Electric Street Bike

IwakuniDiver · 07-10-2007, 08:42 PM

This is a new electric street bike being manufactured in Portland, Oregon. 50mph top speed and a range of 50 miles. Doesn't sound like much other than a good start.

It will be interesting to see what direction this technology will go.

http://autos.msn.com/advice/article....tentid=4024869

Scott

spicy · 07-10-2007, 09:45 PM

well at least it'll be a torque-monster stoplight wheelie machine... up to like 15-20mph, at least.

does seem like a decent start. plenty o' time to make it look nicer and perform better

Cabanaboy · 07-10-2007, 10:03 PM

Made by the same guys as the Ariel Atom....should be good stuff.

lemosley01 · 07-11-2007, 08:09 AM

Carbon-fibre chassis....mmmmmm.

Too bad it only has a 50 mile range. It's a good bet the real world range (where we have stop and go traffic, hills, and speed changes) is probably more around 35-40 miles. That isn't going to cut it for most people - it would suck cruising home and the bike is getting weaker and weaker - like an RC car running low on power!

I'm looking at it from the standpoint of a commuter - this is where the majority of our driving mileage comes from. Otherwise it's an expensive 'errand-runner'.

I love the ZEV crowd - they'll put down stupid money just to 'feel good'. I 'feel good' burning dinos at 80mph/4000 RPM. They ruled the planet for millions of years and kept us mammals down. This is just payback.

Mooosman · 07-11-2007, 03:32 PM

Seems like a good idea with a little more work. They say it's only 275lbs. If they added another 75 pounds in batteries, the bike would still weigh less than a normal motorcycle, but might have the range people need.

Still really expensive, though.

Nick

mattg · 07-11-2007, 04:31 PM

carbon fiber chassis doesn't crash well.

ask bicyclists. they have to throw away CF bikes after a light crash.. it's really hard to check for structural defects. personally, I wouldn't want one falling apart under me even at a pokey 30mph.

lemosley01 · 07-11-2007, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattg

carbon fiber chassis doesn't crash well.

ask bicyclists. they have to throw away CF bikes after a light crash.. it's really hard to check for structural defects. personally, I wouldn't want one falling apart under me even at a pokey 30mph.

Well, the simple solution is don't crash it!

That would suck to have to replace your bike if you dropped it...esp at 12K/ea

Hey, no one ever said tree-hugging was cheap.

SloppyJoseph · 07-11-2007, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lemosley01

Hey, no one ever said tree-hugging was cheap.

dude, you're killin me today.

Honda600f4i · 07-11-2007, 09:06 PM

They may have better ones in the future, but this one is a waste of money. You could buy a scooter for about 1,500 that would be faster and gets really good gas mileage.

IwakuniDiver · 07-11-2007, 09:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Honda600f4i

They may have better ones in the future, but this one is a waste of money. You could buy a scooter for about 1,500 that would be faster and gets really good gas mileage.

The first electric cars that were built in the 80's were the same way. Pretty much worthless for driving any kind of distance and took almost a whole day to charge for one hour of driving at 25mph. All this wrapped up in a $20,000 package which was a LOT of money in the 80's.

From a dollar standpoint, I don't think this bike is anywhere NEAR practical. Since bikes and scooters on average get vastly better gas mileage than cars the cost/benefit is going to not be worth it for many years but we have to start somewhere.

Besides, the thing was obviously designed by tech-nerds... its fugly as hell.