Electric Motorcycle Wish List
Electric Motorcycle Wish List
Cycle World reader comments spell out their wishes for an electric motorcycle, but how do those wishes translate to real life?
Their total energy storage capacity is quoted as 3kWh, which translates to 4 horsepower-hours.
Just as people start to get comfortable to the somewhat-odd kilowatt-hour unit of energy -- for reference, the SI unit for energy is the Joule; 1 kWh == 3.6 MJ -- here comes the cursed non-metric unit of hp-h lol
That aside, this was a decent albeit short read about engineering and compromise. Where engineers really shine is when working within constraints, whether it be for vehicles, computers, or buildings. From civil engineering, there's an informal saying that anyone can build a bridge that will stand, but few can build a bridge that will stand while using the least budget and amount of material.
10I wonder why they don't just convert hph to gallons of gasoline equivalent at that point. Or maybe (US) fluid ounces is more common on scooters
At least kWh actually tells you the energy in the cell (in optimal comditions). Electronics still use Ah which is useless without disclosing the cell chemistry or mean potential
2Was the mention of US fl oz a joke or are there seriously scooters that specify their fuel or battery capacity in US fl oz equivalent?
As for amp-hour as a unit, I agree it's not convertible to watt-hours without the other cell parameters, and many consumer electronics will fail to specify this in detail. In some contexts like RC aircraft though, where the cell chemistry is well-known, amp-hour could be used along with only the max C-rate to compute an allowable charge rate in amps. Neither the cell/pack voltage nor cell configuration is needed here, provided the rating is accurate for the pack in question.
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I recently discovered a store in my country that only sells electric bikes and some of the models are impressive.
For an average price of €4000, you get really nice bikes with ranges up to 100km and top speeds up to 90km/h.
Batteries are removable and chargeable from a standard wall socket.
At current energy prices, a full charge costs €1
5Full time motorcyle commuter with a one bike garage currently on a straight pipe Duke 390, it was like that when I bought it.
Kawi's hybrid looks interesting. Electric when it can be, petrol when it has to be, good mileage, does motorway(ish) speeds, won't wake the neighbours.
But, it's on a sportbike platform and I dunno how comfortable it'll be to commute on, not sure it's quick enough to get my jollies on the weekends, and lacks some commuter mod-cons I would expect for modern ride-by-wire (like cruise control) and it's going to be expensive. I'll test ride one but I'm not too hopeful
I want to make the jump to electric. But the 390 ticks more boxes, almost quick enough, really light, sorta good milage, cheap af. But it is full petrol and it is loud, I ride with plugs so I've never cared enough to change it.
2Love me a good Kevin Cameron article. Thanks for finding it!
2Rating from how much the bikers here love the loud noise they are making, one would probably have to find a new range of customers for bikes that don't wake up the neighborhood at three in the night when one returns from a late evening with his biker friends.
2That'd be me lol, motorcycles seem cool but I hate how obnoxiously loud ICE ones are.
3Not all ICE motorcycles are like that. Some people straight pipe their motorcycle to make it obnoxiously loud. But my Suzuki GZ250 is fairly quiet, even at full throttle at 8000rpm you couldn't hear it from a block away
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