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Jmoan |
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Jmoan Brolly Dolly
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Kawasaki Jimbo |
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Kawasaki Jimbo World Chat Champion
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linuxyeti |
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linuxyeti World Chat Champion
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linuxyeti |
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linuxyeti World Chat Champion
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Easy-X |
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Easy-X Super Spammer
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Posted: 22:40 - 22 Mar 2019 Post subject: |
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EazyDuz wrote: | Doesnt your typical 50cc scooter do something stupid like 90MPG? Pennies to tax, insure and maintain. Whereas a half decent Ebike is going to cost £2000+, then you have maintenance. Tyres dont last as long, brakes dont last as long, gears and chains dont last as long etc. They're a fun toy but not the best option if you want it as a commuter anywhere other than London |
A shite untuned 50cc 2 stroke motor would be comparable to 1500W (1.5kW) and yes, if you have even a little mechanical skill, pretty easy to maintain... dirt cheap if you already have AM on your licence (i.e. old git like me.)
However, if one were to derestrict it, port it and all the other 2 stroke voodoo to really make it worth riding you're back in the same "f*ck the police" legal area as an overpowered ebike... but with the bonus you have to pay taxes on the bike, the fuel and insurance meagre though it is.
An overpowered ebike can go a lot faster than a "legal" 50cc bike (but not an illegal tuned 50cc ofc) with the bonus of being cheaper... if you have the skill to build it yourself: with a bag you can make something pretty snappy!
The reality is the police only really pull over kids on derestricted bikes - more because they hate the kids than the bikes. And in 5+ years of building and riding ebikes I've never personally seen or heard of anyone being hassled over their ebike. ____________________ Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter |
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Kawasaki Jimbo |
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Kawasaki Jimbo World Chat Champion
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linuxyeti |
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linuxyeti World Chat Champion
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Posted: 23:18 - 22 Mar 2019 Post subject: |
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Kawasaki Jimbo wrote: | linuxyeti wrote: | Can certainly pick 2, |
Which two? |
As already said, charging is a constant, so, have a go at working it out for yourself.
Why, is it so wrong to say you'll get less than 150 mile range, if you ride at 150 mph, as I said, does, an R6 have the same range, whether it's being ridden at 150mph or whether it's being ridden at 70mph? It's pretty obvious really, riding any bike, electric or otherwise flat out is going to affect it's range. ____________________ Beware what photos you upload, or link to on here, especially if you have family members on them |
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Kawasaki Jimbo |
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Kawasaki Jimbo World Chat Champion
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Posted: 00:59 - 23 Mar 2019 Post subject: |
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linuxyeti wrote: | As already said, charging is a constant, so, have a go at working it out for yourself.
Why, is it so wrong to say you'll get less than 150 mile range, if you ride at 150 mph, as I said, does, an R6 have the same range, whether it's being ridden at 150mph or whether it's being ridden at 70mph? It's pretty obvious really, riding any bike, electric or otherwise flat out is going to affect it's range. |
True but I reckon I can ride without being careful about speed and still get a range of 130 miles, and then I can find a fuel station close by and refill in three minutes. An electric bike requires more of a trade off between speed and range, and then you'll need to find somewhere to charge for at least 30 minutes before proceeding. Have you bought one yet, or are you still waiting for some kind of breakthrough which will never happen? |
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Shaft |
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Shaft World Chat Champion
Joined: 27 Dec 2010 Karma :
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Posted: 01:29 - 23 Mar 2019 Post subject: |
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Kawasaki Jimbo wrote: | linuxyeti wrote: | As already said, charging is a constant, so, have a go at working it out for yourself.
Why, is it so wrong to say you'll get less than 150 mile range, if you ride at 150 mph, as I said, does, an R6 have the same range, whether it's being ridden at 150mph or whether it's being ridden at 70mph? It's pretty obvious really, riding any bike, electric or otherwise flat out is going to affect it's range. |
True but I reckon I can ride without being careful about speed and still get a range of 130 miles, and then I can find a fuel station close by and refill in three minutes. An electric bike requires more of a trade off between speed and range, and then you'll need to find somewhere to charge for at least 30 minutes before proceeding. Have you bought one yet, or are you still waiting for some kind of breakthrough which will never happen? |
To be fair, how often do you, or anyone, do 130+ miles straight on a regular basis?
I think I do a fairly long commute (obviously there are some that do much longer, I'm thinking they are in the minority) at 25 miles each way.
If an ebike says it has a maximum range of 150 miles, I reckon I could ride it flat out, for both legs of my commute, then charge it for hours at a time, while I'm at work/home.
There would be a problem if I wanted to use it for long distance touring, but how often would that happen?
The big issue for me is the initial purchase price - the cheapest Zero appears to be just shy of £11000, which is a lot of money for a pretty basic bike, certainly more money than I would consider spending on any bike, saving the planet or not. ____________________ Things get better with age; I'm close to being magnificent........
20 RE Interceptor, 83 Z1100A3, 83 GS650 Katana
WooHoo, I'm a Man Point Millionaire! https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=234035 |
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Bhud |
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Bhud World Chat Champion
Joined: 11 Oct 2018 Karma :
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Posted: 01:49 - 23 Mar 2019 Post subject: |
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Someone famous once said, "there's no such thing as society". They were right. If I make a noise and it annoys someone's dog, so be it. People occupy space and make sounds. I exist.
I look at the lists of some of the classic bikes some of you electric bike advocates are riding or simply own, and I shake my head in wonder....
Why? Well, because each of them is a legend in its own right. I would only ever own one at a time, I would buy the Haynes, go through each of them with a fine-toothed comb, lovingly restore each of them or just chop them into the ultimate hard-sprung streetfighter. They are legends. I remember the 80s. People used to ride recklessly, but they had a GREAT time. Cars at the time were slow and cumbersome and awkward around corners. Bikes would fly past! Riders were a different breed, their souls were made of a different stuff. The bikes were incredible roaring beasts, their riders capable of taming Demeter by throttling her in the river, etc. It was a whole motif in popular culture. Hunter S Thompson and The Edge, but also Mandiargues, surrealism, etc. Not to mention great acts of daring and risk... That's how visceral the experience is/was. 80s bikes (I may be picking one up next week!) SO I could never understand taking the experience of such imperfect-perfect machines for granted as a means of getting to work 20 miles and back... |
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Easy-X |
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Easy-X Super Spammer
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Ribenapigeon |
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Ribenapigeon Super Spammer
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moonzoomer |
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moonzoomer World Chat Champion
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Easy-X |
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Easy-X Super Spammer
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ThatDippyTwat |
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ThatDippyTwat World Chat Champion
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Ste |
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Ste Not Work Safe
Joined: 01 Sep 2002 Karma :
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Posted: 18:47 - 23 Mar 2019 Post subject: |
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People are lazy, they don't want to have to plug their car in to charge when they're at work so that the car has enough power to get home that day.
Going around at night unplugging the charging cables from the cars on peoples driveways would cause problems for all of those people. Unplugging a dickhead neighbours car at 11pm and get up to plug it back in at 7am would get annoying very quickly. |
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EazyDuz |
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EazyDuz World Chat Champion
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Easy-X |
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Easy-X Super Spammer
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stevo as b4 |
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stevo as b4 World Chat Champion
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MahatmaAndhi |
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MahatmaAndhi Traffic Copper
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Posted: 18:55 - 24 Mar 2019 Post subject: |
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I've been reading and watching a lot of videos relating to electric motorbikes as I was trying to see if the savings for fuel would outweigh the finance - it won't.
The initial lump sum of a Zero DS is around £12,000 with the latest ZF14.4 battery and even more to get the full 18kWh "Power Tank". Alternatively, the BMW C Evolution sits at around £14K, which is a lot of money for a scooter with shit storage space.
The range is also quite awful, particularly if you're going at speed. The 18kWh battery will net you 156km at 70mph or 96 miles. That's the advertised range. Realistically, it would probably fall short of that. It does have fast charging technology though, so you could get 80% charge in fairly quick time (and then an age for the remaining 20% if you chose to).
That said, the cost to fill it up is superb.
Up until I recently changed job, I was putting in around £45 a week in my car to do about 200 miles (this is all back-of-a-fag-packet maths. It could be wrong.)
200 miles on a Zero DS would cost about £5.00 to cover the same distance (at 14p per kWh off of a wall charger filling up the Power Tank).
Ultimately, the longer your commute, the more you'll save. Particularly if you can charge it at work. However, that initial lump sum is just ridiculous and I could not even begin to justify it, even on PCP (not the drug.)
MarJay wrote: |
Maintenance wise, you don't need to change the oil, there is no coolant to change, no air filter. You just keep riding until the bearings in the motor give out. You still have to service suspension and brakes of course, but that's the same price as any normal motorcycle. |
Another plus side is that the brakes get used a lot less on an electric motorbike as most (if not all) have regenerative breaking. Once you take your hand off the throttle, you'll begin to slow down rapidly. Some (like the C Evolution) have a "sail mode" to bypass this as an option though. ____________________ 2008 Aprilia Sportcity 250 |
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Easy-X |
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Easy-X Super Spammer
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Baffler186 |
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Baffler186 World Chat Champion
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Robby |
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Robby Dirty Old Man
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Posted: 10:55 - 25 Mar 2019 Post subject: |
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Every electric bike thread ends up like this.
Right now, the technology is crap and expensive but quickly improving. People that buy them either really want them, or have enough money to afford them without being concerned about the tradeoffs.
We are now in a situation where an electric bike would make sense for a lot of people, a lot of the time. Those of us who ride 40-70hp bikes for a daily commute of under 50 miles and have access to plug socket at work or at home could use an electric bike to do the same thing.
The valid objections to this are range for the occasional longer weekend ride - range anxiety is a problem for all electric vehicles - and of course price. Electric bikes cost about twice as much as an equivalent petrol one. The running costs are slightly lower, but petrol bills are one of the smaller costs of bike ownership.
The shift to electric bike ownership is likely to happen in a few years, and requires a few things:
1. Charging infrastructure. Same problem for electric cars. It will continue to gradually improve, in line with the uptake of electric vehicles.
2. Technology plateau. Right now a second-hand electric vehicle is not a smart buy, because the 5 year old stuff has half the range of the modern stuff. The modern stuff still only has half the range of a petrol vehicle. It isn't worth buying a new one until I know it won't be hopelessly outdated and worthless after 5 years. Likewise, it isn't worth buying second hand unless its only slightly behind the newest models.
3. General uptake. If I buy a vehicle I want to know that the support network is there to stay. That means charging infrastructure, dealerships, parts, forums. A bit of a catch-22, because this only happens when enough people own a similar vehicle to keep all of the support network going. Chinese 125s cocked up on the dealerships and parts aspect, meaning they will forever be regarded as shit disposable bikes.
10 years ago electric bikes were basically just an idea, with a few homemade ones. Now they are commercially viable as a niche/exotic product. In another decade I expect people like me will have one, and a decade after that petrol bikes will be niche/exotic products. |
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EazyDuz |
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EazyDuz World Chat Champion
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Easy-X |
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Easy-X Super Spammer
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Old Thread Alert!
The last post was made 5 years, 33 days ago. Instead of replying here, would creating a new thread be more useful? |
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