Electric motorbikes

paddy

paddy

paddy

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Joined
24 Aug 2003
Posts
1,486
Location
Derbyshire
Colleague at work asked me today what I thought about electric bikes. Other than the new class at the TT I had to admit I didn't know anything.

He said he was thinking of buying one for his commute, and showed me a couple of options:
http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/zero-s/
http://www.vectrixeurope.com/fleet

Speed, acceleration and range he said were all ok for his needs. His only concern was if they produced enough torque to get him up the steep hills around Derbyshire.

Personally they're not for me, yet, I enjoy the occasional ham-fisted moment too much and often do journeys beyond the 100km range however the idea of a continuous wave of torque through the rev range sounds great :)

Give it a few years for batteries and motors to improve and filter into the mainstream and I might be interested. Prices also need to fall a bit, the Zero-s about has a list price of US$10k

What are peoples thoughts?
 
67 mph for what is a super moto style bike is impressive
I quite like the look and the specs would be brill for a commuting bike all the electric bike I have looked at are comparable to a 50cc moped, this ups the anti, but alas to expensive for me.

bullit
 
I would guess the premium of them just now wouldn't make this very economical? I also find a loud exhaust very hand for commuting through heavy traffic. Would like to have a go on one though,might be good fun.
 
I see this post was over a year ago. What is the current state of play with these now?

Obviously the price is a big initial outlay but how mch do you save say over a year on tax and petrol?

I still can't see this as a worthwhile practical prchase due to the distances on a charge. Would be ideal for *just* commuting but if you ever fancy say a longer journey one day - as you do when owning any vehicle - I would be very worried about running out of juice and not being able to charge anywhere like you can top up petrol!
 
I would love to build one now(or buy one, but that's even more expensive), but can't afford it.
I do so little mileage an electric would make sense, petrels don't really like being sat for weeks/months not moving. There's pretty mu nothing to go wrong and so little maintance.

Tax is zero and electic is about 1p a mile.
 
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I had a friend who was running around on a low end electric bike for a few weeks, a year or so a go, commuting from north London into the centre. She gave it up quite quickly as I recall though after a few near misses with cars and pedestrians who simply didn't "see" or in fact hear her at all.

If any these days have some sort of artificiality generated rev noise to them I'd recon they'd be a lot safer all round and a viable alternative for many.
 
I work for someone who has a Di Blasi electric motorbike. It's expensive to buy but has very good battery power, 50+ miles. Torque is brilliant and makes the bike feel faster than it is and the owner who is 20+ stone and 6ft tall has no problems with hills, tbh it's probably better than the petrol version.
 
have a look at the brammo empulse. now as long as they keep going in this direction then i'll have one within 5 years if they can keep up with my street triple for 100miles.
 
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