Electric bike anyone?

[lazymanc]

Sorry if this has already been posted but check this out:
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/1...r-great-e.html

Ugly as sin but an electric motor in a bike could be fun once they sort out the battery issues.

[Brettus]

I keep thinking about the idea of an electric bike, would be kinda cool, some serious power available from them, the lack of noise would be a little strange though, cool in its own way but I rather like making noise heh.
also unless they make it overly complex there won't be any gears to change, I'm not sure I'd like that, don't know why I'd still want to cling to doing something manually but its another bit of control

It's a start and thats pretty much it for a few years, people have proved that the technology is available and works but while oil is still available it wont be allowed to be mass produced yet.

I would consider getting one if the range was a bit better, had good dealer backup and was the same sort of price as a new bike when / if it is brought over here.

Very interesting though.

[lazymanc]

There was an article in last weeks New Scientist about some guy who's organising a "zero emissions" race for next years TT. He's hoping it will be a catalyst for clean performance bikes that people will actually want to buy.

[Bibio]

as long as it comes with a megaphone exhaust that gives you the sound of a v twin...

[yorkie_chris]

"With a braced swingarm" to handle the stonking power output?
Also why a twinshock frame?

Not really impressed with this as per usual. Why can't they put the time into making a compression ignition engined bike with c100bhp and around 200kg... That would actually help environment.

[sauluk]

Bikes need to be noisy, my dad's got a hybrid lexus jeep and when it's under 30mph it's like a bloody milk float, you could creep up on someone with it. Bikes get hit enough by cars as it is!

what sort of power could you expect from an electric bike?

ive got an electric moped and that does 18mph

[en4rab]

Originally Posted by sv_rory

what sort of power could you expect from an electric bike?

ive got an electric moped and that does 18mph

Well if you could invent some magic batterys that could hold enough energy then the power of the motors isnt an issue have a look at a few of the motors here, particularly the siemens ones:
http://www.metricmind.com/motor.htm
67kW (89 HP) sustained and bursts of up to 150kW (201 HP) for bursts of less than 90 seconds.
The torque figures are equally impressive with a rated torque of 160 Nm (118 ft lbs) and a peak burst torque of 430 Nm (317 ft lbs) thats alot of torques, indeed so much so if you tried to liberate them all the bike would flip over and mash you into the tarmac i suspect.

The bad news is that unless you had a lorry full of batterys following you behind youd probably run out of electric after about a mile, but it would make for an awesome electric drag bike assuming you could overcome the bike flipping over and mashing you into the road problem.

It is battery technology that limits electric vehicle performance not the motors, you wont see any amazingly powerfull electric bikes untill lithium sulphur batterys or similar are in production, the battery makers are bandying about the figure of 400Wh per/Kg for Li-S batterys, but even at this energy density youd need over 167 Kg of batterys to run the monster motor (which weighs 90kg) I mentioned above for 1 hour at its rated capacity (stupid power burst mode would reduce this time), still youd need the weight of the batterys to keep the front end down
Obviously using a saner motor would make things more reasonable.
en4rab

[yorkie_chris]

That's 1.4MJ/kg ish. Petrol has 44MJ/kg.

it's still a spas chariot with less wheels.