well. Hull is quite flat so handling on water will be interesting. Ground clearance doesn't look very good due to the hull so your're likely to crack the hull unless the terrain is pretty flat.

[marshall100]

[AJ] said:

£25k will indeed buy you a far better ski (70+mph Yamaha VXS - £12k), a trailer (<£1k) and a much better quad ( Yamaha YZF 450R - £8,699).

That yamaha 450 isn't going to tow very much anywhere very quickly. A can am renegade/outlander 800 or a grizzly 800 will pull a transit van out of a muddy field without breaking a sweat, so it'll happily lug a trailer'd jetski about.

As a quadder who loves all things quid bike related, and someone that has pondered the appeal of water based vehicles, I don't like this at all. I can't think for a second it's going to be very happy on anything approaching 'fruity' off road, and as all quads are a handful on road, throwing something about that clearly has some bulk about it won't be much fun either.

I'm sure the odd reneck in the bayou might see the appeal other than playboys living on remote desert islands.

[kambites]

I can sort of see the point in this for a very small number of people who would genuinely benefit from a reasonably quick amphibious vehicle and live somewhere where the weather is good enough for this to do the job; but I can't see them selling many.

[E-B]

There's an amphibious RIB IIRC that lived in one of the small boatyards near St mawes in Cornwall.

http://www.sealegs.com

awesome things. Can't post a pic on a works computer unfortunately.

[Bruski11]

British engineering or Kiwi ingenuity? I think the latter.

[E-B]

Defo Kiwi. Fantastic bit of kit. Hate to think of the cost.....

[Tuna]

I thought Gibbs were based in Nuneaton? That's a long way from New Zealand

Of course those who're saying you could buy a separate ski + trailer + quad are missing the point that it's no good having a separate trailer and quad if you're not planning to return where you came from. This is a solution for people who want to go somewhere where there's a lot of water in the middle, not so much for leisure drivers who want to rock up at their favourite beach and buzz up and down for a while.

[lindrup119]

E-B said:

There's an amphibious RIB IIRC that lived in one of the small boatyards near St mawes in Cornwall.

http://www.sealegs.com

awesome things. Can't post a pic on a works computer unfortunately.

Quadski a great idea but as already said I can't see it working for the hoi polloi. This Bear Grylls promoted Rib however looks pretty cool and a lot more functional....

[jeenyus]

I am amazed that this highlights a niche that is not covered by a vehicle from the VW group.

[senna007]

What was the record for crossing the channel on an amphibious vehicle? I think this could easily break Bransons record and would be a nice bit of advertising for them. Maybe get the top gear lads to have another atempt at the record on this.

[WillBrumBrum]

This is a brilliant vehicle and I actually sketched one out when I was travelling through Peru on the bus to Mattu Pitchu going over the mountains looking at the lakes thinking that it'd be perfect if they make a quad bike jet ski. That was back in 2002... so obviously someone has stolen my idea ;-)

£25k is fair enough for this, the first jet ski's cost a fortune, as did the first quad bikes. Only mass production and high demand for them dropped the prices over the years. I do hope they find enough niche markets to pay for this so that in 5-10 years they'll be selling them for £10k and by which point they employ a decent deign team to make it more attractive, still it's not that ugly. Another way to reduce the price would be to reduce the engine size and overall weight to about half what it is... does it really need 175hp?

10/10 Mr Gibbs (the inventor, not the journalist)

[richardxjr]

That's the other thing of course. $40k in the states will end up being £40k+ over here.

Toooo Niche I think

[DonkeyApple]

[AJ] said:

leon9191 said:

Yes but if you had say... a yacht then a Quadski would make a huge amount of sense wouldn't it.

Also how many people actually own personally either a quad or a jet ski? I would imagine most of these will be sold to the adventure hire type companies again where they make a lot of sense.

If you had a yacht large enough to store and launch one of these things, then I'd suggest you wouldn't really want to rock about the marina on a quad. Also, if anything happened to it, you can't get back to your boat!

doogz said:

45mph on a quad bike is fast enough, 45mph on the water is really quite fast!

If you're in very choppy water perhaps, but on fairly flat water it's just cruising speed on a decent ski. Modern skis are very happy at 60-70mph on still-ish water.

Also, what doesn't seem to be taken into consideration is the amount of fuel you use out on the water. It's all well and good being able to drive your craft to the water, but if you don't have enough fuel to go out and play and then drive back to a petrol station, it's all completely pointless!

Flat water is for Donald Cambell and homos.

[ItsaTVR]

Glade said:

If only Baywatch was still on TV!

There's still Bond... but that's kind of a repeat innit...

[snowdude2910]

Tuna said:

I thought Gibbs were based in Nuneaton? That's a long way from New Zealand

They are indeed. The factory is a bit like the willy wonka factory nobody ever seems to go in or out and all the windows are all mirroredmaybe they have a super cheap workforce of some kind to somehow stay in business.

[sisu]

I think the "now you can be an Ar**hole on and off the water" is pretty much the catchphrase for this. Making up a hypotheical scenario that you would use it in doesn't really happen. If you have a jetski they are only good fun when you have more than one and you get wet.

[DonkeyApple]

sisu said:

I think the "now you can be an Ar**hole on and off the water" is pretty much the catchphrase for this. Making up a hypotheical scenario that you would use it in doesn't really happen. If you have a jetski they are only good fun when you have more than one and you get wet.

If you think about how it can be used it seems to be that this is a commercial not leisure product.

It's for people who live in an area potted with water and need to move around that area.

Do more like the quad bike market which is mostly land workers and specialist leisure.