Thursday, November 22, 2012

I write so much on electric cars that I seem to have ignored another form of electric transportation... the motorcycle. I for one was very into dirt/enduro bikes for a while, and I am a big fan of the Isle of man race (probably the sickest most challenging and dangerous motorcycle race in the world) Check it out on youtube, guaranty to make you sweat. Anyway I got off subject. The electric motorcycle world is slowly making its dent. One of the companies that I have been watching since its inception is Zero motorcycles. They started off with one street/gravel bike and have grown since. Now you can get the Zero in street, dirt, and dual sport with the regular 43 miles per charge highway 76 miles city or the XL battery with 63 miles highway 114 miles city... yes you read right! All 100% electric!
Cost? Street and Dual sport versions are $11,495 and XL battery $13,995. Dirt and technical track (Has head light and the one I would get) $9,495 they both
 give you between 60 to 120 minutes of fun on the trail or around 35 to 40 miles on track. What makes them fun is the instant torque and no gear change so you can concentrate on not eating dirt... 
Only issue here is cost... why would one pay 9K when you can get a gas version for 7K... it really comes down to the type of person buying. If you are into long distance ridding then gas is the way to go, if you like going for a few hours of trail ridding then electric might work for you. here is where a hybrid motorcycle might come into its own. Instant torque, no gear change, and the gas engine is there as a generator so when your battery runs out of juice you can still ride another 250 miles... Come to think of it I am going to see if there is anyone out there building one of these...
When it comes to the street version the cost issue comes up again since there are two kinds of people that buy motorcycles.. those that ride them for fun and thus can afford to buy electric and be green... and those that buy motorcycles because a car is out of range for them. Here a gas motorcycle wins every time.
Either way it is nice to see that these electric motorcycles are out there! And I am sure when the cost of batteries comes down you can bet more will be sold.
Now the only question I have for them is why not come up with a quick battery change? So you take an extra battery with you and swap it out when the other is empty... soooo many ideas!
Happy turkey day everyone!

Man I really got to get on the bolgasphere!
Click below an run through the site... they have great videos!
http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/

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