Posted on 12/21/2006 1:27:16 PM PST by Red Badger
Think of it as “Easy Rider” meets “An Inconvenient Truth.”
Or, maybe, the perfect Christmas gift for the environmentalist with everything.
A solar motorcycle.
Well, not solar, strictly speaking, but electric — with its battery charged by the solar panels on Rob Thayer’s Village Homes roof.
Thayer, a UC Davis professor emeritus of landscape architecture, recently purchased the custom motorcycle for $7,000 from electricmotorsport.com, an Oakland company that’s one of a handful modifying or building electric motorcycles.
His is a 2003 Spanish-built Derbi Grand Prix racer, its gas engine replaced with a battery and low racing handlebars replaced with higher, “old man handlebars” that are gentler on his 59-year-old back.
“I can’t deny that this is anything other than a toy,” Thayer said Tuesday. “But it’s a toy with implications.”
It has motorcycle torque, so it’s quick off the line, and splashy, racing bike graphics with the word “solar” in yellow. What it doesn’t have are exhaust fumes.
It also lacks the trademark rumble of Harley or the high, mosquito whine of a Japanese speedster. Its chain sounds like a kid’s toy car, the sort you pull back, then let go on the kitchen floor.
Thayer doesn’t mind that the bike isn’t freeway-ready, topping out around 60 mph.
“Some kids asked me, ‘How fast does that thing go?’ I said, ‘Fast enough.’ ”
He’d rather take the train to Berkeley, where he’s a visiting professor, than suffer smog-inducing traffic, anyway.
For Thayer, the motorcycle scratched a few other itches.
He’s the first to admit it’s a throwback to his younger days, to a time in the late 1960s when he buzzed around on a Yamaha — a bike he gave up when he settled down to raise a family. Getting a little older found him hungering for something fun.
“I’ve had some friends die recently,” he said. “I decided I ought to do some things while I still can.”
He’s always been a guy who likes toys and gizmos, especially those that are environmentally friendly, like ever-newer bicycles, canoes and kayaks. And he loves a project to tinker with.
It also fit with his avowed love for his new solar array, installed in August at a cost of $22,000 after rebates. He and his wife Lacey invested in the bigger-than-needed 4 kilowatt-rated photovoltaic system with the thought that, someday soon, they’d be driving electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles.
Enter the motorcycle.
“It’s transportation for both sides of the brain,” he said. “It’s fun.”
Thayer began his academic career studying product design at Cornell University. He figures that a handful of up-and-coming companies are starting to figure out that green-friendly consumers don’t just want “something geeky” to drive.
He calls the electric GEM car, for example, a dull, unsightly “atrocity.”
“Companies have got to satisfy the deep psychological needs there seem to be in Americans,” he said.
Ah yes, the lure of the open road.
Not so fast. Thayer’s motorcycle can cover only about 30 miles before running out of juice.
He hasn’t tested its limits because he’d rather not push the 300-pound machine home.
He figures that soon enough, longer-lasting batteries will mean more time in the saddle. For now, though, he can tool around town or make an extra trip to pick up some groceries at the Co-op, guilt-free.
Thayer’s also been scheming ways to extend his range by converting the motorcycle to a plug-in hybrid that uses biodiesel.
His goal: to be able to ride to Winters for a cup of coffee.
Eat your heart out, Dennis Hopper and Al Gore.
Oh, please! Another multi-millionaire enviroweenie preaching that we hoi poloi need to get green... where's the barf alert?
Always wanted a Duke. The new bikes with the massive framework are not particular attractive to me, tho.
When you end up pumping the chest of someone to keep him alive you wonder if it was worth it.
What a neat toy!
But it only runs for 30 minutes...
I'd like to know the cost of the electricity to charge the thing up, so I can calculate whether it's worth it gaswize.
Now if we can get Dean Kaman to build a 60MPH Segway, I'd beta it.
4KW solar array, $22,000 after rebates???
Longer-lasting batteries? At what weight???
Toys are just, toys.
I think it is more likely that the engine was replaced with a motor. In any event, it sounds like transportation that could only be enjoyed by a true weenie.
Would you feel better if he had a 'heart attack' in a car? Or do you suggest CPR for every injury that someone incurs?
In all my years of riding, about 35 or so,I have come to the conclusion that people who make comments like yours are either parroting some garbage that their mother told them, or are afraid to admit that they would ride if they only had the stones. Is it more dangerous than driving around in the F250? Of course. Is it my own business? You bet your azz!
For a conservative site, there are way too many nanny nono's for comfort!
My current rides:
and the one that is awaiting delivery: 
End of rant, maybe!
***In all my years of riding, about 35 or so,I have come to the conclusion that people who make comments like yours are either parroting some garbage that their mother told them, or are afraid to admit that they would ride if they only had the stones.***
I don't have to parrot anything. My uncle had his leg tore open riding one of these. My cousin and her husband were killed in a terrible wreck, Motorcycle vs semi. And they had years of riding experience.
And I ended up pumping the chest of a 16 year old boy who ran his motorcycle into a car making a legal turn in front of us.
After you pump one person's chest you will begin to notice the shear numbers of motorcycle riders who get killed in the news daily.
I know a lot of people who were killed in the shower. Do you advocate everyone stop taking showers?
DG, a little fun for you over here.
That dripping sound is my jealousy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.