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The Electric Motorcycle Thread

The Zero SR is back in rotation with an 11mm master cylinder now giving 1-finger braking. My loop leaves me with much more mental stamina than the ICE bike Mana, even accounting for the 100 pound difference. I can expect to rejuvenate faster and get something like an extra 6 hours of productivity a day if I ride the electric bike on the same loop, likely at a faster pace. :nchantr
 
sk8norcal said:
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Interesting design. It may not be well know, but motor are terrible in aerodynamics-- motos are a brick with a parachute behind it -- as old school fairing designer Vetter would say.

I'm not sure punching a tunnel in the center of the moto a good plan, same with front motors. How does it handle? Looks good to me. :thumbup
 
it looks like a yawning Orca
 
I think that's the point it's suppose to swallow the air and exhaust it behind it.

After drag racing the Light Bee aero plays a big part in getting you to the finish line. If the wind changes direction or dies down it affects your ETs. So having good aero will help you get more cosistent time and in this car makes you go faster and farther.
 
mrzuzzo said:
Who's going to the Cake Cock ride tomorrow?
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Just as a FYI I owned a Cake Kalk& for eight months. After the battery went bad and they could not fix or replace the battery after 40 days they took it back. I'm convinced that the only reason they did is because I had built a website to support other owners. No YouTube subscribes or like to bring in revenue, just a self made and self hosted site.

I personally won't ever own another Cake vehicle again.
https://cakekalk.com/latest-news/battery-charger-failure/

When they came to pick up my bike they had a brand new one in the box. When I asked where it was going I was told "It's going to a media company in SF so they can demo the bike." So let me get this straight, they can give an entire bike to a media company yet not supply an existing customer a replacement or loaner used battery?!

Fun bike to ride, sh!t bike to own. They replace broken fenders and things like that. But something that will disable your bike...nope. And when I looked into Lemon Law firms they only do cases of brick and mortar sales. Sure I found one that would take my case but they had never represented an internet only vehicle sale.

I'd never buy something from Cake again. $14k plus CA tax and license is 15.5k. For a bike that only gets 32 miles?! Yeah valuable lesson learned. I made a mistake. Won't do that again.
 

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Sur Ron Light Bee a 1/4 of the price and if something breaks you can pretty easily replace the parts. With a little more money you can make a Sur Ron as fast as a Cake and it will still be smaller and lighter. Just sayin. I do break my Light Bee often though hah....

The exact same thing happened to my Empulse. The battery failed and couldn't be repaired so they bought it back from me :( You are at the mercy of the complicated battery system. The equipment required to service it is proprietary so you couldn't fix it on your own. One sensor or circuit board fails and it bring the whole system down. That's the beauty of the Light Bee is it's simplicity. Battery goes bad you can pretty easily swap it with another one for well about $1000. I still have my stock battery and it's still in good shape even after I beat on it. There are aftermarket batteries now too.


Sooo did anyone go and ride it at Hollister? It sure was fun riding it at Metcalf!
 
What would you get if you wanted something more durable than a breaking Light Bee?
 
My Altashaves performed flawlessly today. The MX has 4K miles on it, the SM just hit 300. I did not ride the EX today.

Im not gonna correct Altashave. Too awesome...

Alta. But yous know that.
 
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dittoalex said:
What would you get if you wanted something more durable than a breaking Light Bee?
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Not sure there are a couple other bikes that are equivalent to a Light Bee. There is the Banshee Storm, those new Kuberg bikes, and the the Drill One. It's is hard to tell what one would be more reliable because those other bikes are still so new. They're much more expensive also. The Kubergs aren't bad it's like a sup'd up Sur Ron already. If I could have them all and torture test them all I would =P The Sur Ron has been around so long that it is proven though and not only can you buy pretty every part on the Sur Ron there is growing aftermarket for it. I just did a video on Warp9 parts for the Sur Ron, so manufacturers of motorcycle components are making parts for the Sur Ron. I hope warp9 makes wheels for the Light Bee =P

But yeah A LOT of the problems I have with the Light Bee are related to the drivetrain. The belt system is the weakpoint of the bike. It is more so when you are pushing like double the power out of it. Just wasn't made for it. Lots of moving parts and bearings to wear out.

I will tell you this is I have pushed the Light Bee's limits, dirt biking, drag racing, desert bike, sprint enduro, hare scrambles, motocross, delivery bike, and supermoto. I am thoroughly impressed on the punishment it has endured.

My bike probably has like 7000+ HARD miles on it. It's been to the Rubicon and Mojave Desert. Might have to make a trip to Moab some time.

One things for sure HEAT is what will kill your bikes performance I heard the Altas overheat really fast, after like 2 laps on a supermoto track.

But yeah there's nothing out there that beats the Light Bee in value, the other machines are just too expensive. Cake is like 13k, Drill is like 10k, Kuberg Free Rider starts around 5k. I would say the Kuberg is probably the closest one in value and they have many different options/configurations. I don't know about the frame on the Kuberg though it looks kinda dinky that's one of the things that sold me on the Light Bee was the frame it's a thing of beauty. The Kuberg is lighter than the Light Bee though.

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I've never ridden the Kalk& just the OR is it really that bad on acceleration? I guess the sprocket is much smaller because I remember it just ripped up the H20 hillclimb just as fast a my modified Light Bee. Seemed more than adequate on the pavement also. For $14k thought I would just go with a FXS.
 
https://cakekalk.com/latest-news/an-inexpensive-range-extender/
I changed from the OEM 72t to the 80t and it made a difference not only in accel but in range. Extended it by 10%.

After getting rid of the Cake I bought a Zero DSR with Charge Tank. A much better fit for me. In reality my Sur Ron and DSR cost the same before sales tax as the Kalk&! Now I have the best of both worlds for what/how I ride. The DSR was used a 2017 model with Charge tank and BF wind screen.
 
MrMarkK said:
I bought a Zero DSR with Charge Tank.
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I charge my 2017 DSR 7.2 KWH battery (6.5 KWH batt failure during warranty)above six KWs with no charge tank.

I charge my 2017 SR (with Pwr Tank) at around 8 KWs with no charge tank.

When taking these bikes on longer trips, I use a couple of Elcon chargers that I wired into the motor controller with Anderson 50 amp connectors. On shorter trips, I leave the chargers at home and then have both my side bags available for other stuff.

At home, I can charge my SR at up to 12KWs, by adding in four DeltaQs to the Elcons and OBC, but that is way too much stuff for the road. I own seven DeltaQ's besides the four Elcons.

By far, I put more miles on my three electrics than my seven ICE bikes combined.

-Don- Reno, NV
 
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