Oh no! its a twist and go. That makes it a scooter?
GOOD ROADS, NUTHIN 2 RIDE
Oh no! its a twist and go. That makes it a scooter?
"Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it."
-Lou Holtz
Don't forget to bring a towel
The price and battery longevity are still not good enough to make electric vehicles a feasible option for most people.Originally Posted by robo555
Hardcore Biker
Yes, hence Yamaha/Honda are not building them yet. No doubt this is still a niche.
The difference with this bike and previous iterations is previous ones are fugly and/or slow. This one is fast, looks good, and almost acceptable range.
Hardcore Biker
Batteries available now have 10 year warranty, some expected 20 year life deep cycle with high CCA too.
Time be a changing.
Maintenance costs would be lower, less parts to make up and less moving parts.
Batteries probably gonna be bad for environment though.
Havn't you seen 'Who killed the electric car'
Don't forget to bring a towel
Just ask the poor fool who owns an old Prius or hybrid Civic with a large mileage on it.
I haven't seen that video.
Hardcore Biker
Don't bother its really boring, basically california I believe had electric cars. they were recalled because there were no parts to service. Brakes, clutches, transmission and the big one no fuel was purchased just electricity. there were electric service stations and everything.
http://www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com/
Resident Redneck
That doco looks interesting...might spend some time watching it....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39K36...eature=related
More electric cars than petrol cars at the start of the automotive age? I did not know that!
Hardcore Biker
In the movie, GM made an electric car, EV1. It was hugely popular and a long waiting list. People loved it.
Problem was, people can't buy it. GM only allowed them to be leased, and the advertising GM did for the car was really weird, they provoked negative emotions, and generally gave the feeling that GM did not want the car to suceed.
After a while, GM did not allowed the lease to be renew, even when people were wanting to buy them. They took working electric cars away from their owners, piled them at a yard, and crushed them.
Forum whore
There's been a KTM RC8 based electric bike around for a while now. You can buy one if you want.
Umm you do know that there is a tremendous amount of heat generated not just by the bike, but also by practically every power generation method known to man? All of the high performance electric bikes I've read about have been water cooled.
How is it more "efficient"? Did you not pay attention during the 4th form science class (or whatever year you whippersnappers are up to) about signal attenuation when transmitting alectricity or about the massive amount of power lost converting electricity from DC to AC like we do across the Cook straight. Battery powered vehicles are at the end of a production chain and with internal combustion engines now approaching 30% thermal efficiency I'm not convinced that they'll be usurped by electric vehicles any time soon. IC powered vehicles may use a different fuel source (equally as questionable ecologically) but they aren't going anywhere UNTIL someone comes up with a power pack to drive electric motors that gives people the same or better performance and range.
If a vehicle doesn't carry a fuel source that allows it produce its maximum potential energy output at any point of a journey throughout the usage of it's stored fuel or energy source then you're better off with a bicycle or a horse. At least you can feed and water rider and horse as required and you can still both race both of them.
It "might" need less maintenance (do you not look after your suspension, your drive mechanism, or chassis bearings?) but what's worse case scenario for an engine replacement in an IC bike? $2-3k? with a bit of cunning and 2 mates you could keep it under a $1k.
Priced up a Hybrid's battery pack lately? You'd be better off replacing the vehicle. Then where do all those reare earth metals go when the batteries get thrown in the rubbish? Noticed how your Lithium Ion cellphone battery performance degrades over time? A comparatively short period of time I might add.
I get really tired of reading articles in bike mags about electric bikes that have a range of "80kms at 60km/hr" and a "4 hour charge time". It's pointless to entertain using one as transport - yet. 600km range at 150km/hr and a 10 minute charge time (and a LOT of people would baulk at that) and you're cooking with, well, electricity.
If a man is alone in the woods and there isn't a woke Hollywood around to call him racist, is he still white?
Forum whore
Does it look foot forward to you?
Hardcore Biker
First of all, I agree that this is not ready for mainstream, no one at KB is going to buy one today.
I'm discussing the motor and battery separately. It's common for an electric motor to arrive 80% efficiency. By efficiency I mean the ratio of input power and output power. It achieves such efficiency because less input power is wasted on friction, noise, and heat. It's undeniable an electric motor is more efficient than an IC engine. The cooling in a Tesla is for the batteries, the motor is air cooled. Try running a car with half the performance of the Tesla without a radiator. Oh wait, you can't. As for the power loss from converting AC power from your wall socket to the battery, it's still cheaper to recharge a battery than petrol.
Yes an electric vehicle will still need maintenance since it's got suspension and chassis. The motor and transmission however is a lot simpler and requires minimal maintenance, no more engine/transmission oil changes, which is the most frequent maintenance nowdays.
As for the battery, we all agree that's not ready for prime time yet.
Hardcore Biker
Can't wait, I want 1.
Gonna open a new 'Electric Bike' savings account now.
GOOD ROADS, NUTHIN 2 RIDE
No, it doesn't look like a cruiser.
"Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it."
-Lou Holtz
Forum whore
Not when the electric motor is powered by a battery charged by a grid attached power socket. It's less efficient thanks to the power generation chain, which in most countries is generated predominantly with coal, promoting the release of two major greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, methane and CO2.
You skipped over the power loss thing a bit too conventiently. Power loss generation in transmission in NZ rates between 30% and 60% from source to wall outlet, depending on whether it jumps the straight or not.
If a man is alone in the woods and there isn't a woke Hollywood around to call him racist, is he still white?
111000101000100010011110
shit that sounds high, don't spose you got those studies etc handy?
still even at 30% to wall losses battery is much more efficient, 70% makes it to wall, 90% to batteries, 80% to wheel. When combined it's about 50% efficient, compared with 30% if you're generous for ICE, gives you an extra 60% more output energy for a given input energy. Sounds good to me
"A shark on whiskey is mighty risky, but a shark on beer is a beer engineer" - Tad Ghostal
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