Comments on: Electric Motorcycles – Forever in the Future?

By: Jack @ electric mountain bikes

Jack @ electric mountain bikes — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 02:29:49 +0000

A lot of work is being put into battery technology and the advent of nanofiber capacitors and batteries will bring performance up by a few hundred percent. Last I read is was 1 or 2 years off yet.

By: Boog

Boog — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:29:48 +0000

California!!! YAHHHHHHHH!!!! Beautiful state, and yes, very nice weather. However, most of my redneck hobbies (guns, hunting, shooting, hot rods, old “gross-polluting” vehicles such as my clapped-out old Dodge pickup, etc.) would not be much appreciated or tolerated in most neighborhoods, not to mention the state “political correctness” folks. I guess I am too conservative and old-fart-ey for California life…but like the man sez, I could be wrong…

I am, however, a big Swartzenegger fan…:)

By: todd

todd — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:28:03 +0000

Boog, move to California. When you ride the weather is hardly ever bad. Your commute to work will never leave you stuck in traffic (lane splitting…) and places of employment don’t give a hoot about what you wear (fear of a lawsuit I guess). Now I do dress nicely now and then (tuck my shirt into my jeans) when a client visits but mostly my clothes are saved from the elements by wearing a full riding suit.

-todd

By: Boog

Boog — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 16:36:48 +0000

@John: 30 years ago, I rode my bike to work (30 miles one way) everyday it wasn’t raining or slick (ice or snow). In those days, I was doing what I am now (teaching) but in those times employers wern’t so tight-a$$ed about your dress at work. Nowadays, most people with professional jobs with dress codes are limited to enclosed from the elements forms of transportation. And don’t tell me that you could always change clothes when you arrive…there are no places to do this and most certainly do not want to add a couple of hours to the daily work schedule changing clothes and hauling extra clothes around, etc…

Point is, motorcycles are great but just not practical for most people…oh sure, if you are flipping burgers or working in a garage or working as an industrial mechanic (which I have done also) you can wear jeans and t shirts, but most employers would have a hissy-fit if you even walked into the building dressed as such.

I wish it wern’t so, but alas….

By: Mehul Kamdar

Mehul Kamdar — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:04:27 +0000

While the concerns raised over battery performance are very true as things stand, as are the arguments that no vehicle can be completely carbon free, there is one reason why electric motorcycles make sense as commuter vvehicles and that is the cost per mile. Small business owners (myself included) can write off the purchase of an electric motorcycle as an expense at the end of the year and if you have charging facilities at home as well as at work and commute less than 50 miles one way, this can be an amazingly cheap way to travel to work and back. There is no perrfect solution, I agree, but at the same time, engineers are hard at work on improving electric vehicles and writing them off may be as unwise as the arguments that Nobel winners came up with to suggest that man would never land on the moon. There are highly intelligent people at work in the USA and other countries. Give them some time to work and they will find a way to make electric motorcycles succeed.

For those who are still skeptical, can anyone here name all the gasoline motorcycle brands that existed in the USA historically? Anyone remember the Buzzmobile? The O-We-Go? There were more than 100 brands in the early years of gasoline motorcycling and only Indian and Harley Davidson survived. While there were no blogs back then, I can think of some early non-believers saying that this motorcycling fad would never survive because just two companies survived out of 150 . . . like some skeptics today feel about electric motorcycles.