Electric Road Bike

[R650R]

WRT weight, I guess you have never lifted the final drive of a shafty GS850/GS1100 Suzuki. That along with the wheel and tyre, weigh a metric shitload. Yet they seem to handle adequately.

Yes and the heavier weight would allow cruder suspension. Eg when people change to light weight race wheels they need to get high quality suspension that will finesse the damping of the lighter wheel properly.

[R650R]

If it's only for commuting I'd go an e-pushbike.

You've got the backup of pedals for next Auckland blackout.

Prob still covered by household insurance.

Run red lights with immunity lol

[HenryDorsetCase]

My work is shifting back to the city next year (Feb) and I am going to go back to commuting on two wheels. I dont need to take a car. Currently mulling options for a scooter, an e-pushbike or one of my ordinary pushbikes. Front running candidate is e-pushbike at this stage. Thanks to Covid they're a little difficult to get and impossible to get a deal on.

I have an e-mountainbike which I love but its not really suitable for commuting day in dayout. Great for mad hucks though.

[onearmedbandit]

This 'lack of maintenance' aspect about electric vehicles is often trotted out...however aside from upgrades which are purely by choice the only maintenance I do on my bike is tyres, brake pads, chain/sprockets. Electric bikes still have these consumables. The only thing I'll concede is oil and filter every 5000km.

[Laava]

WRT weight, I guess you have never lifted the final drive of a shafty GS850/GS1100 Suzuki. That along with the wheel and tyre, weigh a metric shitload. Yet they seem to handle adequately.

So if you had a hub mounted electric motor, making as much power as a Gs1100, how much would it weigh do you think obviously including the brakes and swingarm so it would be a fair comparison?

[george formby]

So if you had a hub mounted electric motor, making as much power as a Gs1100, how much would it weigh do you think obviously including the brakes and swingarm so it would be a fair comparison?

Allegedly a Tesla model S motor is just under 32kg and the equivalent of 362hp.

100hp from a 10kg motor is intriguing.

[Jeeper]

This 'lack of maintenance' aspect about electric vehicles is often trotted out...however aside from upgrades which are purely by choice the only maintenance I do on my bike is tyres, brake pads, chain/sprockets. Electric bikes still have these consumables. The only thing I'll concede is oil and filter every 5000km.

HD Livewire has gear oil that needs changing every 20k miles. So they do have oils in electric motorcycle as well.

They also have coolant for the batteries.

[Laava]

Allegedly a Tesla model S motor is just under 32kg and the equivalent of 362hp.100hp from a 10kg motor is intriguing.

That is pretty impressive!

[R650R]

HD Livewire has gear oil that needs changing every 20k miles. So they do have oils in electric motorcycle as well.

They also have coolant for the batteries.

Oh man some greenies are going to get totally owned on that one.

Just like wind turbines which depending on size have anywhere from 60-400 Litres of dinosaur oil as well. The massive shear loads involved means nothing short of dinosaur blood is suitable, non of this synthetic soya bean shit will ever be close enough as even what’s available now from decades of fossil fuel research and application isn’t as good as what the engineers would like.
This means maintainance must be top notch and filters changed regularly.

[R650R]

Not sure if I mentioned this before but...

I heard an interview with a Kiwi guy working in the States, he was saying electric cars (and probably also bikes) don't provide much in the way of econimical benefits. He was saying the savings come with delivery vans, rubbish trucks, or buses, the vehicles that run all day every day as opposed to a family car wich will run typically less than an hour a day.

Since he works for a company that is making electric trucks he would say that, but it made sense.

On a random not entirely unrelated note, does anybody here know who will work on electric trucks. Those things run high voltages way above what automotive electricians would normally be considered qualified to work on. Way above what housing electricians are qualified to work on. Is there going to be a shortage of high voltage electricians?

Correct.

Cars out there already run high voltage DC, Scotty Kilmore did a good vid telling home mechanics not to touch them.

As for trucks since it’s not connected to network shouldn’t be an issue. There’s not much in the way of repairing these days, most new stuff sells with a service plan and it’s quicker to just replace a component than repair it.

With high mileage and vibration from crappy roads trucks have habit of chaffing through looms and cables/air lines in random place, often a stone from roadworks finds a new home and quietly chisels away st something. Will sure be some random public fireworks displays not happening during November

[Ian Staples]

Not sure if I mentioned this before but...

I heard an interview with a Kiwi guy working in the States, he was saying electric cars (and probably also bikes) don't provide much in the way of econimical benefits. He was saying the savings come with delivery vans, rubbish trucks, or buses, the vehicles that run all day every day as opposed to a family car wich will run typically less than an hour a day.

Since he works for a company that is making electric trucks he would say that, but it made sense.

On a random not entirely unrelated note, does anybody here know who will work on electric trucks. Those things run high voltages way above what automotive electricians would normally be considered qualified to work on. Way above what housing electricians are qualified to work on. Is there going to be a shortage of high voltage electricians?

I heard that same guy on the radio a while back. one of the most fascinating interviews I have heard. From memory he was on the ground floor when Tesla started up. his logic for cars not being the best way to go is if you currently drive a corolla etc then switch to a electric car you may save the planet x litres of fuel per year but a truck or bus may save that in a week also he made the point of rubbish trucks and buses produce a shit load of brake dust pollution where as an electric truck produces much less. his company was in wellington to convert a bus or 2 for a trial . they are hybrid with a small turbine as the charger engine as they are the most efficient. I would like to get my sticky little fingers on one of those !!

[R650R]

made the point of rubbish trucks and buses produce a shit load of brake dust pollution where as an electric truck produces much less. his company was in wellington to convert a bus or 2.....

If he needs to mention brake dust he must be scraping the barrel for why electric is better....

Cabbage driving by car drivers is prob emitting orders of magnitude more brake dust than the very SMALL fleet of rubbish trucks and buses in any nz city.

I think electric is great for city buses and metro truck work where gear is not double shifted and doing lots stop start work. We still have tyre rubber dust which is a known carcinogen and just as bad as any other small particle emmiosion for your lungs.

A side note on a recent walk, our council is building more concrete (don't get me started on that) pathways as part of the provincial growth fund stuff. You think with their climate change emergency bullshit they would think twice about erecting no less than four plastic flute board signs staked with wooden poles cut from Timber hauled by diesel burning log trucks lol

[george formby]

Tyre pollution... Solution?

https://www.autoblog.com/2020/09/17/...ure-invention/

[pritch]

Tyre pollution... Solution?

https://www.autoblog.com/2020/09/17/...ure-invention/

Brilliant. A cunning solution to a problem most people don't know exists. It all helps, but I recall the days of mechanics blowing asbestos out of brake drums with air as if their plan was to make sure everybody in the workshop got some.

We're getting better but...

[pete376403]

Brilliant. A cunning solution to a problem most people don't know exists. It all helps, but I recall the days of mechanics blowing asbestos out of brake drums with air as if their plan was to make sure everybody in the workshop got some.

We're getting better but...

I remember doing that (ignorance was bliss) but for a real cloud of toxic dust, nothing matched the steering clutch compartments of a Cat 933 loader (multiplate clutches about 24" in diameter with band brakes about 6" wide around them. Sort of job that got farmed out to the apprentice.