RE: Electric Motorcycles

["Chris Tromley" <chris_t@microtrac.com>]

Don Powell wrote:

> Well I'm still too far away from buying an EV so I started 
> thinking about Electric Motorcycles (my commute is only ~30 
> miles roundtrip but with 45mph (actually closer to 60) speeds.
> 
> Does anyone know where to find Ecycles available for sale?  
> I've looked at eserati.com but it looks like they still are 
> not selling.  ecycle.com does not appear to exist any longer. 
>  I also could not find any listed on Ebay.
> 
> Let me know if anyone knows of others out there.

Hi Don,

The only ones I know of you didn't mention are Lectra
http://www.motorbike.org/ and Denali http://www.denalicycles.com/.  The
Lectra seems to be almost but not quite up to your requirements.  See
the range simulator and the page on speed vs. gearing.  Denali is
working on a road bike called the Commuter
http://www.denalicycles.com/Commuter.htm with a 50 mile range, but its
top speed is only 23 mph.

For your speed requirements I think the best choice is a motorcycle
conversion.  For a car, 30% of your total vehicle weight in batteries
gives you around the 30 miles you need.  For a motorcycle you'll need a
higher percentage (include the rider's weight) due to the higher aero
drag.  I think when you run the numbers you'll find a big road bike is
your best bet - built for 700-800+ lbs rolling weight, maybe 200 lbs
with the drivetrain stripped out, leaving you 300-400 lbs for motor,
batteries and associated bits.  My personal choice would be a Kawasaki
ZX-9, 10 or 11.

If you're up to it, I'd highly recommend using the original suspension
on a built-from-scratch chassis.  That gives you a lot more leeway to
put things where you need them.  Make the battery support structure do
double duty as the chassis to save weight and space.  When you consider
all the modification you'll make to a stock chassis, starting from
scratch could be easier as well as better.

Chris