Posted on 07/07/2009 12:40:37 PM PDT by Willie Green
How long will it be before motorcycles run without gas? It’s a question for the ages, or the engineers. Now that cars and trucks are scaling back fuel usage and converting to electric power, don’t kid yourself, motorcycles won’t be far behind. There will always be a place for the classics, mind you, just the same as there’ll always be a place for classic cars – though perhaps alternative fuels will allow us to retain the internal-combustion engine without using fossil fuels. For the moment, there’s a heavy emphasis on electric power, and what can be accomplished with the new generation of electric motors. There are plenty of examples of home-built and independent production electric motorcycles on the internet and at small dealers nationwide, but they all seem to lack the refinement necessary for mass production. At best, many of these are little more than science projects. However, there are a small handful of companies, including one major motorcycle company, with their eye on the future – creating highway-legal motorcycles powered only with electricity.
There’s going to be some diehards, particularly in the “Loud pipes save lives” front who tell you that gasoline motorcycles will never die, that there’s no replacement for the power that an internal-combustion engine produces. I was anti electric bike at first myself, but we would be foolish not to accept the way things are headed. For now it’s just another growing part of our sport, and I have to support anything on 2 wheels!
There were many non-believers when the new breed of inline four-cylinder engines was poised to dethrone the almighty V8 in the nineties. Never, they said, would a 4-banger be able to produce the power of a V8. Those people are currently eating their words, regardless of whether they’ll admit to it or not. Take for example the new generation 2009 Camaro V6 engine, which produces 300 horses, and delivers passable fuel economy for that power range. Just a handful of years ago, the 300-horsepower fuel-efficient V8 engine was a technological breakthrough in a production automobile. Electrics have the capacity to follow that same technological advancement once motorcyclists begin to embrace these noiseless motorcycles, and they become available in cooler configurations than just scooters.
Once you get past the “cordless drill on steroids” acceleration noise, there’s quite a bit to like about electrics in motorcycles. For one, the torque of an electric motor is seamless, and acceleration picks up like a maglev train. We’re not talking golf carts here, after all. Recently, the “Killabike,” an all-electric drag bike, ripped through the quarter mile at 155 miles per hour. (That was, of course, before the inventor tried to show off at a media event – that video’s on YouTube, if you’re interested. To paraphrase a Honda ad slogan, “Stupid hurts.”)
Speaking of Honda, by all outward public appearances it will be Honda itself who looks to be first to market with a viable production electric motorcycle (in 2011 or 2012). That in itself seems appropriate, given the advancements that Honda has committed itself to in the last twenty years. Have you seen the DN-01 automatic motorcycle yet? It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to visualize that bike with an electric motor. The only hurdles that need to be overcome are the range of the batteries, road safety, and rider preconceptions of electric power. What sounds like science fiction now, will surely be a reality in two or three years.
I‘ll embrace the future, because I like all things that go fast, and we do need to start thinking about not filling the air with exhaust every waking moment of the day. That being said, I have a feeling I’ll never feel quite the same about these new machines. Rest assured that my garage will remain stocked with vintage bikes, and Old Bike Barn will continue to stock parts for the older motorcycles. In the words of Charlton Heston with reference to firearms… from my cold dead hands they can pull my gas burning motorcycles. That being said, you can also be sure we will be among the first to try and support the electric scene with products for electric riders as they become available. Sometimes it’s ok to have your cake and eat it too.
Amen.
Electric motorcycles? Stupidest. Idea. Ever.
Talk to me when battery technology can provide the same performance (145hp), weight, range (200+ miles) and equivalent efficiency (45+ mpg) of my current main ride, and can be recharged in the same amount of time as it takes me to put 5 gallons in the tank.
It should to be neat to see where this tech goes.
Except for the speed, range, efficiency and convenience, its 100% what you're looking for. It also doubles as effective birth control if used by the male..
To get the cool sound of a real motorcycle do you have to use a clothes pin a a baseball card in the spokes?????
Yeah but I only need it to get me to work and back. I can’t imagine the misery of riding behind some big RV on the Blue Ridge Parkway for hours.
The overlook looks Booneish.
The other problem I have with electric vehicles in general is that the electricity doesn’t just magically come out of the wall outlet.
It has to be generated somewhere, and this government seems hell-bent on killing conventional fossil-fuel energy production and suppressing further development of nuclear power. So just where is this electricity supposed to come from?
Do we really think we can cover the country with windmills and solar cells and all our problems will be solved?
Have you ever heard the sound of an aluminum 1200cc Kawasaki I4 gulping air from the front intake, and howling through dual Muzzys? ;-)
I recently returned from a two year stint in China and I can tell you that electric mopeds and scooters are all over the place. It is the next level up from a bicycle in the transportation hierarchy. I will also tell you that just as soon as anyone is financially able, they move up to a gasoline scooter or motorcycle. Next up the hierarchy is a automobile of course.
Oh, I take this to work. And grocery shopping. And to the shooting range.
Regarding the BRP, we were there during the week. Didn't get stuck behind a single RV all week. :-)
Don't recall which overlook that was. Gorgeous though.
I saw a guy at BMW 2002 rally (the car model, not the year) that had converted his 02 into pure electric. I was volunteering at the show and parking people, and he came up—it was downright eerie seeing the car move, hearing the blades of grass get crunched, but *not* hearing an engine.
Electric cars and motos still sound like a long ways off. No infrastructure for them, the range is not there, and no new power plants to speak of. If the tech worked, I’d buy one. Rather support my local electric company than Chavez and the Saudis.
I live in the city, in a part of the country where it snows (ohio).
Most people around here drive motorcycles on nice days only in the spring/summer/fall. A sizeable portion just drive them back and forth to work when they can.
The have cars for winter and inclement weather.
They don’t need a lot of range, and performance of electric motors can easily exceed that of gasoline engines. For people in this group, charging overnight (or over a couple of days waiting for the weather to break) would not be a hardship.
Will electrics replace all motorcycles? No. But if they’re priced right, and have the fun factor that electic motors have the potential to provide, there will be market for them - even if just as street-legal toys. I see lots of mopeds and scooters lately in my neighborhood - there’s even a scooter-only dealership a few miles away, and these are vehicles that can’t be realistically used for 1/3 of the year in my climate. I would think all those customers would be potential electric motorcycle customers.
From Silent Gray Fellow to Great Throbbing Twin to...electric blender? The black-leather crowd won’t go for it.
With a few nuclear reactors we could have all the electricity we could ever use.
I think electric motors have a big part to play in the future. There’s some breakthroughs that still need to happen, mostly regarding battery weight and power density, but I think those things will eventually be resolved and some very interesting uses will be found.
I wonder if part of the answer isn’t also a breakthrough in power transmission and/or induction. I can imagine an induction system of some kind, buried in highway roadbeds that could provide power *and* keep batteries charged. That way the batteries are only necessary for the shorter in-town sorts of travel, and not drawn down on long-haul highway driving. Might be interesting.
I predict that electric scooters and small cycles will be very successful. A wise man would do well to invest in them as they are developed. IMHO
Cool movie!!
I was told by someone recently that INDIA was in the process of building 80 nuclear reactors. I could not verify this, so I put it out to Freepers to comment.
What say you ?
what a metrosexual looking ride.
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