Motorcycle Forums

Yes I can

I can see myself riding an electric motorcycle ... each time I ride past a shop window, or a chrome-plated tanker truck, etc. I own a Brammo Enertia and ride it every day to work. It's a well-designed bike with high quality components and when Brammo comes out with the Empulse in a few weeks or months, I'm seriously considering the upgrade. I don't miss the lack of noise (now I can hear what's around me, approaching from the rear, etc) or the vibration - smooth power from 0-60mph.

Only if

I can put a lolly stick in the spokes to make it sound like a real bike

I'd rather buy a Moto Morini Rebello! Oh, hang on, maybe not. I'll take the bus instead.

Not enough information.

Electric vehicles aren't the be-all-and-end-all they're being made out to be: the charge comes from (primarily) fossil-fuel power stations - so these arguements don't wash (manufacturers like to use the arguement of "no exhaust gases").

There's nowhere enough R&D been done so far - to truly say an electric vehicle is cleaner than its fossil-fuelled bretheren, you have to quantify the carbon produced over both vehicles life-cycles, from mining the metals used right through the manufacturing process, covering the same mileage over 8 / 10 /12 years, with the same riding style, work out the carbon used per charge and the distance it gives, (bear in mind power station efficiency losses, losses in power distribution lines etc), and at the end of the vehicles lifespan, both have to be disposed of; at the moment we haven't got the infrastructure to dispose of batteries / motors / control systems and the materials used.

Not only that, but electric vehicles are heavily dependent on Rare Earth motors / magnets; RE is mined in places like China and treated with chemicals and acids, and these chemicals are allowed to run on to farmland, into rivers, and potentially into the food chain - therefore, we may simply be swapping one form of pollution for another.

Put it altogether, and you may well find that the environmental case for them isn't there.

The difference

The difference between an electric bike and a ICE bike is the ICE carrys it's own power station to convert fossil fuel to electricity.  On an electric bike, the power station is located somewhere else and the electricity has to travel through wires to get where it's needed.  It's actually a wash when it comes to electric and ICE bikes environmentally friendly.  ICEs may even be cleaner because the batteries are smaller and have less hazardous chemicals by weight.

Also, has anyone considered how much electricity is lost in the form of heat due to resistance in the power lines from the power station?  If a station generates 10 MW of electricity, how many watts are lost in the form of heat and induction to the metal towers that suspend the wire over a 50 mile run of heavy guage wire that has resistance?  That's not as efficient as an ICE making it's own power and directly putting into the rear tire.