RE: Electric motorcycles - 13

I guess Harley's LiveWire has spurred Polaris's Indian brand to think about marketing another electric motorcycle some time in the future. But I won't be holding my breath until it shows up:
https://www.motorcycle.com/manufacturer/...motorcycle.html

My newspaper just reported on new California electric vehicle fees that are going into effect today. Here is what the article said:

"A $100 fee begins today for electric cars with a model year of 2020 or later. This will be followed by an annual registration fee that varies based on the market value of the vehicle. On the low end, the fees are $25 for a vehicle valued at less than $5,000, but anyone with a $60,000-plus plug-in vehicle will be paying $175 per year. It is expected to generate $52 billion over 10 years, which will be put back into the state' budget for infrastructure repairs." (Or so they say..... )

I assume that is in addition to the standard gasoline-fueled vehicle yearly registration fees. I have yet to hear if this new fee also applies to electric motorcycles, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did.

The July issue of the BMW Owners News contains a page and a half article written by Ron Davis, titled "The Long Hello". It introduces the reader to the Areostitch 2016 publication Zero Below Zero and discusses the Zero FX that was ridden all winter and did so without problems (as long as its battery was kept warm as it sat outside overnight charging). I have read the book and have it on my bookshelf. That FX sure took a lot of abuse during the severe Duluth, WI winter.

What I didn't know until I read the article is that a year after the book was published, Zero offered another Zero to Andy Goldfine to test. He said: "Heck no! My co-workers spent a lot of time with that zero instead of doing work.....it is too much of a distraction." But when his workers learned of the offer, he said that they mutinied and the Aerostitch workers did get another Zero to share during their commutes to work.

Motorcycle.com has just published a general interest article discussing 5 myths about electric motorcycles and why they are not all that true.
https://www.motorcycle.com/features/elec...nt-believe.html

I really like the concept of electric motorcycles. I've ridden the Zero and a friend's new Energica....they are both great. Good sport bikes, amazing torque and now good suspensions. The problem for me they do not yet meet my riding needs which I admit are not typical. I live and ride in a rural area so there are essentially no chargers (Yes Tesla and some in the two or 3 larger cities (ie over 10k people) but that is it other than borrowing an extension cord and the hours it takes doing that.
The max realistic range is 100 miles more or less (mostly less if you really enjoy the bike). Most of my rides alone are well over 200 miles and about 100 to 150 with friends. The range just does not yet cut if for me.

Zitat von Vtbob im Beitrag #185

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I really like the concept of electric motorcycles. I've ridden the Zero and a friend's new Energica....they are both great. Good sport bikes, amazing torque and now good suspensions. The problem for me they do not yet meet my riding needs which I admit are not typical. I live and ride in a rural area so there are essentially no chargers (Yes Tesla and some in the two or 3 larger cities (ie over 10k people) but that is it other than borrowing an extension cord and the hours it takes doing that.
The max realistic range is 100 miles more or less (mostly less if you really enjoy the bike). Most of my rides alone are well over 200 miles and about 100 to 150 with friends. The range just does not yet cut if for me.

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Here is the latest article regarding an additional new electric vehicle fee (that is in added to the regular yearly registration fee which is based upon the initial cost of the vehicle) that went into effect for California's yearly vehicle registrations this month. Naturally, there was no thought about electric motorcycles when the new fee law was passed. It will be interesting to see if owners of electric motorcycles get hit with the same additional $100 registration fee as owners of electric cars, which of course drive a lot more each year than most electric motorcycles and are also very much heavier and presumably do much more to degrade roadways. Apparently hybrid vehicles slip pass the fees even though they use a lot less fuel than ICE-only cars. Hopefully, the fee will actually go toward road maintenance instead of being diverted to other state programs - but I wouldn't bet on it.

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Yamaha is developing an electric MX bike. Here is the story: https://electricmotorcycles.news/yamaha-...ke-join-forces/

My 2018 Zero S stopped charging earlier this month and I smelled the odor of garlic in my garage. So it was time to order a new on-board 120V charger for $800 from a Zero dealer in Texas (no tax, no shipping charge). While the cost was more than the 24K servicing for an RS, at least it was relatively easy to install at home with a few small hex-head drivers and two hours of messing around with finicky electrical connectors. I then proceeded to attack the old charger with a hammer and chisel to pry it apart to check out the damage. Attach a photo of the new charger with its external wiring and a picture of the guts of the old charger that failed. While it is not obvious from the photo, all of the components were completely encased in a grey rubber potting gorp (a technical term) on the underside of the circuit board which made things very messy to take apart.

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Here are a couple of perhaps overly-positive reviews of the 2020 Super Soco TC Max.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsGbrJ3I...ature=emb_title

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha2Q7Bn7...ature=emb_title

Here is a trip down memory lane. Check out this comparison of three electric motorcycles that were available for sale in 2010 - and then think about the improvements that have occurred during the past 10 years: https://www.motorcycle.com/church-of-mo/...e-shootout.html

I owned two Electric Motorsport GPR-S bikes (which were rebranded as Native when the warranty claims started to pile up and the Oakland, CA manufacturer got out of the retail business and dumped their problems on small mom and pop EV shops). One was a 2009 model. It lasted for 300 mile before the charging system melted and Electric Motorsport would not honor their warranty. So I traded in that mess for an "upgraded" 2010 model with a big motor, which was slower then the earlier bike. That one lasted for 1200 miles before its 24 Chinese Hi Power brand LiFePo4 batteries started swelling up and failing. They were just not up to the job of having 150 amps pulled out of them. Eventually, I removed the batteries and gave the bike to a fellow who wanted the chassis. The chassis was sourced from a small motorcycle company called Tiger, based in Thailand. They sent the rolling chassis to Electric Motorsport, who added batteries, a motor and other electronic parts to make them function - for a while. I still have a pile of emails in my inbox to the company CEO complaining about their product and his refusal to honor their warranty. I will attach some photos of the 2009 bike and the 2010 model as I and an electrical engineer attempted to get it to work before we eventually gave up.

Eventually, I bought a 2012 Zero and have been very happy with that brand ever since. My daughter still rides my old 2014 Zero S.

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Here is a short article about a fellow who rode across the U.S. on an H-D LiveWire electric motorcycle: https://electrek.co/2020/08/14/harley-da...s-country-ride/

Honda inches a little closer to actually marketing an electric motorcycle: https://electrek.co/2020/08/13/honda-is-...-on-the-cb125r/