• There has been a recent cluster of spammers accessing BARFer accounts and posting spam. To safeguard your account, please consider changing your password. It would be even better to take the additional step of enabling 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) on your BARF account. Read more here.

The Electric Motorcycle Thread

Kawi's hybrid could/should lead the way...

kawasaki_electric_hybrid_3.jpg

kawasaki_electric_hybrid_4.jpg


https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/new-tech/kawasaki-hybrid-motorbike/
 
I got to check out the Electric Motion EPure Trials bike at the Coyote Creek Sprint Enduro

[YOUTUBE]7lRNRJcx1V8[/YOUTUBE]
 
ilikefood said:
Ugh hybrid motorcycles seem like an awful, awful idea. Much more complexity and much more weight, for... what reason?
Click to expand...

As someone who owns a hybrid and now a plugin hybrid there is a good reason. You get the benefits of both electric and gas. The instant torque and range of both and excellent fuel economy. If they can make like a 100mpg bike with power of a 1000cc bike would be nice. But we'll see if kawasaki can pull it off.
 
HadesOmega said:
I got to check out the Electric Motion EPure Trials bike at the Coyote Creek Sprint Enduro

[YOUTUBE]7lRNRJcx1V8[/YOUTUBE
Click to expand...

that bike is nice from my brief test ride,
owner Steve says he is in Oakland and rides a 2 stroke enduro bike, the electric trials bike allows him to practice around his work in the "grey areas". He says he never got hassled.

also talked to another guy who has an electric ktm, he didn't have good thing to say about it, not enough power and range was his complaints...
 
there's past attempts at hybrids, suzuki had a prototype fuel cell-electric hybrid burgman, and yamaha hv-x using a tmax frame.

honda sells a PCX hybrid scooter
yamaha has a Grand filano hybrid scooter.
 
a lot of electric car guys are not fans of hybrids for reasons stated above.
to stick a lot more stuff into a motorcycle doesn't seem appealing....

[YOUTUBE]dDkYSNCzp5s[/YOUTUBE]


btw, I know some people buy plug in hybrids for the sole purpose of car pool lane access....
 
Last edited:
HadesOmega said:
As someone who owns a hybrid and now a plugin hybrid there is a good reason. You get the benefits of both electric and gas. The instant torque and range of both and excellent fuel economy. If they can make like a 100mpg bike with power of a 1000cc bike would be nice. But we'll see if kawasaki can pull it off.
Click to expand...

Those benefits make some sense in a car, but motorcycles already have pretty much instant torque (I mean, you can wheelie from a standstill), and fuel economy for motorcycles matters primarily in the context of tank range on longer, higher-speed rides, where a hybrid won't help at all (it would help get better mileage in city riding, but few - if any - riders care about that).

And hybrids' disadvantages - weight and complexity - are a much bigger issue for motorcycles than for cars.
 
Johndicezx9 said:
Instant torque and acceleration, reduced emissions, improved mileage and rideability... :dunno
Click to expand...

All the bikes I've ever ridden, including my 400cc DRZ-SM, already have pretty instant torque and acceleration. Hybrids improve mileage only in city riding, where mileage doesn't really matter, but not in highway riding, where mileage (or really tank range) does matter. Any emissions reduction would be small (and again only in city riding).

For cars the cost vs. benefits calculation may be different, but for bikes it seems like hybrids have few benefits for a big penalty in weight and complexity.
 
ilikefood said:
All the bikes I've ever ridden, including my 400cc DRZ-SM, already have pretty instant torque and acceleration. Hybrids improve mileage only in city riding, where mileage doesn't really matter, but not in highway riding, where mileage (or really tank range) does matter. Any emissions reduction would be small (and again only in city riding).

For cars the cost vs. benefits calculation may be different, but for bikes it seems like hybrids have few benefits for a big penalty in weight and complexity.
Click to expand...

I find it difficult to argue for or against something we haven't seen yet, or how the engineers address the issues listed.... :dunno
 
ilikefood said:
All the bikes I've ever ridden, including my 400cc DRZ-SM, already have pretty instant torque and acceleration. Hybrids improve mileage only in city riding, where mileage doesn't really matter, but not in highway riding, where mileage (or really tank range) does matter. Any emissions reduction would be small (and again only in city riding).

For cars the cost vs. benefits calculation may be different, but for bikes it seems like hybrids have few benefits for a big penalty in weight and complexity.
Click to expand...

I don't think you've ridden an electric motorcycle. Put your DRZ in 4th gear and try to launch it ain't gonna happen if you don't stall it you're going to be really slow taking off. If I put my Empulse in 4th gear it'll pull away no problem. Maybe slower than it would in 1st but helluva lot faster than a DRZ would trying to take off in 4th.

What's one complaint people have about liter bikes? They're fast but they guzzle gas. Like as much as a car does 30MPG. Imagine if you can do like 400 or 500 miles on a tank of gas.

Do you own a hybrid? My Prius get's the same gas mileage in the city or highway. A hybrid car is literally twice as efficient as the equivalent gas powered car. My Rav4 Prime literally get's the same MPG as as my Prius and its bigger and has 300HP. Hybrid tech is for realz yo.

Here's another example the 2022 Toyota Tundra is going have a V6 twin turbo parallel hybrid engine. They want this truck to haul like diesel all that torque downlow. Well They couldn't do that with a V6 Turbo because there is turbo lag. So to get the diesel like torque down low they added a motor in the drivetrain to get that engine to have better response at lower RPMs.
 
Last edited:
Quick shout-out to the guy on a Zero who passed me this morning before dawn, riding with a cup of coffee in his left hand. Pure madness that you can only accomplish when your bike has no clutch!
 
On my Light Bee and Super Cub I've ridden with all sorts of stuff on the left handlebarish: pizza, groceries, drinks, mcdonalds, etc =P

One time I carried 4 bags of groceries on my Super Cub

Was just about to post that redbull vid quite a meticulous build not the first alta stunt biker I've seen
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top