Featured If You're Never Going To Go Electric Raise Your Hand!

i have tested both Zero 14.4kw and HD livewire. after my 955 s3 i was sort of disapponted even with HD; the magic moment is only the first time one tries one; the fact it is ”on” without any visible noise. but atleast the phenomal acceleration did not feel so fantastic- as with my s3. and in the highway it felt sort of like just flying fast - i did not feel i was ”drivin”. so main feeling was funny; but disappointing. zero bikes work well as city mopeds, like those scooters because of their smaller motorcycle stance and feel.
but i am sure when these electric motos get more common- there will be rise in accidents (and insurance costs). if a young novice person without common sense tries one- the first twist on grips- and they lose it…

 

Eventually it will be a progression but we'll have to keep our motorcycles as collectibles and been able to ride em..
That would be the best in my opinion.
I wouldn't go electric but for a small motorcycle to be going to work it wasn't gonna be a bad thing I guess.
Here in Greece most of us we have the good motorcycles only for the weekends anyway and ride a small scouter type to be our workhorse.. so I not very negative about electrics as long as they let us use our gasoline motors too.

 

I am a bit more direct than that. I tell them that I OWN the place and to take a hike. ...J.D.

 

@Wattie
There is quite a lot of solar power here in the desert, Wattie, but it's still more of a novelty overall. Interestingly, both of the school districts I've worked in for the past 20 years or so have taken to installing solar in many of their administrative office and school parking lots. They build covered parking and put solar panels on top of them. It's a positive double whammy--we can park our cars in the shade (which is lovely the the temps go over 100ºF which isn't that far off, I'm afraid) and it's a convenient location for solar panels vs. putting them on the roof of a school or a large admin building. I do see some newer housing developments that have a lot of solar panels on roofs but it's still the exception to the rule. It does seem like between solar and wind power, those of us that live in the desert should be covered. I don't really know how energy storage would happen. I'm sure there are deeper (and probably darker) reasons that those two sources haven't been fully tapped and I'd bet that it's related to the almighty dollar.

 

Sounds like a great idea, as parking areas are dead space anyway, so might as well make use of them!
Deserts are, obviously, great for solar panels, however the downside getting it to where it's needed. There is no useful way to store electricity other than great big batteries, but the size of the battery farm they'd need to store enough energy for a town would be prohibitively expensive and large.
Somewhere in Australia they have a massive capacitor set, but that only stores enough power for a few minutes (at least nothing practical on sizable scale).
Places in/close to the desert areas like Pheonix could make use of solar farms located there, but for anywhere further away, the loses through the cables means it's pretty much pointless. There was a plan to do a similar thing in the Sahara, where they build massive solar farms, and help power Africa/Europe, but the idea was abandonded due to the losses/cost/politics, and was just better overall to build the farms in our own countries (Germany I've heard are doing well with it).

 

The place in Europe where I've seen an impressive number of solar panels on farms is in Bayern, Germany.
Almost all farming building have solar panels.
It was a political decision from the Bayerich Lander, and discussing with some friends there, it makes sense.

 

Generally speaking, deserts are OK for solar panels but, unfortunately, for the most part solar panel output is degraded by heat so hot deserts are not so good!

 

Well, electrolysis is a proven way of producing hydrogen, which would represent the 'battery'. I read that producing hydrogen from wind and solar power will be a probable route for both the UK and continental Europe, to enable power production in times with with litte sun and wind. With tomorrow's emissions restrictions, the expensive alternative would have been to establish a huge overcapacity of wind power.

 

I look at it this way. I will be 65 in 2 days and I suspect that the switchover to electric will take 20 to 30 years. Unless I am incredibly lucky I doubt I will be riding by that point. I will stay cautiously optimistic about my chances but I am going to get out and ride in the meantime.

 

I read that somewhere, too. Storing power to smooth out the peaks and troughs of demand is obviously an issue but batteries aren't the only way to solve that. We've been pumping water uphill with excess power and reclaiming the energy later for years. That works up here in the hills and for swathes of the UK, not so much in more arid zones.There won't be one single solution anywhere but it has to be resolved one way or another - what we're using now is a finite resource.

 

This is the main issue with introducing Hydrogen, even in small percentages, into the natural gas network.

 

As a retired engineer, I will say solar in itself is a fine technology. The issue I have with it is the regulations put on it in my location. It really makes it impractical. The power companies and the government make it so you have to generate power for the grid, For the money spent I can, AND HAVE purchased other energy saving equipment. I have all LED lighting. I use a evaporative cooler [desert climate]. I installed humidity controls on the swamp cooler. It has an automatic two speed control controlled by the outside air temperature. The cooler is also vented through the attic to get the most benefit out or the cool air. Of course I had to create a lot of this technology myself, but the energy saving is there. Now they want me to run a big battery charger to charge my car ? I DON"T THINK SO !!! ...J.D.

 

Many happy returns in advance then, you old fart. My turn in June

 

just reversing this little beauty into the drive & im gonna bury it in the back garden! I should have it full by the time they ban petrol

 

Me! I’ll give up riding before I get on an electric bicycle.

 

THIS is as close as I am going to get to owning an electric car. ...J.D.

 

Here's a custom Zero I've been tinkering with. It's just a toy but weighing in at 280 lbs with 78 ft-lbs of torque, it's an extremely fun toy. I have other ICE bikes for different purposes so it's more than justifiable to own.

 

Me and the rig out on a gas run a few years from now...

 

Mad max??

 

Seen recently that the latest crime craze is nicking electric vehicle charge cables, then resold on eBay if intact or down the scrappy for the copper value if not. Plus the agro of damage to the car when force was necessary.
And while on the subject how are all the folks living in terraced or high-rise properties going to charge their vehicles? Going to be fun skipping down the pavements over that lot.