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

It's true that most solar won't power the house during a power cut, but not for that reason.

The solar array will be wired into the house supplying power when the sun is shining with the excess going back to the grid, however the technology employed by most (though possibly not all) inverters is to sync to the frequency of the incoming supply.

If there's no incoming supply, then the inverter can't sync so doesn't export to the house/grid.

 

Seemingly the most stated reason for not adopting electric bikes is that they don't have the range for long journeys and touring.

The thing I often wonder, how often would this genuinely be a limitation?

Most of my riding is commuting (20 mile round trip) or weekend rides out (maybe 80-100 miles). I do 200+ mile days and trips away maybe two, perhaps three times a year.*

So an electric bike would be adequate for my my rides for perhaps 90-95% of my riding.

Perhaps if more people rented tourers, the price would be more tolerable. Would a situation where you rode electric for the vast majority of the year and rented an ICE tourer for a couple of weeks be so unacceptable?

I can't remember which one of the car companies did it, but I'm sure one of them had a scheme whereby if you were leasing one of their electric cars, that entitled you to a couple of weeks loan of a petrol car included in the price.

With the purchasing model moving more towards leasing, this might well be a possibility for bikes.


* I'm ready for all the American and Australian riders to point out that it's 200 miles to their local shops.

 

This was basically my perspective as well. Should I end up finding one I like, my first electric bike will accompany, not replace, my petrol one.

 

An average weekend ride would be 100-150 miles so in a lot of cases right on the limit of a full charge (riding style dependent) but it would absolutely stop the option of any form of bike touring in my mind. Until there is a significant change in technology that will allow us to do the kind of travelling we are currently able to (car and bike) then I for one will not be parting with my hard earned....especially with the extra premium we are expected to pay for the privilege

 

+1 to all of that.

 

An example of a slightly longer ride........my daughters are 210 miles from me (and that's the motorway option) so even riding to visit them is more of an issue using lectric

 

Lawn mower - Yes
Weed Whacker - Yes
Handheld blower - Yes
Power tools - Yes (some)

Backpack blower - No
Walk behind leaf blower - No
Riding mower - No
Snow Blower - No

Motorcycle - NO!
Truck - NO!

 

Completely get that.

There's going to be a core of people for whom electric bikes with the current tech won't work.

But there's likely an awful lot of riders for whom it would be no problem

 

Hang on a second. Perhaps we're looking at this the wrong way.

I've just realised that the current tech isn't sufficient for me to be able to visit the mother in law.

I'm going to get me a Livewire!

 

I was given a Zero to ride when my Guzzi was getting its first service. I had a blast running it around Reno. For a personal bike, not yet. Need more range and definitely not practical for touring. The time is coming though.
kk

 

Especially if you just want to visit for an hour or so. Like we all do to just do dad jobs for them. The vehicle won’t have charged up enough to get back home. Leccy motors are ok for city types. For the real world? Not yet in my opinion.

 

Imagine if 50% of these were electric and needed a top up.....carnage

 

Regarding renting a motorcycle, I'd say the main reason folks don't do it is because rental of a touring bike is somewhere between £650-£750 for a week (averaged out from several websites who do it). For one day it's between £150-£200. That's more per day than I'd be wanting to pay for a bike I "own" as monthly payments, let alone just for the privilege of riding someone elses for the day.

I may do 90% of my riding into town and back for work, which an electric bike would be ideal for. Unfortunately I only have space/money for one bike, so I need that one bike to do everything I need it to.

I'm not against electric bikes, but I won't be getting one until they do everything I need it to do, at a price that is reasonable.

 

As an urban short distance commuter electric makes sense, but ownership satisfaction is on a par with buying a washing machine or fridge.
Personally I'm retired, so no commuting and I ride for recreation (as I imagine most on here do), I can't remember the last time I got the bike out for a ride of less than 100mls, we gravitate to rural areas, ideal place to find a quick charger

 

Wow. How backwards can you get.

Electric bikes are still in its infancy. We're in the 'fat Motorola brick-phone' phase of electric motorcycles. Give it time. The prices, range, charge time and choice will get much, much better.

You really gonna turn down what WILL eventually run rings around ANY current bike because of a lack of sound and some vibration??

I had a go on the Livewire at Millbrook some years ago when HD did their tour. I had no expectations or preconceptions... it was freaking amazing... even back then.

Ignore lack of range, charging time etc... like I said it's still not there (which is why there's little choice from manufacturers who rightly don't want to come to market until their product is right), but to me the Livewire was an absolute revelation.

I suspect many nay-sayers have never tried a full-fat electric bike... not all, but most.

The acceleration is astounding. They're virtually maintenance-free. There will be a day, not far away, when electric bikes WAY outperform ICE bikes, charge as quickly as a petrol fill-up and are MUCH cheaper to manufacture too.... and will thus be cheaper.

It WILL happen.

A bike with the looks of a classic Triumph but the incredible performance and range electric bikes WILL offer... just without a shake and a burble??? Yes please.

 

You're obviously much younger than I (and many others on here), I admire your youthful optimism.
But I don't consider myself backwards, just realistic.

1. Even if you accept the present excessive battery weight their capacity needs to double in order to provide usable range.
2. At the same time rapid recharge time needs to at least halve (without destroying battery longevity).
3. Public charging infrastructure needs to radically improve - a typical petrol station is easily capable of refuelling about 10 vehicles in the space of about 15 minutes, public charge stations need to match that and be as common place.

I've been riding for 30 odd years, enjoyed more performance than I can handle and (important to me) toured much of Europe, realistically I won't be doing that for much more than another 10 years. I'm quite confident electric bikes won't be anywhere near comparable in that time, and yes that "shake & burble" is important to me. I'll save electric till I need a mobility scooter.

Enjoy your washing machine.

Edit:

NOT in my life time.

 

Not that young (sadly) but yeah I'm optimistic, though also realistic.

I guess we'll see

 

So, I got the ditch pump out of its vac bag today, put some fresh super duper in it and started it up. I felt almost excited gently blipping the throttle, can't do that with a mobile washing machine

 

SWMBO gets quite excited sitting on hers!
(large out of balance load on spin and she's mobile too)

 

I've doubled the range now, bought her an extension cable.