Ducati Monster Forum

Just doing some googling this morning and:
http://www.brammo.com/empulse/ (http://www.brammo.com/empulse/)

Looks pretty cool in my opinion.  And has 100+ mph and 60+ mile range options.  And as light as 360 lbs as well.  Anyways, thought it was interesting.

That thing does look pretty good, it's got some nice components too

That is actually pretty cool. With a price tag of around 10k, it may sell. My concern is that your electric bill will become unbearable. All the talk about electric vehicles, but I have not heard what the cost per mile would be.

not to mention, where does the electricity come from? It doesn't come from the sky, it comes from the burning of fossil fuels.....

(http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc190/stankbone/Laguna%20Seca%202010/DSC00829.jpg)

at least they understand motorcycle marketing ;)

but yeah had seen the bike online. A friend is looking to get back on 2 wheels. at least powered 2 wheels, he's a bicycle nut and a bit of a hippy. so i showed him this... he's very excited about it.

Bullshit, electric cars will save the planet, the electricity comes from rainbows and unicorns

Cool, but completely silent and therefore dangerous IMHO.

Sorry but unicorns are endangered because of the trade in canned unicorn meat

http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/unicorn-meat.shtml (http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/unicorn-meat.shtml)

Partly correct, depending on where you live.

Nuclear power and hydroelectric power are also used, and some solar and geothermal and... if you want to get technical.
My electric vehicles would be destroying fish migration routes, not burning fossil fuels.

Any idea how long it takes to recharge? 

A lot of the power around here is wind generated.  Lots of solar as well.  All the farms around here even have their own wind generators that produce so much power they turn back the electrical meter and our government pays the farmers for the power they produce.

This electric motorcycle is pretty neat, would be solid to see it in action.  The biggest downfall I could see is that it would be ultra quiet and you'd need a tape recording of a ducati playing while you drive it to keep you safe  ;D ;D

Backwards thinking about how fossil fuels are required to produce the electrical output needed for this kind of car is really outdated and needs to be squashed.

Sure the bulk of the world runs off it but if everyone keeps trying maybe someday it wont be so.

I for one welcome our new planet safe overlord motorcycles  [bow_down] [bow_down]  As long as i have new batteries to play my Ducati sounds  [moto]

They are coming out with pedestrian warning systems for near silent cars
http://www.pantagraph.com/business/article_811d8068-af7e-11df-92e5-001cc4c03286.html (http://www.pantagraph.com/business/article_811d8068-af7e-11df-92e5-001cc4c03286.html)

Charging on 110V it takes 8 hours to recharge for the 60 mile range model.  Unreal.  This technology is really impressive.

Yup, like it or not, this is the future.  I for one, am stoked.  100% torque through the entire RPM range.  As their power sources become smaller and more efficient, these bikes will become lighter and faster than their gasoline equivalents.  Yes please.

(http://animeguidezone.com/wp-content/uploads/wallpapers/Akira/1024x768/akira11.jpg)

agreed.  awesome effort by Brammo.  i'll go check one out as soon as the dealers are
announced.

to get off fossil fuels, this is the first step.

I feel like there was already a thread on here on this bike...but maybe it was another forum. I'm really excited to see how it performs in the real world.  I think motorcycles are the perfect foothold for electric vehicles. And the torque. Can't wait for that.

On the pollution note, there are a few ways to think of it. A million dollar scrubber isn't viable for every tailpipe, but on a billion dollar power plant it is.  Once you have an electric vehicle you can choose how you generate your power, be it installing your own solar panels, wind turbine, charging it from the grid, or paying extra for "green" power from your power company. In short, you have options that you didn't when you simply had to put gas in your bike or car.

hmm the garage I rent at my apartment complex has an outlet that is not connected to my meter or account. I never asked but I am guessing it is connected to the apartment complexes account.  That means free fuel!!

The big companies would need to invest to improve the range/recharge time before this technology is widely used. Maybe invest in hydrogen powered as well. It will take a few years, but once the companies realize that they cn make money from these, we will see them all over the place.

Yeah, but you'll be pre-paying for all the fuel savings in the purchase cost vs an equivalent gasoline powered scooter.  Electric vehicle costs need to come down another 25% before they're financially on par with gas powered equivalents on a total to own and operate basis.  Getting there but still not quite.

That is definitely true, but we as consumers also need to re-think about how we get power into our vehicles.  Every stop on my list of errands can be a re-charge point with an electric vehicle. Work is a place to recharge, as is home.  The idea of going to one specific place to quickly get more energy needs to be scrapped in favor of a more piecemeal approach with bump charges and the like. 

While the focus right now is on batteries, there may be some interesting developments in really high-performance capacitors:

http://news.discovery.com/tech/super-capacitor-power-energy.html (http://news.discovery.com/tech/super-capacitor-power-energy.html)

From that article: "If commercialized, the new super capacitor could be fully charged in a second and, coupled to a normal battery, provide enough energy to power a cell phone for weeks or a laptop battery for days."

While I'm sure there are plenty of hurdles before these buggers get fully developed for consumer electronics, much less vehicles, it could completely change the game if it was possible to "refuel" an EV faster than you can now use a gas pump...

Now that would be insane!

Will the rider light up if he overshoots a turn and winds up in a pond?

diamond based capacitors!  talk about bling!

I could see myself running out of juice North of BFE where the good roads are. 

^^^^^^^^  Should be she-bots.  Just sayin....

 :P
^{...not complaining, either.}

BFE?  Boy Friend Experience?

...and they all have a electrical meter on every receptacle, and you pay when you leave?

Just filed a patent for battery powered Termi emulator. Now an electric bike might be worth it.

It is a place in Egypt lol. 

I'd say that depends on a lot of things - riding habits, cost and fuel efficiency of the bikes you're comparing and gas prices.  Here comes the (conservative) math:

Ducati Monster 796 (non-ABS) = $9,995
Empulse 6.0, 6 kwh batttery pack = 60 mile range for $9,995
Empulse 8.0, 8 kwh batttery pack = 80 mile range for $11,995
Empulse 10.0, 10 kwh batttery pack = 100 mile range for $13995


Brammo Empulse (all models)
10kWH/mile - let's say $.10/kWH = $.01/mile
$100 in fuel costs per 10k miles

Ducati monster 796
~40MPG - let's say $2.50/Gallon = $.06ish/mile
$600 in fuel costs per 10k miles


You're saving about $500/10k miles with an electric at today's gas prices, so you would have to ride 40k to break even on an 8.0, 80k to break even on a 10.0.  If you only want to ride 60 miles at a time, then there is no differential.

But, if we are talking TCO, we could factor in oil changes and valve adjustments.  Also, there are still tax breaks* (10% federal tax credit up to $2500) available for EVs.  At some point in the cost adjustments (electicity price, gas prices, MPG, cost of ICE bike) we are getting real close to breaking even for all models.  Today.

*Someone may argue that whether we pay for it or the government does, it is still additional cost.  That someone would be right, but someone would also be:
A. Not really calculating TCO
B. Very happy to accept a 10% Awesome Italian Bike federal tax credit up to $2500 without a second thought :)