Electric motorcycles
 

inspired by the email sent to us all, figured I'd post a new thread...

How long before electric motorcycles are a normal part of our riding experience? Can they be priced in the neighborhood of our combustion stuff?
Gonna have to put some cards in the spokes of my 1st electric one
with a sticker that says loud cards saves lives...

They'll have the potential to have instant torque that'll make a nitro fed Ducati feel like a carnival ride.

I see the electric motorcycles going to scooters first. I can see places like San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, NYC, etc adapting electric stations at the local Starbucks or B&N Library.

Until that stuff hits the burbs, eletric motorcycles won't become common or cheap. It will be the norm one day though.

Zero has 5 new models out for 2013. Then there's some of the cooler offerings.

http://youtu.be/UyYAJgEblrA

"With 14kwh of energy storage and a 120kw AC induction motor, Mission’s engineers have packaged nearly 90% of a Chevy Volt’s power and more energy into a compact sportbike. This powertrain propels the Mission R to 60mph in 3 seconds and on to a top speed of over 160mph"

http://ridemission.com/technology-de...ors/mission-r/

There's this too. $38,000 but its a full blown 200+MPH Race Bike.

http://www.motorcycle.com/manufactur...deo-91402.html

I don't see electric cars or any other vehicles being viable as a mass-production item until everyone adopts a standard that will allow hot-swapping of battery units at any local station. If I want to travel to NY from here, I don't want to have to stop 2 hours from there and wait 8 hours for my battery to recharge. It's like the voluntary usage by most manufacturers of the micro usb connectors for charging. Before it can happen, the most reliable and cost-effective design will have to be discovered first. I have no problem with driving/riding electric as long as it will perform up to the standard of a gas-powered vehicle.

Could be soon. I was talking to Eric Bostrom recently and he is racing an electric bike currently, and has road tested models recently for Cycle World. He says its a change in mindset. Once you are over the visceral feel, smell, and sound of a ice bike, you really get to appreciate the electric bikes. Like smittie said super flat torque curve. While battery life is better than some of you might think, until the "system" is changed, they are relegated to short to medium range trips. New cells charge fully in as fast as 2 hours though....

But yes, its the system and not the bikes holding us back.

hmmn sounds like an opportunity, who wants to be the Steve Jobs or Marc Zuckerguy of the electric bike industry

thats my issue with them so far. It can be good as a commuter vehicle if you can charge it at work. But i cant see it as something you take out for a day of backroad riding. Worst case scenario with gas is if you do run out at least you can get a container and get to a gas station. I cant see you going to find a gallon of electrons :lol: I also dont want 2 hrs of downtime on a ride waiting for a battery to recharge.

It will be awhile but I'm betting someone will figure this out and when they do, they will be swimming in money

Seems like the best idea now is the hot swapping that TG mentioned earlier. Getting your spent battery replaced by a fully charged one and keep it going forward.

That's the way the MotoCysz (sp?) motorcycle is designed. There are several batteries and they come out like briefcases and the fresh ones slide back in.
The way I envision the best design is for the bottom of the car (the portion between the wheels) to be like a giant drawer with several sections. Let's say 10 sections. You drive your car to the station and pull-up to the island. You front tires will be stopped in a dip so you are positioned properly. An automatic signal (Bluetooth maybe) gives your vehicle information to the island robot. It then will reach out and remove the cells that need replacing and install new ones. Every car would have the same cell design with a few variations on width due to the varying widths of cars. However, the rectangular dimensions would all be the same. If a car is longer, it simply gets more cells to make the length. Imagine a Twix candy bar shape. The length would be the only thing that might be different to fit each vehicle but, the dimensions when looking at the end would never change.
The benefits would be the ability to travel greater distances and the majority of the weight will be as low as possible so, the vehicles will have greater stability.
The hard part would be the initial start-up. You would have to start out with maybe a dozen station at key points on major highways or possibly at points within major cities like Chicago, NY, LA, etc. Then, as manufacturers make more vehicles, more stations could be opened. It's no different than the way the gasoline engine and its' supply-chain grew. The big difference is we grew with the gas stations but, the Swap-Stop (My idea! I'm copyrighting it!) will have to catch-up to us.