'Nother electric Motorcycle

[cat0020]

Originally Posted by JanGeo

Something not quite right there . . . first that is a lot of speed for something that small, second there does not seem to be enough space for batteries in that frame to be able to go that many miles, third why is there a hydralic lever on the left AND right sides unless there is a transmission that requires a clutch.

Could be a brake lever, like a CVT scooter.. no clutch lever but both left and right hand brake levers.

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

It might be a sport bike style because then the CD is .45 with a good tuck, rather than .65 with a sit up scooter.

[Sludgy]

All of the electric cycles I've seen have fairings. I like "naked bikes" much better. I wish they'd show off the motors, batteries and controllers on electric bikes.

[JanGeo]

Without the masive ICE motors on motorcycles there is no source of heat to keep the rider warm in cooler temperatures. Keep in mind that your skin temperature is about 85 degrees so anything less than that you you start getting cold at higher wind speeds. Fairings also make it more aero to cut power losses.

[JanGeo]

More info on the new Motorcycle posted in ETList:

Mission One by Mission Motors

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ETList/message/8683

[JanGeo]

BTW . . . The deposit amount is $5000, and the sales price is $68,995.

[slurp812]

Hopefully that price will come down a bit...

[cat0020]

$68K and still doesn't have a storage compartment?

[slurp812]

Originally Posted by BEEF

if you could put it on a scooter and it would do 70mph (or at least 60)

I think the market would be pretty big for it, even bigger if you could put it in a 3 wheeler for stability.

still keeping the range at over 50 miles, I would consider one.

They quit making off road 3 wheelers because of lack of stability. Putting grandma on a 3 wheeled street vehicle is just scary.

[cat0020]

This is what racing could be like – a feast of competing technologies not seen since the 1920s
Rupert Paul, Bike Magazine

It’s lap 18 of the Estoril MotoGP, 2016, and theNorton rotary, bankrolled by Malaysian renewable hydrogen fuel giant Petronas, is doing its usual trick of streaking into the lead for six laps, before cutting power to ensure it lasts the race.

Luca Rossi, little bro of the old master, is powersliding round in second on his 900cc V4 two stroke, built by the newly-merged Kawasaki-Suzuki corporation. There’s not a blue haze in sight, and no expansion chambers either. Behind him Taylor MacKenzie, son of Neil, could equal his dad’s best GP placing – on a supercharged Zongshen bioethanol triple.

Or could he? Triple world champ Marco Simoncelli is closing fast on his 2WD methanol-powered Yamaha M2. And he’s bringing wild card Tom Sykes with him, on the Queen’s University Belfast twin-crank, compound pressure-charged LPG-burning single. But in the end, Hiroshi Ayoama wins. It’s a blistering day, and his solar panel-faired, regenerative-braking Honda has been quietly stockpiling energy throughout the race. On the last two laps the low-revving 2-litre V5 sprouts another 50bhp, demolishing the competition in imperious style.

This is what racing could be like – a feast of competing technologies not seen since the 1920s. All it would take is one rule: to limit every machine to a fixed amount of startline energy.

That’s the vision of world-leading combustion experts Jamie Turner and Richard Pearson at Lotus Engineering in Norfolk. Although they work in the car world, their ideas make equal sense for bikes. They’ve spent their careers researching powertrain technology, and are now trying to reform the global system of making and regulating cars to head off the twin horrors of global warming and energy insecurity. Their latest move is a paper* to reconfigure motorsport, ‘to drive technology for the betterment of mankind’. Their message? Racing needs relevance. It has to start reflecting the challenges we face in the real world.

Rationing energy is not entirely a new idea. After all, today’s MotoGP bikes do their stuff on a 21-litre petrol limit – a principle Jamie and Richard believe Bernie Ecclestone should adopt. But they also point out that petrol is only one fuel. There are now cars and bikes out there that run on diesel, ethanol, methanol, fuel cells, batteries and even hydrogen. All different forms of energy storage, and litres is no way to measure them. For that, you need Megajoules.

Turner and Pearson calculate that an F1 car needs about 4784MJ to complete a race. That means a MotoGP bike, doing 17mpg on fossil- based petrol, uses 669MJ. And if you specify the allowance that way, suddenly every powertrain technology can compete on a level playing field. Top-class racing is transformed into a straight fight for efficiency – which is exactly what the world needs. Forget Carmelo Ezpeleta’s decision to scrap the 250s. If he really understood the game he was in he’d have a 650MJ top class, backed by 400MJ and 200MJ classes. If the world championship were being set up today rather than in 1949, that’s what it would look like.

And it needn’t stop there. Energy rationing drives ‘tank-to-wheel’ efficiency for all fuels. Why not also use racing to drive efficiency in the way different fuels are sourced, manufactured and transported – the so-called ‘well-to-tank’ stage?

For example, new player Coskata make bioethanol from woody waste such as straw, leaves and forestry debris. Compared with hauling oil out of the ground, their process has been independently audited to emit 84% less fossil carbon. So if a race team used Coskata ethanol rather than gasoline, they ought to be allowed more of it. How much more? Turner and Pearson’s paper floats a methodology that would give a Coskata ethanol bike 8.4% more startline energy than its gasoline-powered equivalent. For corn ethanol it’s 2.9% more, renewable methanol 10.5%, and renewable hydrogen or electricity 10%. To recognise this, there’d be an energy suppliers’ championship analagous to today’s manufacturer and team championships.

MotoGP’s 21-litre limit is a good start, but the bikes are still glorified Manx Nortons. This is a plan that could move the series into the 21st century.

*Turner and Pearson: The Application of Energy-Based Fuel Formulae to Increase the Efficiency Relevance and Reduce the CO2 Emissions of Motor Sport. SAE number 2008-01-2953, presented at the SAE Motorsports Conference”