June 12, 2010: Electric Bike

You've probably see bicycles fitted with an auxiliary electric motor, or bicycles/mopeds designed with electric motors.

This ain't them.

This bike is bad-ass, no two ways about it. It has a custom-built 12.5-kilowatt-hour lithium polymer battery that can be swapped in seconds. The custom-built, oil-cooled motor generates 100 horsepower (continuous) and 250 pound-feet of torque. It all hangs from a custom frame. Of course, it’s got the usual top-shelf hardware. Ohlins. Brembo. You know the drill.

Czyzs and his crew in Portland, Oregon, were literally buttoning the bike up before the first practice session on the Isle of Man, having just gotten the body panels through customs. No one had tested the bike before, but rider Mark Miller smoked the field during practice, finishing more than three minutes ahead of the competition. The bike hit a top speed of 140 mph and lapped the 37.7-mile course at an average speed of 94.66 mph.

This is serious performance, but longevity remains to be seen. It will be interesting if to see if this will translate into street Ninjas.

link

Wow! I'm going to buy stock in the word 'custom'. I got a feeling it will be THE word to own in 2010. It might even be bigger than 'issues'.

WANT

So if they came out with a street version, I wonder how many miles it would get on a single battery.

Also, say an owner installed 50 square feet of solar panel on his/her roof? How long until the battery was charged?

If you were a desert dwellar this sort of vehicle would be perfect.

Even if you had to plug it in, it could be viable, and economical.

Ah, so they've found a way to make motorcycles even more dangerous, by making them silent...

...but I want one anyway because they've solved the dangerous red-hot exhaust problem.

Or traded it for a 12.5-kilowatt arc.:eek:

richlevy;662562 wrote:

Also, say an owner installed 50 square feet of solar panel on his/her roof?

That's not so big.

So very Mad Max-ish.

glatt;662583 wrote:

That's not so big.

As an example, a Yingli YL235 panel is 1650x990 mm and puts out 235 W on a very sunny day (insolation at about 1000 W/m2).

There are some double-sided panels available, but they'd be difficult to mount such that both sides are exposed to the sun.

I don't have my calculator, but I think that's about 10 ft2, so 5 of those would be about 50 ft2 and would put out about 1200 W peak.

xoxoxoBruce;662565 wrote:

Even if you had to plug it in, it could be viable, and economical.

Yes, but you'd need a very long extension cord.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHtAkM3CYLA

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pM1j2d1RMU&feature=related

How are they going to make them loud enough to be a nuisance if there's no muffler to bore out?

Large subwoofers.

BigV;662604 wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHtAkM3CYLA

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pM1j2d1RMU&feature=related

So you're going to ride a very powerful motorcycle you haven't ridden at all or very often with technology that you understand delivers all of the power immediately, do a stunt, and refuse to wear protective gear?

He might be the dumbest smart guy since Jeff Skilling.

In the sidebar to the electric motorcycle article there was a link to
Wind-Powered Car Actually Moves Faster Than Wind Speed, Answering Tricky Physics Question

This is about a car built to be propelled by the wind (with the wind coming from behind), that can reach speeds more than 2.5 times the speed of the wind. The discussion and comments remind me very much of the plane-on-a-treadmill debate.

The article is only about 200 words - all of the interesting details are in the comments. If you read the comments, pay attention to PhillnYork.

Czyzs and his crew in Portland, Oregon, were literally buttoning the bike up before the first practice session on the Isle of Man...

richlevy;662747 wrote:

He might be the dumbest smart guy since Jeff Skilling.

Let's see here, put the bike together in Portland, OR. First practice session 4500 miles away on the Isle of Man.

Yep dumb about covers it.:dunce: