I think it's lame. Hmm, gas up in about 10 minutes or wait for the bike to charge for 3-6 hours? I'll stick with gas. Riding an electric bike is about as rewarding as riding a Segway.
I've pretty much settled on making my next build an electric. Heard a radio special about a guy that turned is 70's era BMW car into an electric with a megawatt of power and 800hp. I know horsepower on electrics is different than horsepower on IC engines, but I also know that '800' is generally classified as 'alot' in any horsepower measurement method. The reporter who rode the car said it could go zero to 80 in a heartbeat.
Did some research. Infinite torque at rest, linear acceleration 'curves' and the like. Sounded like a good recipe for fun. Checked out the prices, and you can have the drive setup for under $2000 if you source it right, including batteries.
My goal is 80 to 100mph, with a 60 mile range on one charge (averaging 45mph). It sounds tame, but what I'm courting is insane acceleration and whippy handling.
All this to say, electric motorcycles have a place right next to 4-in-lines, V-twins, thumpers, etc. It's just another powerplant. For $200 more I'll bet I can build an exhaust simulator for a Harley engine. Anyone want to run a recording of me yelling 'potato' over and over through pro-tools? I'll bet we could get that signature sound
hmmm Take a Harley motor mount it in a frame along with a generator and an electric motor. Power the generator with the Harley and the electric motor with the generator final drive powered by electric.. If I have to have an electric bike that's the one I'd build... You save nothing on gas. And you still screw up the environment but hell you can say I have an electric bike for the green people! I love the smell of unburnt hydrocarbons in the morning...
I just don't feel like dealing with charging shit and how lame is it to progressively lose power as the batteries die? Thanks but no thanks - internal combustion or nothing for me.
Battery technology will rapidly advance in the next few years, maybe there will be a modular standard that you can pull up to the station and have yours switched out and ride on. I will definitely build an electric bike soon:
The guy I bought my CM185 a few weeks ago has been in the scene for decades; he said he was selling out his shit and embracing electric. He said he wants to get in the forefront of it he ports and polishes for race bikes...and said the potential for electric to destroy all previous speed records had him behind it.
I asked him what about nostalgia? Kicking over a bike built up by hand, the noise, the smell and making it go as faster than it was ever designed to do?
He said yeah but there's no money for people to be made in it, some of his friends can't sell shit to make ends meet or even sell their part stocks, that even with shit credit you can walk into a dealership get a new bike for 50 bucks a month payment if you can halfway negotiate, that there's some hub generator that you can go 100 miles on the battery, go stretch the legs grab a snack, come back and turn the key in 10 minutes you can go another 100.
He understood where I was coming from and I where he was; I said well, there's a whole community out there that loves old bikes and would love to get at some part stashes; you and your friends should sign up to Chop Cult lots of potential customers. Whether he will or not time will tell...
I have enough of a hard time; with pushing a button on a bike to start it being inauthentic feeling, like my current build that's going to be my main bike...now add a quiet, low pollution, rheostat throttle? It may be the wave of the future in the cycle industry...but not mine; give me a rotted, loud, hard starting, greasy, grimed up tranny with road kill hairs stuck in it, bike to rebuild or give me death.
The guy I bought my CM185 a few weeks ago has been in the scene for decades; he said he was selling out his shit and embracing electric. He said he wants to get in the forefront of it he ports and polishes for race bikes...and said the potential for electric to destroy all previous speed records had him behind it.
He said yeah but there's no money for people to be made in it, some of his friends can't sell shit to make ends meet or even sell their part stocks, that even with shit credit you can walk into a dealership get a new bike for 50 bucks a month payment if you can halfway negotiate,
So all this guy cares about is making a buck? Doesn't sound like much of a biker to me - just a businessman. And maybe speed records will be set with batteries but racing won't be electric anytime soon. Most likely not in my lifetime and sure not in his.
toyota prius M..... for the two wheel lovers. another catchy song and bam all the hipsters are going to pay out the butt for it.
Im not digging the idea. I say that because like with all the EV and hybrids when it come time to change those batteries its gonna cost like 13k to do so. might as well get a whole new car at that point.
Who remembers laser disks??? I think itll be heading in that direction. just my opinion
there is always resistance to something new, but I think that electric vehicles are the way of the future.
Not even close. Batteries are toxic, toxic to create and toxic to dispose of. You've prolly never seen just how many cars come into a salvage yard on a daily basis - dozens and dozens - I'm blown away by just how many car-killing accidents happen every day. Now imagine if every single one of them had 1,000lbs of highly toxic batteries. The cars dead on the side of the road, the abandoned cars, all of them with 1,000lbs of degrading, leaking batteries. And don't forget 75% of the worlds power still comes from fossil fuels - your batteries are being charged from coal and gas. Unless you set up a wind farm in your backyard to power your house - your batteries are leaving just as much of a carbon footprint as my gasoline engine - more when you factor in production and disposal of those batteries.
Batteries are not the future. Alternative fuels are.
Not even close. Batteries are toxic, toxic to create and toxic to dispose of. You've prolly never seen just how many cars come into a salvage yard on a daily basis - dozens and dozens - I'm blown away by just how many car-killing accidents happen every day. Now imagine if every single one of them had 1,000lbs of highly toxic batteries. The cars dead on the side of the road, the abandoned cars, all of them with 1,000lbs of degrading, leaking batteries. And don't forget 75% of the worlds power still comes from fossil fuels - your batteries are being charged from coal and gas. Unless you set up a wind farm in your backyard to power your house - your batteries are leaving just as much of a carbon footprint as my gasoline engine - more when you factor in production and disposal of those batteries.
Batteries are not the future. Alternative fuels are.
good call mike, I agree with that but only if the brass would let it happen. Im sure we could have had something already but big business is hold out. till we are completely out and then bam out of nowhere the new magic fuel is going to save our asses and its going to be 10 times what gas was because the big business and govt are going to control it and we are going to have to take it.
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