Electric Motorcycles: Why?

[ducatiz]

I was at a mall yesterday and there was a Toyota event going on. Test drives in their new full plugin vehicle.



The thing was charging on a gas generator in the parking lot. 

I wonder if they include the generator with the car...

[zooom]

and the generator was probably a Honda...

[ducatiz]

and the generator was probably a Honda...

with some electrical tape over the label

[Bill in OKC]

I wonder how many miles per gallon that totally electric vehicle gets?

[NorDog]

I was at a mall yesterday and there was a Toyota event going on. Test drives in their new full plugin vehicle.



The thing was charging on a gas generator in the parking lot. 

More planet raping with all those hydrocarbons killing polar bears.  Or something.

[MendoDave]

Most of us do not live in NYC. In fact there are few places in the U.S. with that kind of density. At this time I live in a city of 40K with a fairly low density. An electric PU or runabout could replace one of my vehicles (GMC Jimmy 17 MPG). I'm thinking of an Upsized one of these that has a cab and Heating / AC,  maybe a radio too. Of course electric would be great but maybe a small motorcycle engine would do. I would want AWD because of the snow. So I might put 10 miles a day on the thing running here and there.



But I don't need an electric street bike. An off road one might be cool though.

[SDRider]

More planet raping with all those hydrocarbons killing polar bears.  Or something.

Ha ha.  Liberuls...

[ducatiz]

OK, I'm out.

[bdub]

Gators are awesome. Have you looked at a Polaris ranger? A friend has one with a cab, he uses it to check his food plots. Also Bobcat has them now.

[Howie]

I wonder if they include the generator with the car...

Not that one, but you do get a generator.  It's called an engine

Diesel power is the way to go.









A pair of dees'ill get you anywhere you need to go:

[muskrat]

I was at a mall yesterday and there was a Toyota event going on. Test drives in their new full plugin vehicle.



The thing was charging on a gas generator in the parking lot. 

Please tell us you took a picture.   

[xcaptainxbloodx]

dont really care about global warming or the need to get away from oil nearly as much as the idea of progressing electronic motorcycles to the point that they can compete with gas powered bikes.

100% torque all the time and a top speed limited by battery life....

I dont care what your politics are, thats cool. so is this;


thats the motoczysz Ep1c, about 8 guys building a better bike every year for the last 3 years. theyve won all but the first year and killed it  this year (against honda-mugen no less ) with a 104mph lap record.  it took combustion engines 53 years to do what electric bikes have developed in 4.  its not surprising to here that kawasaki is also developing an electric TT bike.
and then there is this;


If I cant have a hover car then i suppose a single wheel electric motorcycle will have to do.


its absolutely not ready to "replace" ( i use quotes because I think its silly to think it has to be one or the other) but in the next 10 years or so?  probably.  I think Michael Czysz said it would only take a battery with something like 8X current levels in order to have a bike competitive with MotoGP level bikes.  now THAT would be a race to see!

[MendoDave]

Those are excellent points.

However I was told that we would all be on the metric system by 1978 and have Jet packs by 1999. Where's my jet pack?

[xcaptainxbloodx]

Those are excellent points.

However I was told that we would all be on the metric system by 1978 and have Jet packs by 1999. Where's my jet pack?

you had it, it flew over Disneyland in 1966 and then people were bored with it.

but more to the point, imagine if a privateer designed a jetpack that did something only planes had done. say, first it flew the english channel, then it flew accross the US, and then it flew across the atlantic. imagine that those leaps had occurred in 3 years and that by the fourth year boeing and lockheed martin decided to take notice and spend some serious money developing there own jetpacks....

thats basically whats happening in the electric motorcycle world.  10 years ago the idea that an electric motorcycle would be raced in any sort of athletic way was inconceivable, now they can hit 180mph  in under a mile and brake 100 avg at IOM.  this isnt some pie in the sky fantasy, they are advancing by leaps and bounds and with such consistency and fervor that the big guys are starting to take notice.   if czsyz does another ground up build to compete with the year 2 mugen bike, and kawasaki enters the fray you have 3 very serious electric bikes on the grid, and thats not even looking at the privateer outfits like zero, lightning and brammo.

[ducatiz]

  it took combustion engines 53 years to do what electric bikes have developed in 4.

that's a misleading assertion -- electric motors have been developed over the last 100 years.  applying that know-how to motorcycles piggybacks on the developments of ICE-based bikes. 

its not as if there are half a dozen styles of electric motor.  they are all basically the same thing, with minor differences for AC or DC. 

gas engines have wide differences in design.  electrics absolutely have an advantage due to simplicity.