Featured Electric

Tackling the MCN 250 on a Harley-Davidson LiveWire


While zooming around on the LiveWire is fun, it devours the battery. Without restraint, a full charge will last less than 60 miles. At a steady 70mph it’ll scrape 70 miles. Over a mix of town and single-carriageway riding at the speed limit, theLiveWire lasts 90 to 100 miles.

But 250 miles around the UK’s toughest test route means public charging. The LiveWire boasts a CCS (Combined Charging System) socket under the flap on its fake tank. Find the correct charger and a full refill of the 13.6kWh lithium-ion battery can be done in just over an hour. But it’s a brave rider who turns up to a charging point with a near-flat battery, only to discover the unit’s faulty or busy. It’s always sensible to stop with range in hand.

The ride around the MCN 250 took three stops: one for 42 minutes (33% to 90%); one 32 (50% to 90%) and one 54 (28% to 100%). That’s a total of just over two hours, most of which was spent drinking coffee or eating lunch.

Once home, plug in with the three-pin wall charger coiled up neatly under the seat. Harley describe it as an ‘overnight’ charge and they’re not kidding – a 5%-to-full charge takes 12 hours 46 minutes. Best not come back too late from an evening ride if you want it ready the next morning.

 

I put that up just to show where the bike technology and infrastructure is in the UK at this point. Not sure it is quite ready for the touring market yet.

 

Maybe I’m out of date with current battery technology, but won’t regular fast charging of the batteries be highly detrimental to their longevity? Batteries like to be trickle charged.

This will surely have an impact on the travel range available if buying used electric cars/bikes, which may have deteriorated considerably from when it was new. Really, you’d need to know it’s charging history to know what you’re potentially buying. That or a 100 mile test drive to check what happens!

 

My understanding is that it's excessive heat that damages the battery. That happens more as it approaches full charge, which is why we often see quites for rapid charging up to 80%. The battery management system takes care of it by slowing the rate of charge to avoid overheating.

There is technology out there to charge a car battery in 5 minutes but it takes a hefty charger to do it.

 

A few years back politicians were urging us to buy diesel to save the planet, now we're evil polluters. Can't help thinking electric/battery cars will go the same way (more than half electricity is generated using fossil fuels anyway) and we haven't started coping with the battery recycling issues yet.
Roll on hydrogen / synthetic fuel development I say.
BTW
Of the reasons @figwold loves his Tesla (and I have no problem with that) two thirds of them I have in my diesel guzzling Evoque, modern expensive cars are packed with tech be they battery or diesel/petrol.

 

Unless you live in Shanghai it's cleaner to run an electric vehicle. Some places still see more benefits than others, such as Europe, which has a higher level of electricity generated from renewables than China and the US, for example. I posted a link to some research done by Stanford University elsewhere in the thread.

The problem with hydrogen is creating it in large quantities, which is highly energy intensive. Other than that it seems like a good option, particularly for vehicles that need to run for long periods throughout the day, like buses.

 

Like it or not, the answer to all our energy needs is nuclear for keeping the grid up to capacity and energy for clean Hydrogen production. Renewables like wind and solar are just environmental follies in the UK. There was an article on the local news last week about a huge battery bank that has been set up in Doncaster to store "surplus" energy produced when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining. Apparently it can store 2 days worth of power which it feeds back into the grid but what happens when you get 2 weeks of no sun or wind like we often get in Winter? With the intended closure of conventional power stations our projected energy production is actually going down while the population is going up and the demand for power likewise. Go figure.

 

I live in a small hamlet of approx 12 houses, if we all went electric I think the supply cable would be glowing red (got rid of the electric shower 'cos the lights went dim). Not sure how people in urban areas with no off street parking are going to charge their cars either, just think it hasn't been thought through properly.

 

The money isn't going in to nuclear fission. It's expensive and the waste is very difficult to deal with, both practically and politically. Electic has it's problems now both with the technology and infrastructure but those issues will be solved in time. It's early days and deadlines put in place now can be moved if necessary. What we really need is viable nuclear fusion but that's decades away.

I also live in a small hamlet, about 20 houses. It'll be a while before everyone has, or needs, a fast charger. I have a hybrid car that I can plug in. It draws about the same as a tumble dryer andI plug it in whever I'm home. Overnight this tops up the batteries but as I said, it's only a hybrid. Even so, most of my local journeys can be done without the engine kicking in. I don't have to commute so a tank of petrol can last a couple of months or more if I'm not making any trips.

 

New electric motorbike company on the scene….

 

It'll never last that long if you're using E10!

Seriously.
As I said I've no problem with people that find electric cars work for them, and pure EV vs hybrid opens up another whole can of worms (huge reliability problems). Doesn't work for me, and the politics of the subject just wreaks of déjà vu for me.
Motogp, F1, Porsche, Ferrari, etc, etc are going full synthetic in the near future and I assume is where aviation will be going too.
We won't be changing each others minds so I'll leave it there....
(seen way too much bad blood on the vaccine thread - and spilling over in to others )

 

Over lockdown I didn't fill up for over 6 months. No problem firing up. Might've been short of a few horses, mind.

I'm not aware of hybrid reliability problems but that doesn't mean there aren't any, obviously. Personally I haven't experienced any trouble.
I respect your viewpoint. I don't think it matters too much what we think, anyway. It'll go the way governments and industry decide. I will miss the sounds of a triple or a V8, don't get me wrong. If we could make the engines we have now work for the environment I'd be very happy to hold on to them. I just think the world is turning again and the internal combustion engine has had its heyday.

 

Other countries are ploughing ahead with nuclear. I think we can forget nuclear fusion, it's just a theoretical pipe dream, even if achieved it would be prohibitively expensive on a commercial scale. Our use of energy is growing faster than our ability to produce it, that's the important issue and the one that needs addressing before any fanciful, idealistic 100% eco friendly options.

 

My mrs just asked me if aeroplanes will be going electric to cut pollution then followed that by asking how they would charge them up. Mmmm loads of plug sockets and extension leads n the sky?

 

Gliders and effing big catapults

 

Spare batteries in your luggage?

 

Maybe an emergency genny room in the hold?

 

We're certainly living in an electrifying world, aren't we?
Planes, yup, the first ones are already here. In my country they have also started establishing a network of chargers for leisure vessels. Battery powered ferries, smaller and larger, are hardly news anymore. Cars? Of the ten most sold models in 2021, only one was not all-electric; the hybrid Toyota RAV4. If we like it or not, it really seems to be building up momentum.

 

I guess if we live long enough it's inevitable, or at least very likely, that we'll see the world change from what we got used to. We've had a number of major shifts since the industrial revolution, from horses to steam to internal combustion engines, electricity, the nuclear age, the space age, the computer age, the internet, artificial intelligence, the decline of fossil fuels, and beyond to who knows where. We get on at some arbitrary point in time, and similarly we get off again one day. The world keeps on turning the whole time.

 

I’ll never have one as long as me arse points down. Fast milk float derivatives. Entirely the opposite of green if that’s why you want one. People who don’t know an engine or have zero appetite or aptitude to learn how stuff works will love em. But those said people are not true car/ bike lovers. The joy of using a machine with mechanical sympathy is entirely lost on these people.

 

Yes they are great but older bikes aren’t so bad either. My carb fed Tiger made me sell my 2018 Speed Triple RS because it’s not as practical, comfy or useable on the road.