Production electric motorcycle breaks 100 mile range A California electric motorcycle manufacturer will start selling hogs – well, piglets – that are capable of a range of over 100 miles thanks to a new power pack that should outlast the bike itself, plus newly adopted energy capture technology. The new Z-Force power pack has 95 per cent more energy density than previous models …
Seems like its really only suited to city riding, where you have almost zero chance of getting stuck with a flat battery, wonder if the dash has a 'point of no return' idiot light?
That aside, as a veteran rider of London town, i reckon a silent motorbike will guarantee its rider a first class ambulance ride in short order.
It may be a cliché but Loud pipes really do save lives.
Fuck I miss my bike, stupid procreation.
My first BMW nearly got me killed so often until I replaced the corrosion prone original pipes with 650 BSA pipes. Suddenly far fewer near misses and a nice note to boot.
Could not sneak out of then girlfriends driveway after that though.
Electric bikes, a poor greenies Prius and equally as stupid for conserving resources.
If it cant go 350Km, it is useless for Real World.
How do/would loud pipes save lives. I am a long-term car-driver, and have never (yet, and unless wife has a serious personality change, will never will) had a bike. Equally, I have never had even a near-miss with a bike (sorry, once, pulling out of a junction on a blind bend, and it would have been the same with a car going at the same speed - i.e. too fast for the conditions). As far as I know, I do use sound to tell whether something is behind/alongside me, but this works even with the quietest cars. Why, then, do you claim loud pipes - which are a nuisance to all - are such an important addition? If I can hear a top-flight Rolls-Royce (and I have had minor hearing difficulties for many years), why do you need neighbourhood-waking exhausts?
TL/DR - how loud do pipes have to be, in your opinion, before they become "too loud"?
There are various optical effects which can make it difficult for drivers to actually see, or at least register, a bike coming towards them at a junction. The noise a bike makes helps your brain 'notice' that it's there. One of the most common biking accidents is a 'smidsy'... drivers pulling out right in front of a bike because they didn't see/register it.
Also, if you can hear a bike, you know there is one somewhere near you, even if you don't know exactly where. So in theory, you'll be more careful! The louder it is, the larger the range of the effect. Although I admit some are far louder than they need to be, some are illegally loud too. Chances are they are the ones with the tiny, also illegal, number plates on the back.
Depends on the exhaust note. A small two-stroke (um well, there are no large two-strokes, not any more) at even mildly elevated sound levels will be experienced as rather annoying to the average ear, while a big chunky four-stroke at significantly higher sound levels might not.
Case in point, I live on a moderately busy street, whenever some school kid on his badly silenced moped passes through, I curse. But there's this guy round the corner who has this old Ducati Paso, and when he passes through, the windows rattle and I smile. But YMMV, and I should state that my ear is certainly not the average Daily Mail reader's ear.
On the utility of "loud" pipes in traffic, well they're not going to help to avoid a head-on collision. But they do certainly help in avoiding jerky reactions from car drivers who did not notice you were overtaking them, and often they're a literal wake-up call to car drivers who might be about to turn into your path.
Unless you've clocked some miles on two wheels, you would not realize, nor believe, how distracted car drivers often are. The amount of gadgetry available to them lately (satnavs, mobile phones, car stereos) certainly doesn't help. When you're on a bike, you don't have time for distractions: you constantly keep a tab on anything that moves and the slightest lapse of attention might result in you ending up in a wheel chair or worse.
For some reason this doesnt seem to be happening, Had a chat with an electric courier van driver a while ago, he mentioned that none of them like taking out the electric vans because pedestrians keep walking out in front of them.
Mind you one time while waiting at some lights to pull onto the strand a yank ambled over and asked what batteries my old NC35 ran on, was never sure if he was taking the piss or genuinly thought it was too quiet for a motor at tickover, sang a sweet tune at 15k revs though.
... don't save lives so much as good observation and proper riding plans do, they just piss off other people *after* you've gone past because they'll be hearing you for the next mile.
The only problem I see with electric drive is that makes it harder to judge your speed "by ear" simply by knowing what note your engine makes in which gear.
Oh and as for "88 mph that will get you little cred from the local two-wheeled community" that's bollocks, as long as you can flick it through the twisties, that's what matters!
Disagree. The risk of death on an electric bike is significantly higher than the risk when driving a Prius. Given the colossal carbon footprint of your average privileged westerner of the sort who can afford to own electric vehicles, the greater number of fatalities means that electric bikes are vastly more eco friendly.
Having clocked up more than 150k miles over the years, motorbikes having been my primary means of transport (never owned a car, in southern Europe winters are mild enough to ride year round even if one's not particularly hardy) I must say I do find the idea of a zero emission bike rather appealing.
The lack of an appropriate (rowr!) exhaust note certainly is a point of concern though. Even a Beemer-esque purr would be better than the ghostly silence I'd expect an all-electric bike to "produce". That, plus the range being plainly insufficient for the yearly long haul. Unless they get the battery tech to the point it can get a full charge in the time of a coffee & cigarette break - if you can manage to locate a sufficiently beefy power source.
I'd be interested to see if this bike is capable of being rode with L plates. L plates you have to have a bike of 125cc or less and power output of 11kW, if the bike is CBT capable then I can see a market for people who take the A1 test (under 21's) or want a bike to ride on their CBT. With the price of petrol hitting £1.30/litre it could be a viable alternative.
Have to agree with Jubtastic1, without a sound the bike is a death trap in the city. It's bad enough that here in Sydney the taxi drivers are blind and slightly deaf, but have a bike that's completely silent? Well sorry, you're going to die.
Jub, also, don't ever give up riding due to procreation. I didn't, and neither did a lot of rider friends, best excuse is that it's cheaper than public tranportation, and allows you to get to and from where your going so that you can be home in time to help cook dinner and put the kiddies to bed.
I always assume at any choke point, that a car capable of placing itself in the same volume of space as me and my silent e-bike will attempt to do so, and behave accordingly.
The only thing I have to worry about are red light runners and they will clean anyone up regardless of audibility.
Agree on all counts, people may whinge about loud pipes but we bikers need all the awareness we can get from other road users. I would never try to claim that I didn't ever squeeze the law once in a while but that is the whole point of choosing a bike in today's clogged world. I use both major A roads and motorways on a daily basis and it is rare that at least one of them is not at a standstill. If I couldn't filter between the static lanes then I would just be adding to the congestion.
Now what they need to do (my patent, my patent) is install optional soundtracks which use the road speed and acceleration to push a pseudo engine note out of some speakers. You could make it switchable between single cylinder thumper or a Hog through to V4 2-stroke screamer (and add in stuff like a Merlin engine for novelty value)
The thought adding artificial engine/exhaust noise crossed my mind, but if you'd want to use anything that even remotely resembles available hardware you'd be limited to a 125cc two-stroke wail - which can be reproduced at the required sound pressure levels through a horn system of relatively modest dimensions. Forget about imitating a large four-stroke, the exhaust note of such engines have powerful low frequency components which means you'd need a trailer to carry the required subwoofer, and the power consumption might be a liability too.
I gave up my bike on marriage and procreation because being under 25 and male the insurance cost was insurmountable. It was 15% of the value of the bike, per annum. As a single guy that was wearable, as a married undergraduate with a child it was very much not so. Especially since we then had a car to run and finance as well.
There is also the issue of responsibility to your family. Riding a bike is riskier than driving, I wish it were not so but on a bike you will always be more vulnerable in a collision and you cannot always avoid collision.
I gave my bike up for both reasons, I couldn't afford it and I wanted to see my kids grow up. I didn't ride like a maniac either, I just had too many incidents where drivers clearly didn't see me, even fitting a driving light atop the wimpy headlight and having it on in daylight didn't entirely stop cars at intersections only just stopping in time.
There's just *NO WAY*. That role is reserved for Ducati, Harley, anything over 600cc and the like. This is a cheap commuter bike and as such I'd be happy to swap my little Honda 125 for the 8 miles to work and back through London each day.
Except - it's FAR from cheap. And as noted elsewhere, is silent-but-deadly. My XR does make a racket though, it's a relief to get back in the nice quite dadmobile when I go to pick up the kids.
But - nice idea. Even my little puttputt costs over 8 quid to fill its tiny tank now.
Is basically a slightly different motor and a 4 quadrant power controller with a few more power transistors in the system and a different firing sequence.
Usual estimates are it puts 15% on an EV's range but of course YMMV.
It's a good question how much drivers use their *ears* to detect other traffic and that high whine of a high compression 125cc engine is not most people idea of a full throated roar. In fact it's as irritating as f**k to most people.
Now a (optional) "bike noise simulator" could be quite an interesting accessory. Improves safety, low power, choice of makes and models from monster Kawasaki to bloated BMW
Sure there are issues, and what is there is not going to replace my R6...
But as first steps it's pretty good I think. I'm a complete speed freak / petrol head, but with the right vehicle I could quite easily be convertd to a speed freak / leccy head! The power source shouldn't be the make or break - the drive / ride should! I just hope they get to a real world bike soon!
It does need some noise though - even the standard exhaust on the R6 works better than the horn...
switzerland here. Roads are good and there are enough motor and pedal bikes on the road both in cities and out that cars notice and pay attention. Loud pipes not necessary, although I would want any bike I'm riding to make some sort of noise. Given that it's an electric bike instead of a fake petrol-engine sound, why not go for a helicopter turbine-like crescendo? Would be cool :)
Performance - 88mph is just over 140 km/h, which is plenty for 95% of my riding and only marginally less than the few times i go over that. Sure it's nice to have a theoretical top speed over 200km/h, but if you want to show it off, go to a track day. 88mph is fine for road use. 114 mile range is 182 km - still on the short side of 200km, I can usually get 220-230 km from a full tank of petrol. However considering the technology is still relatively new and evolving, I'll give a big thumbs up - It will break 100mph and 150 miles in a few years, I'll guess.
What really would keep me from buying anything like this, though, is charging time. I can fill a tank and pay for it in 1-2 minutes. Even considering a touring scenario I would say max 30 minutes for a stop, if I can't get 80-90 % charge in 30 minutes it's no good.
Got to say I largely agree with the sentiment that loud pipes save lives - my 535 Virago has straight-thru Cal slash pipes on it and you can hear it a whole town away. You only really notice how safe you are when you get on your pushbike and some tit in a tin box tries to occupy the same point in space-time!
Having said that, make the bloody driving tests harder and reduce the amount of nobheads on the roads! AND make them drive with earmuffs on so they actually learn to use their fugging EYES once in a while!
</rant> <breathe>
It's not for the leather-clad Neanderthal with an anger management problem who wants to go 150 mph when the cops aren't watching. It's for the commuter who wants to travel at any speed != 0 on the M25 (or its LA equivalent).
As for sound: if in the din of city traffic you rely on people hearing you coming, you are already betting your life on wrong expectations. Have you noticed the funny wires coming out of everybody's ears lately?
Paris, because the chick-attraction potential may be one of the few weaknesses. But being fortyish (going on fiftyish) and in a midlife crisis, not even a Harley would help.
As always with electric vehicles, the majority talk about what the technology can't do and how it is totally useless... and by virtue, missing the point.
If you want to commute every day by motorbike, and your commute is less than 40 miles each way (leaving some reserve to get home on should unforeseen circumstances), then this sounds like a workable option. If you want to travel further, then, for the time being you will have to rely on conventional fuel sources.
It will take a long time for attitudes and expectations to change and adjust. Perhaps when only the rich can afford petrol, electric transport will be taken seriously.
I've been riding an e-bike (cue lots of jokes from the 'proper bike' riders) daily for over 2 years and it isn't a big hassle to plug it in every evening when I get home. On the rare occasion I forget there is usually plenty of juice left for another trip to and from work.
The expectation that you can do 200 miles or more and fill up in seconds and go anywhere is what we are measuring against. But if you only commute 10 miles or so then you should be ok for 2 or 3 days before having to worry about recharging (which will likely only take a few hours). Add in a few trips to the shops and you are still ok. This is what I mean about shifting expectations. For the day to day short trips it will do the job. For anything else stick to your petrol powered bike and enjoy it while we still can.
Up here in Scotland it would make a decent commuter bike. Yes there are idiots on the road, but far fewer than there seem to be in places like Birmingham and London (from my experience). 100 miles on a charge? That could do me nicely.
Yet to find anything that beast the Blackbird for tugging luggage around for a day and going for a blast at the end of it, though!
Suspiciously quiet on the recharging front.
100 miles is great and all, but if I then have to plug it directly in to heysham power plant for 6 months to get another 100 miles its not that useful. The glory of petrol is that I can fill my tank in seconds and drive off.
@"silent motorbikes would be deadly"
I know I'm speaking as a diehard car driver, but seriously - I had a guy on a bike overtake me (doing ~55mph) accelerating so hard he was doing a wheelie, nearly hitting oncoming traffic. Until I stop seeing shit like that happen I'm going to have ZERO sympathy for bikers who get in accidents and try to blame the car. For legal reasons I'm not going to tell you what the speed limit was.
I've been overtaken by cars in residential areas (doing dead on 30 I might add) including on one occasion as I was stopping for one of those choke point traffic evasion measures. Guy stopped about 2 inches from the front of the car coming the other way that he hadn't managed to see. Oh, and that kind of stuff happens when I'm in the car, when I'm on the bike it's the same thing with people pulling out in front of you, cutting you off at roundabouts, blocking you from filtering (which is legal, read the damn highway code if you're not sure) and generally acting like fools. And don't even get me started on people who absolutely _must_ overtake me on my pushbike in the last few meters before a roundabout before slamming on the brakes and pulling over hard to the left hand side because there was someone coming.
The golden rule is that everyone else on the road is a selfish idiot no matter what you're driving. I've seen plenty of stupid motorcyclists, car drivers, cyclists, horse riders, pedestrians and anything else that can be on the road. So because some motorcyclists are idiots you take us all for idiots. By you're own logic I've seen plenty of car drivers that are c**ts, so you must be one as well...
PS: There are plenty of idiots out there who want to hurt themselves, but that doesn't provide an excuse for you to hurt them. You're attitude is equivalent to saying it would be ok for someone to go around setting fire to fat people and drug addicts because they don't deserve sympathy.
No, no, no, no, no.
No.
For every one of those bikers you see doing something like that (and bear in mind you saw him at one point in his life - it's possible it was the first and only time he'd done something silly) there are hundreds and thousands of us who ride sensibly all our lives.
One tosser shouldn't mean that you have no sympathy (or regard) for the rest of us, who are sideswiped by cars or for who cars pull out right in front of us, leaving us no time to stop. It happens very regularly. Why do you think there are almost continuous motorbike awareness campaigns on?
Should we as bikers have ZERO sympathy for a car driver who gets crushed by a lorry? Perhaps because we see idiots in BMWs and Audis overtaking at 100mph on the inside lane of the motorway? Because that's where your logic leads.
Might well suit my 35 mile A road commute. Not much chance of running out of juice.
Can it sustain 60ish and can it overtake the feckless old gits who drive at 20mph round every corner before flooring it up to 55 on every straight?
$7000 = £4400
+VAT = £5280
If it was that price it might well be worth a punt.
Petrol bike mpg is utterly appalling. I don't know why it's never been addressed. There is a market for those of us would would like a bike with a reasonable turn of speed that could hit 100+mpg to commute on.
We don't all want to look like power rangers.
Hum! Let me see now! To break first pull on the front brake, then use the back brake to control the bike and stop it going sideways. Sounds like a good scheme. Most of the energy is dissipated by the front brake.
Regenerative braking: first you pull on the front brake. Whoa! The regenerative brake on the back wheel cuts in automatically. Why am I going sideways? I can see this turning into a tank slapper.
It seems ideal for my 40 mile ride daily ride into Central London and has the range for the return trip if for some reason I cannot charge at work (and during a normal working day this should not be a problem, so hopefully I'll always be "topped up" unless that's bad for the battery life)
I ride motorways for over half of this but this speed should not be a problem.
I'll disagree with some commenters here about the loud pipes issue, but if you want to generate noise it can be done more effectively, for example pointing an electric sound source forward for more effect at a lower (and more considerate) volume than rear facing exhausts.
I'd far rather have some appropriate visibility markings and running lights (not compulsory headlights, but rather small sets of intense LEDs).
I'd want to fit some extras that would unfortunately sap the range (fairing/screen, hard luggage and heated grips) but I'd certainly consider this for my primary commuter with the petrol bike for best/backup.
"Got to say I largely agree with the sentiment that loud pipes save lives - my 535 Virago has straight-thru Cal slash pipes on it and you can hear it a whole town away."
Yeah that's really nice for everyone else. If you drove more sensibly then car drivers would not have to look out for the crazy biker doing twice the speed limit and overtaking 10 cars at a time.
Driving is a shared responsibility - bikers need to realise car drivers cannot always anticipate the biker travelling fast who decides to nip around a line of traffic and not giving him(or her)self enough time to stop.
More importantly what is the tech behind the new super-battery?
I'm not convinced on the whole noise factor of a bike. Now sitting in the queues in my tin box instead of filtering down the middle I dont hear any bikes filtering until they come past me anyway. However I havent had so many dolts pulling out on me since I got my Priller and its 'road legal' OE silencer. I think this ebike is a more direct substitute for a 125cc scooter than a full-on bike. You dont see (or hear) many of those with loud zorsts.
And when will someone invent a proper visor cleaning system that can be used on the move so that I can keep riding when the roads a covered in brown slime? Heated grips / clothing are all very well, but they are no use if I cant see.
"I've seen three Priuses involved in RTA's when running in Leccy mode. "
What a pointless statement. Perhaps you have seen 50 Priuses involved in RTA's when running on petrol or 50,000 RTA's involving other cars running on petrol.
I'm not convinced you can say for sure that making an electric car louder would have avoided those RTA's.
Noise=power on an ebike, power spent on noise isn't going into roadspeed/range, lightweight and silent and let the rider keep his/her wits about them.
Noise generators for boy racer cars (and bikes) are already available with real samples of cobras, ferraris etc.
Re-Gen braking can be done with high speed flywheels ( http://www.flybridsystems.com/ ) and it applies to both petrolheads and lechytecs, everyone wants more bang for their buck.
If anyone is interested in an informed opinion - here it is:
I have ridden GASOLINE bikes my whole life - the sound of the pipes makesNO difference whatsoever. People who claim that the sound of the pipes prevented an accident are simply discounting their own reflexes or those of the other driver.
I have nearly 12,000 miles on my ELECTRIC motorcycle - I've had no problems whatsoever. If anything, more people turn their heads to see what's making that UNUSUAL sound (the high-pitched electronic sound).
The PROS of the electric bikes FAR outweigh the CONS. During the three years I've been riding the electric bike I have NEVER had to go to a gas station, NEVER had to get a tune-up, NEVER changed the oil, and I've NEVER been stranded. I commute to work, plug-in, I drive home, and plug-in. I have saved literally thousands of dollars in gas/maintenance costs.
But the one thing that is not mentioned often enough - it was WAY COOL to ride fast, smooth, and quiet - I still have my gas bike for the long rides, but it mostly collects dust in the garage as it's MUCH more fun to ride electric. Go for a test ride before believing the pessimistic posts.
Thanks for that oobflyer, saved me the bother. I'm strongly considering replacing my KTM 690 with their new Freeride E for my daily commuter, stick a larger disc on the front and some sticky 17 inch wheels and you've got the ultimate urban commuter weapon.
as in, I can "almost" afford one. The range works, the speed works. Of course, this is the marketing taking these numbers. How far does it go when at the top speed? Can I get at least 50 miles at freeway traffic (70 plus?) speeds?
also, does "topping off" at work or home count against the number of charges in the lifecycle?
Rode the Zero S, its a fun little scoot. Problem is, I ride a 600 pound, 145HP bike as my daily driver. Rode it to the Zero demo too. So the performance and response was understandably less than impressive-not having a clutch to work with was weird too. Scooter owners would be right at home with this though.
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