Rode an electric bike today

[bogan]

I can't currently find them, perhaps Henry has them?

think he just nipped out for some power converters...

[Laava]

So can this bike be registered as 49cc or less?

[Mudfart]

if its got instant torque, did it wheelie?

[Big Dave]

No - it didn't wheelie. It just accelerated crisply.

I don't know about the rego questions.

[NighthawkNZ:Me]

All electric motors are fuggin' magnetic

but not all magnetic motors are classed electric... the ones they are developing don't need batteries to recharge or run... they are just using the magnetic pull of the magnets

[steve_t]

but not all magnetic motors are classed electric... the ones they are developing don't need batteries to recharge or run... they are just using the magnetic pull of the magnets

?? have the boffins nailed down perpetual motion machines?

[Spearfish]

Yhey have the same 2kw max as a moped then its a bike after that, They don't have to pay RUC either same as electric cars etc. I think the no RUC stands until the electric fleet get to around 20% of the total fleet.
All in the name of global warming...

[reemit]

Shit, if they made one to run on bottled methane then we'd be sorted for sure, who needs all this electrickery when yer bike can run on the biproducts of a good night out on the grog.

[Brian d marge]

I see the American bike , motoczyz? won the IOM at NEARLY 100mph

Are we running out of Dino juice ? there were hundreds of the buggers years ago , enough to feed my Enfield till I drop

I like batteries though , all the wifes devices are all battery powered

cept the big one for special occasions , that be 2 phase that one

Stephen

[Urano]

Hydrogen power is more efficient than petrol,

i'll put it simple: how many links you can brake up in a h2 molecule and how many in a petrol one?

don't think any engineers would be stupid enough to run windows on an electric bike.

think again: http://weblogs.asp.net/hpreishuber/a...ws-mobile.aspx

i always say: keep away from children AND italians...

there has been some amazing work done on Sterling engines lately

ya... there is this sport, lately, of think at pretty like everything EXCEPT the right one... we have the right engine running everywhere, it's been tested for years, it's reliable... no, let's use a sterling...

this is the evidence that words on a paper are more profitable than facts...

A H bomb makes a bigger bang than Petrol bomb...?

does petrol undergo nuclear reaction inside your toyota's engine?
don't mess up nuclear with chemical... we're talking about combustion, not fusion nor fission...

Perhaps the battery part of the bikes could be replaced with receivers of some kind and there could be transmitters of some sort throughout the city (in the way mobile phone towers work today)

nope.
you can transform the "form" of the energy, as a transformer does from a voltage to another or from a continuous to alternate, but you cannot "create" energy.
if you have an engine that uses 2 kw you have to give it 2 kw. if you want to transmit energy to that engine by air you have to transmit 2 kw.
now imagine a beautiful aerial that sends 2 kw of energy for every car through the city, and remember that your microwave owen boils everything with just 800 w...

a mobile phone sends a signal of some milliwatt and still heat up parts of your head: if you want to send by air those kind of energy you'd boil every one...

I know of a few places where battery powered buses are charged by induction at bus stops. Wireless power over short distances is used widely however over large distances there is severe losses and the strength of the magnetic field is cause for concern at this stage.

at very short distances (or, to be more precise, on contact) things are different. anyway it's an interesting idea but in my opinion still a mess...

[Dare]

nope.

Ignore that...

Electrical energy can be transmitted by means of electrical currents made to flow through naturally existing conductors, specifically the earth, lakes and oceans, and through the upper atmosphere starting at approximately 35,000 feet (11,000 m) elevation[69] — a natural medium that can be made conducting if the breakdown voltage is exceeded and the constituent gas becomes ionized. For example, when a high voltage is applied across a neon tube the gas becomes ionized and a current passes between the two internal electrodes. In a wireless energy transmission system using this principle, a high-power ultraviolet beam might be used to form vertical ionized channels in the air directly above the transmitter-receiver stations. The same concept is used in virtual lightning rods[70], the electrolaser electroshock weapon[71] and has been proposed for disabling vehicles.[72][73][74] A global system for "the transmission of electrical energy without wires" dependant upon the high electrical conductivity of the earth was proposed by Nikola Tesla as early as 1904.[75]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_energy_transfer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnifying_transmitter

Granted wikipedia is roughly true but if you do some looking you can decide for yourself.

Also if you don't think there is power in the air already (albeit not ubiquitous, but still) consider this

http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/05/02/...ield-of-beams/

Unfortunately the energy transfer idea seems to be the realm of high budget military projects and hocus pocus 'free energy' websites.
Which is a shame because Mr. Tesla was probably onto something.

[NighthawkNZ:Me]

does petrol undergo nuclear reaction inside your toyota's engine?
don't mess up nuclear with chemical... we're talking about combustion, not fusion nor fission...

Some people have no sense of humour (or adventure)

[Mudfart]

The Poms are manufacturing an electric bike.
And it's got....wait for it.... SUSPENSION!!!!!!!!
and it doesn't look like some deformed piece of shit from the 1940's

Attachment 210781

i like old skool. ive been getting into vincent admiring lately, (1930's-50's).

[MattRSK]

Certainly a shame that Teslas grand idea died with tesla. They pulled the tower he constructed for this purpose down shortly after his death. I cant seem to get my head around how they are planning to transmit electrical power through the air safely and efficiently. In a transformer the greatest losses are caused by the reluctance of the air gap not the reluctance of the iron core, and this gap is usually very small. I have done some reading on using resonant frequency to transfer power but the magnetic and electric field strengths are many times higher than the set limits (set by ICNIRP). It is a very interesting field of research however.

[Urano]

Ignore that...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_energy_transfer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnifying_transmitter

Granted wikipedia is roughly true but if you do some looking you can decide for yourself.

remember that you have to grant energy for ALL the cars and bikes at the same time, that to keep the energy level acceptable for humans you have to distribute it to a massive surface (it's a car, not a sailboat), and that you have to generate the signal from something smilar to an antenna that you have to put somewhere and that will generate a power level unacceptable within a large range from it...

the game sim city, years ago, had the possibility to install microwave plant that receive energy from solar satellite in the space.
beautiful.
still we don't have sats, and in anyway would be easier that givin energy to a massive quantity of mobile devices...

donno, maybe i'm wrong, but i don't see it as a practicable way...