Rode an electric bike today

[Blinkwing]

Whats this "motorway" thing you speak of?

y'know, when cars actually go fast enough to present a challenge to pass them.

[smoky]

http://thekneeslider.com/archives/20...el-motorcycle/
This is an interesting direction for economy, if you start talkin bio-diesel you may even start talking eco-friendly (maybe)

[Big Dave]

http://kiwiridermagazine.blogspot.co...earthling.html

[bogan]

Does anyone know of any manufacturers moving towards hydrogen engines? It seems to me like a lot of electric cars were hopeless because of this no range, long charge issue - but now they're moving towards hydrogen cells, so instead of charging at at socket you fill up at a station, but it still uses an electric motor (and the only byproduct is water).
Cleaner on the environment because there are no acid filled batteries and no need for coal powered electricity, too...

you need heaps of electricity to make the hydrogen in the first place. And storing it is a problem, think a merc or bmw did one with an open tank but storing it at -100deg c or summat, trouble is if you leave it too loong all your hydrogen has evaporated!

[Urano]

Does anyone know of any manufacturers moving towards hydrogen engines?

hydrogen is a dead end.
it has a lot of problems i'll try to explain, please forgive me for language errors and try to keep the sense...

1- first of all there is the transport problem: h2 is gaseous and less dense than air, so in an empty cylinder normally you'd find more air than possible h2. so you can pump it in, and then you'll have huge problems because of problem number 2.
2- h2 is pretty explosive. do you remember hindemburg? that's a boom... putting h2 in pressure in a bottle is a bad, bad idea.... may be there's another way, but here it comes problem 3
3- you can liquify it, in order to put more h2 in the same volume. unfortunately h2 liquifies at very low temperatures, and if you want to use this form you'll have to keep it freezed. always, with the car on or off, under the snow or the sun... pretty complicated...
4- h2 is pretty a bad energy keeper. unless you use it for nuclear reaction (which is not the case and is way over our possibilities, today) with chemical transformations gasoline ha way a better "energy density" than h2. a litre of gasoline or, even worse, diesel, will have about 4 times the energy of h2...
5- h2 is obtainable with low efficiency methods, as elettrolisis, which is possible only if you use a lot of energy to separate the water. where will you take this energy from? nuclear plants? good...

so h2 is a bird mirror, and would not work. bmw understood it, and they were by far the most involved in h2 technology research...

the best solution right now is a high efficiency hybrid, waiting for a new battery generation made from environmentally friendly materials and with higher capacity.

[Big Dave]

Vid on KR site

http://kiwiridermagazine.blogspot.co...ing-video.html

[oldrider]

Vid on KR site

http://kiwiridermagazine.blogspot.co...ing-video.html

Have seen a few variations and the batteries are certainly improving, just add a hybrid power source to keep the charge up and tackle a bit of distance.......interesting prospects!

[Pixie]

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

[Pixie]

Have seen a few variations and the batteries are certainly improving, just add a hybrid power source to keep the charge up and tackle a bit of distance.......interesting prospects!

Meh -batteries.
Ultracaps are coming along nicely

Check out the stats on this:
(except the bit where it says it will be ready by 2008)



http://www.allcarselectric.com/blog/...quarter/page-2

http://theeestory.com/topics/2529

[Flip]

My vote for the next 50 years is high efficiency diesel motors. The pollution made making the batteries is a killer for them. Hydrogen is just too low in energy storage.

[bogan]

My vote for the next 50 years is high efficiency diesel motors. The pollution made making the batteries is a killer for them. Hydrogen is just too low in energy storage.

and you expect the pollution from making very small high efficiency diesel engines (and running them) to be less?

With electrics its a case of progress is progress, combustion engines have been around for ages and have had bucketloads of research money thrown at them, electrics are still a developing tech, especially the energy storage. Even if (and I don't think this is the case) they are more pollutant now I'd still buy one simply to support the industry that will become a hell of a lot greener in the future.

[R-Soul]

And it'll stop working when you're in the middle of turning in a tiny gap on the motorway. No thanks!

Yeah what is the electric bike motorway equivalent of the 'blue screen of death' exactly...?

[R-Soul]

Does anyone know of any manufacturers moving towards hydrogen engines? It seems to me like a lot of electric cars were hopeless because of this no range, long charge issue - but now they're moving towards hydrogen cells, so instead of charging at at socket you fill up at a station, but it still uses an electric motor (and the only byproduct is water).
Cleaner on the environment because there are no acid filled batteries and no need for coal powered electricity, too...

I've heard quite a bit about it in terms of cars, but nothing in terms of bikes - if they move that way I would be keen as if I had the money!
(One thing that would piss me off though is lack of gears... I like shifting for corners/pulling off at the lights!)

How do you think they separate the hydrogen from the Oxygen in the first place?? With coal fired electricity of course...
But I also think this is the future. No range/recharging probelems. Mind you, they are making HUGE strifdes in battery charging and storage...especially with the use of nanotech.

Hydrogen power is more efficient than petrol, but prolly less efficent than straight electric. Now if you could use solar or wind power to trickle charge a compressor/electrolysis unit to separate the Oxygen from Hydrogen, so that you have new full tank every day when you come home, that would be useful...

[NighthawkNZ:Me]

Japps a developing a magneting motor which is pretty impressive to... it be on youtube some where

[R-Soul]

hydrogen is a dead end.
it has a lot of problems i'll try to explain, please forgive me for language errors and try to keep the sense...

1- first of all there is the transport problem: h2 is gaseous and less dense than air, so in an empty cylinder normally you'd find more air than possible h2. so you can pump it in, and then you'll have huge problems because of problem number 2.
2- h2 is pretty explosive. do you remember hindemburg? that's a boom... putting h2 in pressure in a bottle is a bad, bad idea.... may be there's another way, but here it comes problem 3
3- you can liquify it, in order to put more h2 in the same volume. unfortunately h2 liquifies at very low temperatures, and if you want to use this form you'll have to keep it freezed. always, with the car on or off, under the snow or the sun... pretty complicated...
4- h2 is pretty a bad energy keeper. unless you use it for nuclear reaction (which is not the case and is way over our possibilities, today) with chemical transformations gasoline ha way a better "energy density" than h2. a litre of gasoline or, even worse, diesel, will have about 4 times the energy of h2...
5- h2 is obtainable with low efficiency methods, as elettrolisis, which is possible only if you use a lot of energy to separate the water. where will you take this energy from? nuclear plants? good...

so h2 is a bird mirror, and would not work. bmw understood it, and they were by far the most involved in h2 technology research...

the best solution right now is a high efficiency hybrid, waiting for a new battery generation made from environmentally friendly materials and with higher capacity.

There is new technology that solves the first three problems. they have found a way to store H in solid lattices (not sure if theya re polymer or crystal or what) at densities far in excess of H liquid. It is also not explosive, and releases the Hi n safe queantities at the required times. It was on Gizmag I think.

The nice thing about H is that it can be trickle charged form a solar setup to fill up a tank a day from home. To wipe out petrol stations in general I reckon. Honda have been working on such a home setup.