Sourcing electric bikes

[MarkH]

My car is electric and fun to drive. But my next bike will run on petrol. The next bike after that? Maybe.

I'd like an adventure tourer and I would want more than 300km at 100kph from a charge. I can't see that happening with current battery technology, but I guess in 10 years it could well be the case.

I've looked at the Zero motorcycles and the DSR looks OK, but if I loaded one up with camping gear and tried to do a South Island trip the number of charges I would need would be a real pain, stuff that. I'll keep an eye on things over the next few years and see how it develops.

[Big Dog]

Are we sure he wasn't just an AC/ DC fan?

[Paul in NZ]

Are we sure he wasn't just an AC/ DC fan?

My guess is he just wanted to stop fuckwits sticking their fingers in there

[Graystone]

why no lampshade......?

Depending on the lampshade is could be too easy to confuse with some breeds of dog, and she has done enough to man's best friend already.

[Eddieb]

If you do facebook have a look here

https://www.facebook.com/groups/490290081150877/

[gaddman]

Turns out I hadn't set the auto-subscribe to my own posts, so didn't realise this had a few replies..

Thanks a lot @Eddieb for this:

If you do facebook have a look here

https://www.facebook.com/groups/490290081150877/

To the other replies:
I'm not too worried about range, most of the production bikes are around the ~100km range, and fast charging stations are on all main highways these days (see PlugShare).
For those thinking electric bikes are lame, maybe take a look at Lightning and Energica. And @jellywrestler - how about expressing your view in a way that's not bigoted.
Electric vehicles are as safe or more so than conventional ones; even with a battery pack at 400VDC (Nissan Leaf) you'd have to try really hard to short something - these things are crash tested like any other car.

[Euro2018]

I was lucky enough to be taken for a test ride on an Italian built, fully electric Energica a few days ago.

I'm not a highly experienced bike rider and so possibly I'm easily impressed.

This bike's performance was amazing.

The bike was piloted by Brandon Nozaki Miller who races these bikes professionally.

On paper it's good for 0-100 kph in about 3 seconds.

On the street, I was having a hard time staying on the back of the bike. There were no grab handles for the pillion at the back and for good reason, they would be useless. Most of the time I was leaning forward with my hands on the tank. But if Brandon gave it some gas (figuratively) then I couldn't hold on this position so just clasped around his chest, holding on for dear lfe.

I also took a Zero for a ride and rapidly gained an appreciation for the price difference between an Energica and to Zero.

And off topic, yesterday I took a Triumph Trophy from Las Vegas to Phoenix and back (about 950km round trip)
What an amazing ride.

[speedpro]

I don't know at what voltage DC becomes dangerous to humans but I can testify that 300VDC hand-hand will sit you down. It wasn't a high current source like a battery. All precautions are taken with electric vehicles with safety links and isolators and all sorts making it nearly impossible to accidently get hooked up. The safety aspect is hardly an issue. Range and time to recharge certainly is. The fast charge will decrease battery life so is not ideal. New technology might help that. Maybe supercaps? You still need the infrastructure of course. The peak demands when charging could be mitigated with a local battery bank supplying the charging device. Better yet, standardise batteries and simply swap them out, though that would probably require a setup where you bought the car but leased batteries, sort of like owning a welder but leasing the gas bottles which you swap out for full ones as required.

[FJRider]

I don't know at what voltage DC becomes dangerous to humans but I can testify that 300VDC hand-hand will sit you down. It wasn't a high current source like a battery. All precautions are taken with electric vehicles with safety links and isolators and all sorts making it nearly impossible to accidently get hooked up. The safety aspect is hardly an issue. Range and time to recharge certainly is. The fast charge will decrease battery life so is not ideal. New technology might help that. Maybe supercaps? You still need the infrastructure of course. The peak demands when charging could be mitigated with a local battery bank supplying the charging device. Better yet, standardise batteries and simply swap them out, though that would probably require a setup where you bought the car but leased batteries, sort of like owning a welder but leasing the gas bottles which you swap out for full ones as required.

It's not the Volts that do the damage ... it's the Amps.

Compare the Voltage at the business end of a spark plug ... to the three pin outlet in your house ...

[pritch]

It's not the Volts that do the damage ... it's the Amps.

It's the volts that jolt but the mils that kills - or something? If the cars are *that* safe I'm still curious as to why the Formula E driver was told his car was unsafe and he should climb on to the bonnet and jump.