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  • Is Electric Inevitable.

    Never thought i would say this, but some of these high tec electric motorcycles are quite stylish, with good performance to match, the milage range seems to be limited though, but i gues that will improve.
    It also looks like most of the big brands are investing heavily in these machines, & i guess once the infastructure for charging etc is in place, then this is possibly the end for the old fossil fueled donkeys we ride.
    With most countrys signed up to reduce carbon output, the writing has to be on the wall for sure, but i think the legislation that will come soon, will not be to ban combustion engine vehicles, but limit where they can be used, ie towns, cities, near schools etc.
    You could like it to drink driving, smoking etc, within a very short time it could be just as socialy unacceptable to drive/ride a smoky old vintage car/motorcycle around town etc.
    How long have we got? well luckily, our politicians are so innept, that they have forgot to build any new power stations to feed this new line of enviromentaly friendly vehicles, so i guess another ten years is probably nearer the mark.
    I could never afford to buy one & i guess i`m not on my own, so at least the congestion on our roads will ease..... but following all the trends of the last 50 yrs, the faster technology improves, the quicker the change will come.
    I always thought that it would be the exhaustion of oil suplies that finished off the combustion engine, but that may be wrong, anyway, what i was going to say was, has anybody got one/ planning to or even ridden one, it would be interesting to hear what the riding characteristics are like, engine ( motor )braking etc.
    What do you think the future holds?

  • #2
    The sales of electric bikes and cars will increase in the coming years. However, in this country we do not have the generation capacity and distribution capability to sustain the installation of high current charging points at the doorstep of the average household.

    That said I do like the idea of an electric trials bike, especially the Yam.

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    • #3
      It's an interesting prospect! Without doubt there will be many improvements in range and charging facilities. Some major developments have been made by Zero Motorcycles in USA. One of their test riders may be known by name to many as the inventor and manufacturer of the unbreakable mudguards, Preston Petty. He is of advanced years now, but has been racing a Zero in short track events and winning! One of the race failures was seen to be the failure of a "10cent" piece of plastic in the twistgrip/controller device, due to heavy hand use of Petty's desire to win! They look impressive in the companies' videos and get good write-ups in magazines.

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      • #4
        Whilst I believe it will come, just not in my lifetime. Current BMW scooter has a real world limit of 75-80 mile range, claimed approx 110 miles but that is city riding with a restrained right wrist. So impractical for anything but a commute. Problem is that we are reliant on gas for most of our electricity, supplied in the most by Russia. Do not believe the greens, I have just looked and at this moment only 8% of our requirement is being provide by wind and obviously zero by solar. Some days are single figures for solar and wind, and that is in summer when demand is low, imagine millions of cars being plugged in at night in winter when demand is high anyway and you will have a collapse of the national grid as happened a few weeks ago.
        check out this on a regular basis
        GridWatch | Live statistic of UK National Electricity grid by type of generation | Solar PV power Generation | Coal Stations output in Gigawatts | Wind Output Gigawatts | Nuclear energy output |Biomass power generation Output

        Dogsbody

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        • #5
          Has anyone else thought about charging batteries at home from solar panels installed on the roof ………………. ? I know someone who does! Not me, I hasten to add, not yet anyway.
          Last edited by johnrunnacles; 12/10/2019, 11:52 PM.

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          • #6
            As you say DB the electricity has to be generated. The whole thing is rather like a cat chasing its tail. Energy is not free you never get nowt for nowt. With regards to 'saving the planet' manufacturing thousands on new electric cars and bikes needs energy and may exceed the pollution levels of keeping current vehicles running for a longer life span.
            But yes electric vehicles have to come, the internal combustion engine has been with us for over 100 years and in basic function has changed little, pistons turning a crankshaft, so change is long overdue.

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            • #7
              John & db, i did state in the opening post that power supply & power sources are not currently in place, just interested in members views on the change over to electric?

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              • #8
                My views are that in principle is a good idea, & has to come, but its being rushed through too quickly. But given time it will be the norm. After all there was reluctance to leave the horse and cart, for steam and then again from steam to internal cumbustion. As for the old vehicle movement I think it will eventually die out either by direct legislation or through lack of fuel to run them. The only place you will see old bikes and cars is on rally grounds and museums, bit like steam is today, no one is running a steam engine as an every day driver!
                As for competition, electric bikes will take over, we have already seen this in the IoM with a dedicated race for electric bikes. Trials & Motocross wont be far behind, and due to the short duration of races would be suited to high performance short duration bikes.

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                • #9
                  It might help a resurgence in trials and scrambles as there will be no pollution and minimal noise.

                  John my daughters father in law low carbon house runs primarily from a Tesla battery - I'm not sure how often it needs to draw from the grid on peak demand.

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                  • #10
                    A rider at our local trials rides a Osset full size trials bike. It will not usually last the whole trial and needs a change of battery, but it is surprisingly on a par with a PROPER bike!

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                    • #11
                      Electric vehicles are not a done deal yet, but there is no doubt that the world won't carry on producing vehicular CO2 at its current rate. If it tries to so do the world economy will collapse as global warming takes off. The trouble is that the energy density of liquid fuels far, far exceeds that of current battery technology and the development of batteries is fraught with materials availability and cost issues. In five minutes I can put about 250 kWh of fuel into my car which is an order of magnitude better than what can be achieved with electric vehicles. At the moment I'm building a house to near Passivhaus standard and have looked into using a battery for energy storage. It turns out that the payback time is longer than the battery life, so without a subsidy it's a non-starter. Still a lot of money is being put into electric vehicles by big manufacturers and we may end up with the wrong technology winning, as per VHS vs Betamax. I hope all possible solutions get a fair shake. In the meantime there is a definite temptation to get a small electric runabout or scooter for the short journeys and keep a dinosaur diesel for anything over 100 mile roundtrip. On the other hand I've visited places in China where only electric motorbikes are permitted in the cities and all public service vehicles including taxis are electric. In Norway over 50% of new cars are electric, but in their case they have a population density about a tenth of that in the UK and virtually limitless renewable electric power.

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                      • #12
                        It's an expensive business Mr Dyson has stopped his electric car research after spending nearly £200m trying to develop a solid state battery to replace lithium iron which is expensive and becoming rarer.

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                        • #13
                          I've ridden the latest state of the art electrc KTM bikes and they are fast ! Having never ridden in MX races, I recently purchased a 24MX4 to enter the Greeves chamionship and I thought it would be sensible to get some practice. When the 24MX4 broke down (on 3 separate occasions), I spent a couple of days on electric KTM MX /enduro bikes at E-nduro in Bere Regis. The bikes have 3 levels of power, (level 2 is roughly equivalent to a CRM250). No big maintenace issues that I was aware of (unlike the Greeves which broke down 3X). Visit www.e-nduro.co.uk. They are based at Rogers Hill raceway. near Dorchester. E-nduro have new KTMs and other smaller bikes for youngsters. The batteries are charged up from wind power (a windmill on site) so very environmentally friendly.
                          E-nduro take groups of riders of all skill levels from total novices to experts. They changed the power packs at lunchtime, Very little noise, no problems with starting and they are very quick. Much quicker than the 24MX4 and much better brakes. No gears to worry about, just point and hang on, its twist and go...just very fast. Instruction is by Neil Berry, an international Moto x champion He was great ! They have 2 full size MX tracks, 2 junior tracks and a permannet enduro track across 300 acres of land.

                          https://youtu.be/dEmjyzpeh0U

                          Neil took me for an 8 mile enduro at the end of the day to improve my fitness - I was totally knackered!


                          https://youtu.be/Ns2DWwUmOR4

                          tel Neil Berry 07491 389898
                          Website www.e-nduro.co.uk
                          Email bookings@e-nduro.co.uk
                          Last edited by John macleod; 14/10/2019, 11:57 AM.

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                          • #14
                            Nice one, John! Thanks for posting. Don't think they'll be allowed for Pre 65 though ...…………….. not 'til 2065, anyway?

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