Electric dirt bikes?

[BM-GS]

Just seen a (rehashed) article in UK mag Bike about the Zero Motorcycles electrical dirtbike. It seems that Mickey Dymond was fairly impressed (though they have places where internal combustion isn't allowed in The Land of The Free - and he wanted one so he could ride around them). There's a Zero X for the dirt and a Zero S for clean places. They also seem to be planning a demo in New Plymouth...

Anyone out there know more about this?

The clever bits are the battery and probably the selling of the whole lot to a bigger, conventional bike manufacturer.

www.zeromotorcycles.com/
and there's loads of refs to articles including the one which made it into Bike.

[DELLORTO]

thanks for showing us that, the only advantage with them is noise restrictions and acceleration....and i guess its good for the enviroment....

[cheese]

Cool idea, but I think that they have some major flaws that they need to look at. And if you read the review, its really an electric mountain bike with one gear. The seat hight looks really low. Reasonable power though. Nearly what a 125 puts out.

They should take a page form the RC world on motors. BLDC is so much better in terms of power output and economy. They are on the right track with batteries. But good gos they need some help of design, god that thing is fugy.

Be interesting to see what they come up with over the coming years.

[secondfield]

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[takitimu]

thanks for showing us that, the only advantage with them is noise restrictions and acceleration....and i guess its good for the enviroment....

I dunno, no more air filters sounds good to me.

[krad_nz]

I dunno, no more air filters sounds good to me.

Reckon, battery filters are where its at.

[Mystic13]

Might be gay but the KTM electric off road bikes are going into mass production in 2010.

Without the gas tank and motor etc it weighs 90kg..... 90!

After testing since 2008 the electric bike is going into mass
production in 2010. And it only weighs 90kg.

http://hellforleathermagazine.com/20...ic-enduro.html




How long will it take before you can buy the electronic sound effect
box so it sounds like an off road bike.

Actually these sound pretty exciting. The thought of riding through
the bush with a bike heading toward you silently is a bit concerning.
It's hard to imagine riding off road with no engine sound. Exciting
times.

In reality, if these things perform then more will buy them.

[4stroke]

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yeah i think so too

[xen]

Maintence and running costs would be super low as well. Reckon when the batteries last longer/ take a shorter time to charge it'll be interesting. Won't take too long, and looks like this could be the future of the sport.

Agree the design looks shit but just give em time. What tracks are two way anyway? Dunno if I'd mind losing the noise, all good for awhile but can get abit tiring (esp when clutch slipping), be cool to hear the tyres breaking traction.

[clmintie]

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WE said the same about 4 strokes in the eighties and they took over the planet, what do we know......

[Pedrostt500]

I worked on electric bikes a while back, the thing to remember is the run time and distance is rated on flat ground at top speed, so if you add a hill into the equation then the overall distance reduces, also the steeper the hill will further reduce the distance. having no gear box is not a problem with an electric motor as the max tourque is instant, unlike a petrol engine.
the other thing to remeber with electric vechicles is that All batteries have a life exspectancey, or a certain amount of cycles the battery can be charged and discharged, till the battery becomes unservicable, so its good to know the cost of replacement batteries.

[B0000M]

WE said the same about 4 strokes in the eighties and they took over the planet, what do we know......

they're still gay tho!!


the electric thing is foolish from an environment point of view

especially this talk of electric cars. nz allready has enough trouble generating enough electricity to power what we have.

imagine how much power it would take for me to charge up my 200kw car to go for a 8 hour journey... ok you might say, no drama....

what about if 1 in 4 people in auckland decide to go away for the long weekend, so charge up their cars on thursday night..... yeah right!

[B0000M]

having no gear box is not a problem with an electric motor as the max tourque is instant, unlike a petrol engine.

so the same gearing thats good for 120kph is suitable for powering thru some knarley stuff at 20-30kph? i fail to see how this is ideal - assuming my petrol engine could only do 8000rpm, worth of torque the whole way thru, there will be more g's worth of power in a lower gear than there would be in a higher gear

[zzzbang]

lol? 23 hp? where are you gna go with that?

[barty5]

there just hyped up mountain bike fuck look at the wheels and disc rotors they are straight from a moutain bike. $10000 US which is $20000 here or petrol bike for 1/2 the cost if you want a long range battery it another $3000US- $6000 that a farkin lot a petrol even at todays $$$$