| Author | Message | ||
     Ridenusa4l |
http://brammo.com/store/brammo-empulse/index-fb.ph p what yall think....interesting but the range is the crap part.. Jake | ||
| Midknyte |
Sharp. That it looks like a regular (real) bike is appealing. | ||
| Greg_e |
The 10 would be very close for me, if I could charge it at work it would do the job. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
you know if I run it to work, plug it into the grid and not pay for recharging, then it works as a commuter  | ||
| 86129squids |
Given realistic, not too far A to B commutes, I'd do it. Actually, watching the cost of gasoline, what the heck... | ||
| Slaughter |
http://www.zeromotorcycles.com A number of ex-Buell R&D folks work there - not the least of which is Abe Askenazi! Higbee raced their bike at Infineon (video on website) | ||
| Stirz007 |
Wow - those batteries are spendy. Doing a little reverse math, the bike costs 4K(euros), batteries are the rest. It costs an extra grand for every ten miles of range... And of course, no outlets in the parking lot, so I'd have to get the 10.0 just to get to work and back. What is the expected battery life? Bottom line, pretty cool and 'feel-good' tech, but what is the actual operating life-cycle cost - anyone know? (cost per mile traveled, including power cost)?? | ||
| Maximum |
The empulse is the closest electric I have seen to meeting my wants (not needs), but I would still like to have more range...and the weight of the empulse 6. Technology is getting closer...and I am rooting for the guys at Zero because of the Buell connection. | ||
| Jaimec |
I see the Empulse 10 as a very practical commuter alternative. 100mph top end is way more than I realistically need (and more than enough to ride the highway) and a 100 mile range is more than enough to get me to work and back without requiring a recharge. Hell, any one of them would work fine for my commute, but I might as well go for the maximum range. | ||
| Al_lighton |
If it is targeted towards a commuter market, it should have commuter ergos. The bike looks more like it has sport bike ergos. Back before I became a Buell guy, I used to commute on a sport bike, and one day had the epiphany that commuting on a sportbike, at least with a commute that is heavy traffic laden, makes no more sense than using a Ferrari for that purpose. Lots of wrist weight with a leaned forward riding position makes no sense in stop and go, sub-60 MPH riding. At least the electric bike wouldn't make you clutch-in, clutch-out repeatedly like my commute did. The resultant forearm pump of continuous clutching was one aspect of commuting on a sportbike that really grew tiresome. My current commute to the shop is 7 miles each way, against traffic, with no freeway. An electric bike would really make sense for a commute like that. I'd use up the charge on those bikes just in the distance it takes me to get to and from the real sport bike roads up in the mountains here. Al | ||
| Swordsman |
a 100 mile range is more than enough to get me to work and back without requiring a recharge. Ah, but how slow do you have to go to achieve the stated ranges? Probably about 35mph, from what I've seen out of other electric vehicles. Seems like the closer you get to normal traffic speed, battery life decreases exponentially. There's good reason these companies never post a range at a given speed. They'd never sell any. I think they should make fold-out solar panels that store away somewhere on the bike. Pop 'em out when you get to work, soak up what you can. Most businesses aren't going to let you run up their power bill. I'd be curious to see a clear comparison between the Zeros and the Brammos in terms of power and range. Brammo definitely takes the prize for styling. And I wonder if some of Zero's website claims about being the "only" this and that are still accurate... ~SM (Message edited by Swordsman on December 07, 2010) | ||
| Greg_e |
Right, it certainly won't go 100 miles at 100mph, probably closer to 50 miles at that speed depending on wind and hills. | ||
| Swordsman |
At 100mph, I bet you'd be lucky to get 25 miles. Heck, doing that on a gas-burner chews up some serious fuel. ~SM | ||
| Jaimec |
Ah, but I only "need" to do 70 mph to keep up with traffic, and only "need" to do 30 miles round trip. http://www.gizmag.com/brammo-empulse-electric-moto rcycle/15717/ | ||
| Reepicheep |
I forgot where I saw them, but there were some pretty staggering numbers. Like "fuel" for the bike, if you go 30 miles a day, would be $50... per year! Or something insanely close to zero like that. Solar would need large panels to be practical to recharge all day. Practical if they are mounted somewhere, but not something you could carry on the bike. I'd bet a lot of companies would tolerate electric vehicle recharging stations if you did the work to grind it through the corporate channels. A solar panel covered car park would be even cooler, but would get very spendy very fast. Heck, long term, make charging stations coin / credit card operated. You pay both by the watt, and by the amount of time you tie up the station. | ||
| Court |
It would PERFECT for me in New York City. I currently commute in my Ford F-150, spend about $65 every other day on gas, $28.00 per day on tolls and parking varies but for the sake of this discussion, assume about $2.50 per hour (I just plopped the 4th $2.50 of the day on the meter about 5 minutes ago). Times are changing. | ||
| Stirz007 |
Court - I was under the impression you were kinda smart.... (maybe you're just crazy) .... no offense intended. By my calculations, you are spending almost $20K per year on your commute - OUCH!!!!! I thought I was stupid for driving my Tacoma 45 miles each way, every day - currently running about $10-12 bucks in gas per day. Thats's $50 a week or $2500/year - not my brightest move ever. I'm sure I could figure out how to better spend that money if I thought I had a good alternative. It's all about time. Public transport would cost me about $5 per day, but will add about 3 hours of time each and every day - Right now, my time is more valuable to me than my carbon footprint - again, stupid, but that's how it is. Reep - at about $0.07 per kWh, the power is way cheap - agreed. Still - how often do you have to replace the battery packs? It would really suck to have to replace 10K ($13,500 in american money) worth of batteries every couple of years. - As an aside, I am working on a new LEED certified facility that will be set up for hybrid/electric vehicle parking, including all the gizmos (smart grid, rooftop PVA's, etc.), so the industry is certainly headed that way - I bet it would not be that hard to get corporate to buy in to your ideas, depending on what the corporation is. PVA's are still a bit too spendy to pencil out as cost-effective - more often than not, they are there as a 'feel-good' item, not to actually be a cost saver. But the market continues to evolve and it doesn't take much of a price spike in gasoline to swing the pendulum toward renewable powered vehicles. | ||
| Firebolt020283 |
if I got an electric bike I would have to put a card on the spokes like we all used to do as kids on our bycicles so it would at least sound like a motorcycle... but seriously I hate the whole electric vehicle deal... I want to be able to have something I can go some were on. At least my gas engine I can go from state to state with out having to wait 4 hours for it to recharge, two minutes at a gas station and I am back on the road. | ||
| 86129squids |
As a side note- there was news last week about Cracker Barrel restaurants setting up electric recharge stations at about 27 of their stores... most of them seemed to be around the TN/KY area. As far as restaurants go, these guys are pretty smart- I'd like to know more about their decision making processes, i.e. demographic trends, etc. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Anybody know if these things have regenerative braking? | ||
| Jaimec |
Mr_Grumpy: Not yet. Standard disks. | ||
| Greatnorthrider |
I just put my pre-order in for a Brammo Inerita+. (80 mile range, top speed around 60) I commute 40 miles round trip each day...Country driving with only 2 stoplights. This little bike should be able to do the task easily and for around .18 cents of electricity. I'll use the Uly for the long trips.  | ||
| Reepicheep |
Based on real world data from Prius / Insights... 10 year battery life may be a reasonable expectation. And by then, I'm guessing there will be great alternatives available that will both last longer and be cheaper. So it's hard to quantify, but the math could work if you can life with the range limitations of the platform. (Message edited by reepicheep on December 07, 2010) | ||
| Joseb |
I'd consider one if I was somehow guaranteed it wouldn't need to be recharged between my commute. It's 28 miles each way and it's all surface streets with lots of lights and traffic. As of right now there are no provisions at my office for recharging an EV. The Brammo sure does look nice though... | ||
| Stirz007 |
Reep - thanks, good info. JM | ||
| Andymnelson |
That's almost exactly my scenario- 7 miles north in the morning (when traffic is headed south), except I have a freeway option. This bike would be fun for my commute! | ||
| Charlie_zulu |
Man that might be perfect for me. My commute is 25 miles one way with little to no elevation change and to top it off , I work at a powerplant. 12 hr shifts and plugged in the entire time... Might be worth it. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Hell Charlie, they'd probably pay you for the publicity.  | ||
| Reepicheep |
Don't thank me Stirz, I got the info from Froggy.  | ||
| Charlie_zulu |
"Hell Charlie, they'd probably pay you for the publicity." Hey, good idea... |
