electric bikes?

[L3nny]

Originally Posted by Bibio

if you think really hard then you will discover that they are not eco friendly. ok so the bike/car does not spit out pollutants but think about how the electricity is made in the first place plus the more electric powered vehicles that are around the higher load on the power stations which in turn will mean more power stations using what ever means to generate the power. with such a high demand for power these would more than likely be nuclear power stations so if every vehicle were electrically powered then each town would need a power station to supply the demand..

This is always the hidden pollutant when considering electric power. However there is also a lot of extra pollution caused when shipping the oil all over the world, then refining it, then putting it on a lorry to take it to your local petrol station.

When all this is taken into account electric power still produces much less pollution. Also a lot of investment is being made in alternative, cleaner sources of producing electricity so this can reduce pollution even further.

As someone who rarely does over 100 miles on the bike in one sitting an electric bike would make a lot of sense. The TT Zero proves that the bikes are fast enough to be fun and the running cost, not only of the fuel but on the low maintenance motors should be much less.

If they were cheaper to buy I would definitely get one.

Originally Posted by Lozzo

I think we may be stocking them at my shop soon.

Does org discount apply?

I'd be seriously tempted by an electric bike as like L3nny I don't do high mileage and I'd like to reduce my costs of doing the mileage I do. I commute 125 miles a week and I'd have an older bike (probably my existing SV) for anything beyond the scope of the electric one.

In all seriousness though Lozzo, I'd be interested in pricing (and options) and perhaps a demo ride if you get them in stock. the website isn't quite as forthcoming as I'd like as it uses the traditional "from £xxx"
Edit: Ignore previous comment, I wasn't reading properly, the website is fine.

engine braking swapped for regenerative braking sounds like a nice swap to me, I always wondered if it would be like heading into a corner and hitting a false neutral every time

[pookie]

What is the service life of the components on the zero. They claim to have huge cycles on the batteries giving a whooping equivalent mileage range before failure. There was an article on the zero a couple of months back in Fast bikes. Looking forward to the real world practical use of one and maybe reasonable pricing for a second hand one

Originally Posted by Bibio

what we need is a passive catalyst that cracks h2o into oxygen and hydrogen then re-combines them back together using a fuel cell and by doing so creates heat and electricity. but the best bit is once the oxygen and hydrogen have been combined again its turned back to h2o so the whole process is contained (why burn the hydrogen when you don't need to). the big problem with this is finding the catalyst and what ever it is would end up being a commodity just like oil.

Good idea. I'm on it. I think I know how to do this. I'll get back to you if the oil companies don't get to me first

[Fallout]

Laurie, you're my hero!

I really want leccy bikes to succeed. Don't get me wrong, a big fat exhaust farting will always sound better, but I have a cool tron-like futuristic image of 5 bikers making whining electric motor noises on stealth bomber shaped leccy cycles with crazy flashing light strips and power ranger suits caning past everyone.

Right now though, battery technology is still too far behind. 5 years and I reckon they'll be fairly common. 10 years and I reckon they'll be really practical (very high range).

What we really need is a battery swap infrastructure. So you ride into a leccy station, deposit your battery into a loading pod which begins to charge it, then pick up a replacement. It might have to be automated, due to weight. Old damaged batteries are taken away to be recycled, and we pay some sort of milage based battery tax which ensures we pay our fair share of battery renewal costs.