It's Electric!

[drol343]

Maybe when the are a bit bigger, with a much better range and price.

[you you]

It looks awesome. I know a couple years ago the hubby was looking at an electric motorcycle although I'm not sure which one he was looking at. Cost won out and now he rides a big cruiser.

I've twigged!!!

Awesome means slightly noteworthy

God I'm slow.

[you you]

It looks awesome. I know a couple years ago the hubby was looking at an electric motorcycle although I'm not sure which one he was looking at. Cost won out and now he rides a big cruiser.

Hope it's really really big

And he cruises?

Which port does he dock

Awesome.

[supermattyp]

Just my $0.02 worth here.

I was actually in the process of buying a Zero S from my local dealer when I saw the Forza 300 that I ultimately ended up buying. The Zero is a world-class E-bike in every aspect. They are SCARY torquey and have more than ample power for any situation.

I will be holding off for about another year or so and then possibly buying a used SR or wait to see what other improvements they make to the new models. They improve so much so quickly it's scary to buy in now at $17k and then find out that next years model will be less expensive with more power and range.

[BRed]

Craig Vetter just sent me an email this morning about his latest Fuel Challenge.....
Craig designed the fairings used on early Honda tourers.

for the last couple of years, he's been trying to get 100mpg from an older Honda Helix using his latest "goldfish" fairing.





The challenge is:
the bike has to carry 4 standard sized paper grocery bags to meet the practicality test and should get 100mpg@ standard interstate speeds to meet the economy test.

In recent years, the standard US speed limits have crept up to 65, then 75 and now many US roads are 80mph (some are 85mph!)...
some of these high speed US roads have 55mph MINIMUM speed limits.

What followed was the Fuel Challenge had to evolve for faster roads meaning all competing bikes not only had to be fuel efficient, they had to be fast.
That meant they had to streamline...in most cases, Vetter's funny looking fairing roughly doubles their fuel mileage at 70MPH.

But over the last few years, streamlined Hayes diesel bikes were blowing away the gasoline bikes.
now to get back on topic....

This year, a Vetter streamlined electric Zero blew them all away!

They had to modify the MPG requirement to a simple cost per mile formula...
the Zero ran 172 miles....at the speed limit of the roads travelled.... on a single charge (w/auxiliary batteries onboard) at a cost of 1.3 cents per mile.

top gasoline engine - 139mpg (2.6 cents per mile)
top diesel engine - 164mpg (2.3 cents per mile)

full story here:
http://www.craigvetter.com/pages/2014-C ... lenge.html

[you you]

That's really interesting.

[Duggle]

That's really interesting.

That's a super awesome post, thanks for participating!

[GeorgeSK]

Interesting article from Revzilla: http://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/th ... e=RevZilla

An electric motorcycle or scooter would be the ultimate urban machine (given a serious horn ) IMHO. IT will be great to see battery tech improve as other companies try to beat Tesla.

[homie]

Something you should know about the battery's on these vehicles. Segway uses the most advanced Lithium-ion batteries made to date on their machines and I rode one through 3 sets of tires and 3 sets of L-ions. Wonderful high-tech human transportation but very expensive to maintain. 2000.00 USD for battery replacement that will get you about 500 full recharges or 3-4 years, much less battery life in better riding climate.

You never let these vehicles stand for extended periods of time like over winter without plugging them in. To drain the battery completely on a ride and not be able to plug them in means battery failure as they fall below thresholds for recovery... something I could manage but I'm a perfectionist monk. If anything at all is sensed by the A.I. to be out of parameters you get a error code on startup that means nothing to you but money to the dealer. These batteries don't like to get wet at all, moisture kills them period.

You would never run your bike into water intentionally given the cost of battery replacement because the (red eye of death) error code is just not worth it. Most all repairs to electric vehicles are more than the local dealer can fix so they are shipped to the mother ship and that means big down time. To have an error in the spring could mean you are out until late summer.

Yes these electric vehicles are advancing but in my personal experience they have a LONG way to go before I shell out thousands and then more thousands to maintain when I could get a good reliable gasoline engine that never gives cryptic error codes. Just not worth it in the long wallet, not when gasoline is 3.75 or even 5 dollars a gallon. No hybrid cars, electric motorcycles or scooters for me. I shutter to think what a new set of batteries for a Tesla would cost!

I'm sure performance is acceptable
Looks is awesome
never going to the gas station is fun
dependability... fail
moisture gets in batteries... fail
freedom from failure thoughts... impossible
overall fuel money saved offset by maintenance cost for small engine transportation... fail

[supermattyp]

Battery costs in a Tesla would be $0 for your first 8 years and unlimited mileage.

[WhiteNoise]

No automatic Harley's but...
Here's more on the HD electric. It appears to be nearing production. I like their name choice, "Livewire!" Sounds like it's got Piz-Zazz (some would say that differently )
They should change that Hunk of Silver and make it Black What a fugly focal point! Wrecks the image.
http://www.motorcycle.com/manufacturer/ ... ction.html

[you you]

No automatic Harley's but...
Here's more on the HD electric. It appears to be nearing production. I like their name choice, "Livewire!" Sounds like it's got Piz-Zazz (some would say that differently )
They should change that Hunk of Silver and make it Black What a fugly focal point! Wrecks the image.
http://www.motorcycle.com/manufacturer/ ... ction.html

Are Harley owners familiar with electricity?

[GeorgeSK]

I think Harley is looking for an entirely dfifferent demographic with the electric project. Unless the put in a speaker system with some vroom-vroom sounds...

[WhiteNoise]

You like the looks of this one George? Not the chick, the HD

[GeorgeSK]

I really like the idea of electric, but I think I might be too lazy for a forward leaning, legs poised for leaping off sort of position. I also think that the Admiral would not like being perched on the back like a top box (assuming there is even a seat back there). I also agree with your aesthetic - that silver slug at the bottom looks massive and just draws the eye away from the overall bike.

I actually made an effort to see the HD at the event they had near Boston, but you had to enter a drawing to get the chance for a ride, and that meant a drive back and forth to the dealer (a two hour total event) a few days before the show. The show itself was also far away, so I punted. The machine does look like something that would appeal to a regular motorcycle rider, though. I think HD is at least giving the possibility of an electric machine some thought.

I would love to see Suzuki take the Burgman form factor and electrify it. The relaxed riding position for both driver and pillion has lots of appeal. There should be more places to stuff batteries in as well. I would like to see 120-150 mile range in an electric car, but would probably be happy with 80-100 on a scoot.

It will be interesting to see how electric evolves. I am hoping that the direction is away from Homie's Segway experience.

[sendler2112]

the Burgman form factor and electrify it.

There are many just getting started.
.
.
http://zelectricvehicle.com/
.
.

[sendler2112]

An e-bike conversion is what most people will be using to get around on 100 years from now.
.
http://www.ebikes.ca/shop/conversion-ki ... ottle.html
.

[GeorgeSK]

I test rode a Bionx electric conversion a few years ago, and it was eye-opening. You could pedal to increase range, but if you wanted to be totally lazy, you could just go. The harder you pushed the pedals, the more assist you got - I found that I was at least two gears higher than I would have been on hills. The range was claimed at around 35 miles. I just couldn't swallow the $1000+ price tag. You can check it out here: http://ridebionx.com/

And Sendler, I'm not sure if I should thank you or curse you. Those zelectric scoots are exactly what I was thinking. I hope to ride the PCX for quite a while into the future, but now I will have something else to consider when I need to replace it.

[you you]

I really like the idea of electric, but I think I might be too lazy for a forward leaning, legs poised for leaping off sort of position. I also think that the Admiral would not like being perched on the back like a top box (assuming there is even a seat back there). I also agree with your aesthetic - that silver slug at the bottom looks massive and just draws the eye away from the overall bike.

I actually made an effort to see the HD at the event they had near Boston, but you had to enter a drawing to get the chance for a ride, and that meant a drive back and forth to the dealer (a two hour total event) a few days before the show. The show itself was also far away, so I punted. The machine does look like something that would appeal to a regular motorcycle rider, though. I think HD is at least giving the possibility of an electric machine some thought.

I would love to see Suzuki take the Burgman form factor and electrify it. The relaxed riding position for both driver and pillion has lots of appeal. There should be more places to stuff batteries in as well. I would like to see 120-150 mile range in an electric car, but would probably be happy with 80-100 on a scoot.

It will be interesting to see how electric evolves. I am hoping that the direction is away from Homie's Segway experience.

I keep seeing "form factor" a lot. Is it just two words for "shape"?

[GeorgeSK]

More or less. Just twice as many letters. Doesn't really make you feel (or sound) twice as clever, though.