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The Electric Motorcycle Thread

HadesOmega said:
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.
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Sure, my DRZ wouldn't launch well in 4th gear... but then again I would never ever need or want to do that, that's what gears are for :laughing So if that's the big advantage of a hybrid motorcycle, I stand by my point that hybrid tech in motorcycles just isn't useful.

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.
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You wouldn't, though. Hybrid engines help in stop-and-go, low-speed traffic, where the electric motor/generator and battery can recover some of the kinetic energy otherwise lost in braking. They don't help much at all in steady-state driving, like you'd normally do on a ride out of the city or on a highway. A hybrid liter bike would get better gas mileage in the city, and still get 30 mpg on the highway. And be much heavier and much more expensive.

Also, you know what would be a much simpler and MUCH cheaper way to engineer a liter bike that can do 400 or 500 miles on a tank of gas? Just give it a bigger gas tank.

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.
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Right. Hybrid tech improves gas mileage in the city, not on the highway.
 
Johndicezx9 said:
I find it difficult to argue for or against something we haven't seen yet, or how the engineers address the issues listed.... :dunno
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Ha ha fair enough!

Still, there are some fundamental limitations - a hybrid motorcycle will inevitably be more complex and heavier than a regular motorcycle.
 
IDK, there's a lot of complicated, heavy motorcycles pushing $30k out there now.

I'm curious to see how this pans out.
 
Sooo...I'm in the market for a dirt bike, and a silent dual-sport with actual torque is...very compelling.

Are there any actually viable options besides the Zero FX and KTM Freeride E-XC? Does anyone have any real-world range numbers for trail riding? It's hard to gauge "range" when I'm just going up the same hill over and over...

I don't think I've ever gone through a full tank of gas in a day of riding...

I have this dream of riding around someplace illegal, camping, charging up from my F150 Lightning over night, repeat, etc...
 
You're not riding enough if you can't go through a full tank of gas. I can EASILY blow through 150 miles in the desert on my DR650 adventure riding.

If you are looking for an electric dual sport your best bet right now are:
Zero FX
Zero DS/R
Alta Redshift EX (goodluck finding one or parts for it)
Sur Ron Light Bee with a moped plate

I think the KTM is a dirtbike not a dual sport. I've yet to ride one.

For the Light Bee a lot of people get away with treating it like it's an ebike just not doing anything dumb. Because it's electric it will "fly under the radar" haha I say that because I was ripping around my neighborhood late last night tuning my bike and no one seems to notice.

I have heard recently on ADVrider someone has ridden the Tran America Trail on a DSR so it's definitely possible on an electric bike to go adventure riding.

The Light Bee will go about 20 miles of hard offroad riding before it runs out of juice. For me that's enough to ride the entirety of Metcalf Motorcycle Park.

The other bikes I'm not sure I think the FX will go about 30 miles and the Alta probably roughly the same.

The DSR could probably go around 50 miles I'm thinking. But don't quote me on that maybe someone who actually dual sports a DSR might chime in.

A suggestion is get an E mountain bike, then you can legit ride trails and you wouldn't get too sweaty doing it and if you ran out of power you can still pedal.
 
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I can't imagine a lot of people doing hill climbs at Carnegie on a Zero DSR. The Zero FX and the Freeride E-XC have the same weight, and weigh the same as a legit 250cc dirt bike. The FX and E-XC are much more credible contenders than the DSR.

I agree you're not going to be able to take either of them cross-country due to the range, but if you really are relentless enough to drain a Zero FX at an OHV park, you might be able to charge it right there. There are electric motorcycle charging stations at Carnegie, at least.
 
Tremelune said:
I have this dream of riding around someplace illegal, .
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how illegal are we talking about? lol :)


jwb said:
I can't imagine a lot of people doing hill climbs at Carnegie on a Zero DSR. The Zero FX and the Freeride E-XC have the same weight, and weigh the same as a legit 250cc dirt bike. The FX and E-XC are much more credible contenders than the DSR.
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i haven't seen a zero at metcalf yet, only the ktm freeride, the owner says it was down on power and range, but he's used to a 2 stroke and bought the ktm for his girlfriend.
 
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There are EV chargers at Carnegie however your motorcycle needs to have a J1772 outlet which a FX does not have and a DSR needs the Charge tank accessory to use it. If you can find an outlet you can charge it or bring a generator. You can however get an adapter that allows you to plug the onboard charger to a J1772 outlet or to an offboard charger.

I've seen a FX complete a harescramble at Hollister before BTW
 
HadesOmega said:
There are EV chargers at Carnegie however your motorcycle needs to have a J1772 outlet...
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That's cool Carnegie has a level 2 charger. I think all State and Federal parks should have modern charging infrastructure. Would make some of the more remote areas more accessible.
 
Interesting news:

After Italian electric motorcycle manufacturer Energica announced recently that it would not be extending its agreement to produce racing electric motorcycles for the FIM Enel MotoE racing league, speculation regarding a possible replacement ran rampant. Now Ducati has ended the mystery, announcing that it will become the sole supplier of electric sport bikes for the series from 2023-2026.
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https://electrek.co/2021/10/21/duca...cles-to-supply-e-motorcycles-for-motoe-races/

Maybe we will see some Ducati electric motorcycles on sale in the next 5 years :party
 
MikeL said:
That's cool Carnegie has a level 2 charger. I think all State and Federal parks should have modern charging infrastructure. Would make some of the more remote areas more accessible.
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Yup check it out. You need to ask the rangers working at the gate to unlock it for you. I used it when I rode my Empulse (RIP) out to the Carnegie Classic Hillclimb races.

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Kind of a bummer Ducati is taking over MotoE instead of just adding bikes to the field.
 
R3DS!X said:
Kind of a bummer Ducati is taking over MotoE instead of just adding bikes to the field.
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Agreed...I would have much preferred to see a multi-manufacturer series in MotoE (provided the manufacturers have a production equivalent like in other race series).

Still, it'll be interesting to see what Ducati fields in 2023.
 
Maybe WSBK will add an E class
 
Yeah I want to see Energica and Ducati duke it out.
 
jwb said:
I can't imagine a lot of people doing hill climbs at Carnegie on a Zero DSR. The Zero FX and the Freeride E-XC have the same weight, and weigh the same as a legit 250cc dirt bike. The FX and E-XC are much more credible contenders than the DSR.
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The FX weighs starts out at 247 lbs, 289 with the larger battery. My 2018 KTM 450SXF was only 223 lbs and it makes a HUGE difference when actually using it. The 250 should be slightly less weight. I went from a 238lb 2013 YZ450F to that 2018 KTM 450SXF and it was a night and day in every aspect.

FX would be more interesting if you could swap out for KTM PDS swingarm/shock and forks.

If Flux turns out to be equal or better than the Alta redshift then I would be game if a more reputable company buys them out.
 
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