Honda, Yamaha ready electric, hybrid motorbikes It's not just cars that are going electric - motorcyles are too. Honda and Yamaha are said to be readying battery powered bikes. Honda's also planning hybrid two-wheelers too. Honda's initial electric bikes will be 50-125cc models, as will Yamaha's. The latter will come to market first, a variety of Japanese newspapers report …
A silent motorcycle is like wanking a table leg - where's the fun in it?! A motorcycle should have a nice engine rumble with a set of Arrows, Jardine's or Termignoni's... they should sound like the end of the universe is coming when you start them. There must be a chemical reaction which emits some kind of noise which does not require fossil fuel or generate carbon monoxide as a byproduct. Anyone?
... wait. It has been over 16 weeks since I last went into a Petrol station.
The Vectrix is a superb piece of kit, not replacing the Honda CBR900RR but making a perfect means of making that daily 25-mile each-way commute (17 miles of which is dual carriageway).
The higher speeds on the dual carriageway do hit the battery range a bit, I am getting comfortably 40 miles out of it, there is up to 20 miles range left at the end of my one-way journey. But the firm lets me re-charge on-site (which uses 20p electricity at current rates). That leaves me with a wide margin for any diversions etc. Lower road speeds will give greater range.
What puzzles me is why all of these manufacturers are "coming soon", 2010 being a typical forecast. The tech is there right now as Vectrix have shown. They even have fuel cell as a near forecast offering that will extend the range to 155 miles!
Judging by the constant questions each time I stop at a set of red lights there is a huge interest. Many people will be able to use the Vectrix as is within its up-to 70 miles range. There is no issue with having a max speed of 62mph, it is just a state of mind that says we cannot do less than 90mph on dual carriageways (anyway, thats what the Fireblade is for <G>).
There are deals to be had on the Vectrix if you shop around. But do the math too. Even if fuel prices do not change over the next four years my Vectrix will bring me a saving of £7,500 over that period against my Honda X11 (ex)commuter hack, and that includes the cost of finance vs X11 running costs. Plug in some inflation on fuel prices and that saving skyrockets.
Google Vectrix and see for yourself. No vapourwear.
I was walking through Girona (Catalunia) today when a woman went past me at warp factor five on a soundless scooter, about Vespa size.
On the side it had "ELECTRIC BIKE COMPANY".
It made me realise that mixing these silent devices and pedestrians in the same area may not be a good thing. So lets have a Harley Davidson sound effects chip in the motorbikes & scooters, and maybe a nice 427 V-8 recording in the SMART cars.......just to keep us walkers on our toes.
What a stupid notion. Any decent bike burns about as much juice as a car, fuel efficiency is not a reason to purchase a bike. Power to weight ratio is king and anything that doesn't make a bike either go faster or stop faster is a waste of time. Now if they can get some kind of ultra capacitor which can make the bike go faster than petrol burned at 20,000 RPM then petrol engines will hit the skip otherwise no thanks.
Torque is always nice though so if the leckky moped things can lay down a nice black stripe every time you leave the lights there may be some hope for a commuter rocket variant, so long as it can burn the competition off at the lights and blasting through city centres.
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