Electric bike - 145bhp

[Phmode]

So, can you jump one live electric car onto a dead one to give it some of your oomph?

[Blobby]

One of my worries with these electric vehicles is safety, after seeing Richard Hammond's crash on The Grand Tour and the fact it kept burning for days after because of the Lithium Ion cells, also adding the chassis could be live meaning you have the risk of electrocution if you do try and escape from a burning car

[JackSnipe]

Nice one Tom.

The Government (Have we got one ?) blabs on about mucky diesel and petrol vehicles and does bugger all about our dilapidated road system that is clogged up and not fit for purpose causing, I guess, 1000's of bottle necks puking out huge amounts of unnecessary pollution.

I went to part exchange one bike for another last week. It was a cross country jaunt of 99 miles. In 1976 on my GT 185 I did the same journey in approx 2 hours last week the outward journey took me 3.5 hours and the inward 4.5 hrs. Are  we surprised our productivity levels are lagging behind and too many of our towns and conurbation's atmosphere's have dangerous levels of pollutants.

We will supposedly see the rise in electric vehicles in massive numbers in the near future, the same dopes that are itching to buy them now are quite happy to stoke up their log burners for two thirds of the year  clogging up the air and our lungs to boot. The loons are here and now !

[Costas]

A very boring man on my street drives a Mitsubishi Hybrid and waffles on about its 145 MPG range (Piffle) The daft bugger sets off in winter and if he is on battery only mode, he has no lights on, no heated seats on, no heater or heated screen on. In summer (remember that) he sets off on the odd sweltering day on electric mode with no lights on and no air con on ! He has to have the windows down and then he is dragged back, literally. When he blew he's car's trumpet he looked aghast when I put it to him that  if we assume the national electricity supply's main purpose is not to charge up his cars huge battery's, it is to power Homes,Schools, Hospitals, Factories and the like. Accepting that assumption then when he does charge his car up it is safe to assume that substantial  charge of electricity  is courtesy of a coal fired power station as all the lovely green produced stuff has been used by the essential users not chummy in his Mitsu.

Best ever

[richtea]

Bump-starting my electric bike thread back into life - how about a graphene battery that charges twice as quick as current (ha) batteries?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnE1nO6o-do

No lighter than normal, but the Samsung battery (linked in the vid above) offers higher energy density. A combi of the two could be a major step in reducing range anxiety. If Energica's 80% charging time halved to 20 mins, in say 1-2 year's time, that would be impressive.

There's also a new faired Zero:
https://www.motorcyclenews.com/bike-reviews/zero/sr-s/2020/

I may have to test ride a Zero or Energica this year, if only to put myself off them. 

[Matt]

The Zero looks nice. Will our summer trips get limited numbers driven by charging sockets in the future?

[richtea]

The Zero looks nice. Will our summer trips get limited numbers driven by charging sockets in the future?

Limited intermediate stops probably, as driven by ZapMaps or similar. But having said that the new cafe two villages along has two charging points.
The times they are a changing.

My requirements are approx:
1. 150 mile range (not urban, proper riding) = about 3 hours riding
2. Sub-30 min charging
3. A bike that I can fit on in comfort

1 & 2 are close - one or two more iterations.

3 is the problem. Or rather, I'm the problem. You, on the other hand, would fit on an electric bike really very nicely.
Acceleration is phenomenal. I've heard. 

[Matt]

I'll add

4. Sounds nice

Some of these whines can be quite nice for sure, and needs to be loud enough to satisfy my irrational beliefs. Although I've been riding this quiet thing for 2 days and not died so blehh. Just a nice sound please.

[Phmode]

The problem with electric group rides is that you either need to:

a) stop for four hours while we all charge up or

b) find a place with 12 free charging points or

c) go at night or

d) all ride at 4mph or

e) ride in a sort of leapfrog pattern, where one stops, the rest carry on, next one stops etc. etc. or

f) hire an electric bus 

[richtea]

g) ride pillion 

h) split charges across fuel stations

But you're right, day-long group rides would require additional planning. Rae. 

However, there are a couple of things in electric's favour:
1. many electric trips start with a full charge because they're been charged overnight. That cuts out, say, 50% of station visits*
2. charging stations need less infrastructure to build than a petrol station. The new cafe two villages down has charging stations. Other cafes, restaurants and hotels will get them to attract custom, so charging won't be limited to traditional petrol stations

*I only ride more than 150 miles per day about 25 times a year. With petrol and 170 mile top-ups, 8,000 miles is 47 tanks to fill, so I'd need about half the visits for electric.

[Phmode]

Even you realised the daftness of your 'ride pillion' option...

One of the big beauties of being an all/mostly K12/13 group was that we all needed fuel at the same time.

Being the sort of nerd who always has a syphon tube on board, one wonders if 'syphon' cables will be available for a mate's rate transfer 

[Matt]

Ooh I think my phone can do that, i.e. wireless charging another similar phone! So we'll just have to ride reeeeaaally close

[daveg208]

None of this will be possible/practical until battery technology has improved vastly.
Currently the minimum time taken to charge a bike at a level 2 charger is 30 mins plus, and that's only possible if the bike has the requisite equipment to take that level of charge.

There are a few companies working on the idea of a Hybrid Supercapacitor/Battery system, which may help a little, but the end result is still a ridiculous time to refuel.

A 300 mile range would necessitate a huge battery, ( which would take even longer to charge), and causes issues with weight, design and overall physical size not to mention reducing the potential range due to the weight.

Bottom line is that the technology is not here yet, we need a major paradigm shift in battery/storage technology before pure electric vehicles become really practical.

My 4 wheeler is a Prius, which I believe is the best current compromise, but we still have a very long way to go.

Dave

[black-k1]

All of the comments are 100% true when electric vehicles are measured using petrol/diesel power as a yard stick.

The reality is that we'll just need to get used to day trips being a maximum of two 150 mile legs with a 3 hour stop in the middle. There won't be an option of petrol/diesel power to buy new in 15 years time and it won't be many years after that before petrol stations become rare entities. That means that hanging on to your old petrol powered bike will only cover you for so long. I also expect that "tax incentives" (read huge increases in taxes associated with petrol/diesel powered vehicles) will make ownership/usage unatractive.

I certainly plan to still be a regular road user in 20+ years time and I expect that Old Gits trips to the Alps/Pyrenees will involve 3 days to get there and 3 days to get back.

[Matt]

Which is a slower pace of life I could get on board with!

Provided the pigdog capitalist world has moved on enough to realise nobody wants to spend 95% of their time in the office!