The electric motorcycle guys over at Thunderstruck Motors have come up with this AC Motard powered by a 48 volt AC motor. It’s geared for 60mph, has dual disc brakes with regenerative braking and a seat height of 36 inches. Price is $6200.
If you’ve watched any videos of electric motorcycles, you can see the performance possibilities of a high torque electric motor. Great acceleration, quick response and, except for the sound of the electric drive system, pretty quiet compared to the average internal combustion driven motorcycle. The problem, of course, is still vehicle range. Electric motors and batteries are advancing fast so it’s just a matter of time before the situation improves but, for now, these are short range vehicles.
Thunderstruck Motors has been drag racing electric vehicles of various sorts and they hold more NEDRA (National Electric Drag Racing Association) records than anyone. Their website has quite a few interesting electric powered vehicles, worth taking a look around.
Link: Thunderstruck Motors via electricmotorcycles.net via Motoblog.it
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todd says
These things are quite fun and powerful. There’s a guy in the SF Bay Area who builds these out of Derbis (in fact I think they build them for Thunderstruck):
http://www.electricmotorsport.com/index.html
The power is super linear and keeps coming on. It’s really a weird feeling if the last time you rode a Derbi it had a 50cc two-stroke in it – night and day. They claim a 20-40 mile range with speeds of 45-60mph. I’ve been thinking of getting one of these for my 8 mile commute but at their current prices it might be more fun just building up a 75mph 80cc kitted Derbi with thousands of dollars left over.
Also check out http://www.ecotrekker.com for a guy that documents his trek around the US on his electric bike outfit. There’s also tons of other links on his site for other interesting alternative fuel vehicles.
-todd
electricmotorcycles.net says
Not thread-jack this for the sole purpose of basking in my websites glory but this is a cool video I shot at the Joliet EV show: http://snipurl.com/gilbert
Also, here’s Todd talking about his bike at Maker Faire: http://downloads.oreilly.com/make/make_eleccycle.mp4
keith says
without a tank in front of the seat, it looks like you better hope you never shift forward. it could be more than nerve racking!
JoeKing says
What a joke….18hp @298lbs. for a mere $6800. I’d be afraid to ride such a BRUTAL machine. Not to worry the power trails off to a more senseable 8hp as the speed (slowly) increases..too bad about aerodynamic drag & all.
“Rapidly increasing battery technology”…THATS even a BIGGER JOKE. I’ve heard that refrain for the last 30 years…still waiting.
The energy density of a gallon of gasoline is equal to something like 80lbs. of “hi-tech” (inexpensive?) batteries. This whole technology(?) is a dead-end. Charging, of course, comes from the electricity..in the wall.
All the car co.s gave up on these when the gov’t money dried up…I presume these jokers will try to shake the same tree with all the current oil shortage stupidity.
electricmotorcycles.net says
Sniff, sniff. Joe, I think your bait smells fishy.
todd says
Keith, this is the first one I’ve seen this far stripped down (except for two being repaired). I presume this is a lower cost model since all the bodywork was sold on ebay.
-todd