Penny-a-mile electric motorcycles gaining traction

[Scuba]

http://www.jsonline.com/business/121604884.html

<snip>

A new bike in the Brammo lineup, the Empulse-10, can go 100 miles per hour and travel 100 miles between battery charges, according to the company.

A smaller Brammo, the Enertia, can go about 60 miles per hour and cover 40 miles of city streets and country roads before it has to be recharged.

It has no clutch to operate and no gears to shift. And the only sound you hear, besides the wind and the tires on the road, is a steady whine from the electric motor that sounds something like an electric forklift in a warehouse.

<end snip>

[opihimoimoi]

1. K&R #5

[obxhead]

2. That's awesome.

I've seriously been considering a motorcycle for my 80 round trip commute. Even at $4 or $5 a gallon it's hard to justify the cost for what would amount to transportation only 7 to 8 months a year.

It is really cool though. Hope the company does really well and the prices come down with that success.

[MedicalAdmin]

3. Make sure you factor in lower insurance.

I park my truck all spring / summer / fall and remove insurance from it. The savings from that plus the fuel savings make it worth it. I bought a good used bike and paid it off via cost savings in less than 3 years.

Good luck and welcome to the freedom ride.

[Shagbark Hickory]

4. Why bother? You can get a bike that gets 100 mpg that's actually fun to drive?

And drives to infinity without an electric outlet?

Lets keep our eye on the ball here. Electric mopeds and glorified golf carts are simply not enough.

[lfairban]

5. Fun, but not really practical.

But then, all motorcycles are. They cost too much and they weigh too much.

If you really like gliding down the highway at 60 mph on two wheels, then fine. But I don't see where going electric is going to be a great advantage for high speed use. For $8K, you can buy 2000 gal. of gasoline that will take you 40K miles at 20 mpg in a conventional automobile.

At 400 lbs., the things are not real easy to move around the garage. IIRC, my Yamaha 650 twin was much more exercise than I anticipated.

The big advantage over an ICE conventional motorcycle is that it is bound to be more mechanically stable. The vibrations, a big problem for the "twin", are almost nil, and a motor is so much simpler than an engine that there will be much less time spent on maintenance.

A smaller Brammo, the Enertia, can go about 60 miles per hour and cover 40 miles of city streets and country roads before it has to be recharged.

The last time I went over 60 mph on a motorcycle on a city street, I found out very quickly that speed guns really can clock motorcycles.