I think the problem with many electric bikes or cars are there being designed by ECO freaks that hate internal combustion engines (ICE) or maybe they just don't think to use a ICE for power. The alternate energy people never seem to show a comparison of energy density for batteries or compressed gas compared to gasoline or diesel. Energy Per Kilogram in Mega-Joules Gasoline or Diesel 46 EEStor ultracap .7 to 1 Lithium Ion (In Use) .26 Lead Acid .1 The golden opportunity would be to build a series hybrid that uses a much smaller ICE/generator to deliver average power (maybe 10HP) and a ultra-capacitor to deliver peek power and store braking power. This would eliminated the expensive and inadequate batteries. Think about all the times you hill climb with 40hp only to brake on the way down or accelerate on the straight away only to hard brake into the corner. I would someday like to install a torque and speed sensor with a data logger on my bike and see just how much average power is consumed on a typical trail ride. Just my 2 cents!
As much as I love internal combustion engines, you can't deny their inherent inefficiency. It just does not make sense to have so many moving parts and polluting oils, coolants and fuels in a product. Yes people will say an electric motor uses batteries that have dangerous and harmful metals and chemicals inside them but they are inside the battery and can't leak out. Once the battery is worn out it can go to an authorised recycling centre that has the equipment to deal with it. An engine is 25% efficient, i.e. the energy converted from the fuel is only 25% going into forward motion, the rest wasted on internal frictions, drive train losses, noise, etc. An electric motor is 90% efficient. Remember those lil motors inside RC cars you had as a kid? Take one apart and see how many moving parts there are. Just one. An electric motor kills an internal combustion engine in efficiency and therefore power. Electric vehicles really are the way forward and as much as I love the emotions that go with an ICE I cannot allow myself to be a luddite and deride electric technology just because I prefer combustion engines that use fossil fuels (inefficiently at that). An electric dual sport will be a welcome innovation and I would love to own one.
Wow dig up an old thread, I like the engine to power battery and power capacitor for peek demand. I will be all over one as soon as it will last a full 3 hour hare and hounds enduro. I mean full length at 1/2-3/4 throttle, and all covered up in mud extra drag on the unit. Then and only then I will sell up a few bikes and buy one.
I love the smell of fossil fuel, the feel of toxic lubricants and coolant on my hands. I like that it takes some skill to work on these dinosaurs and all that good stuff. The ICE is what has made the world a wonderful, connected, and smaller place. Ships, trucks, trains and planes are what bring the food and products to us so we can take them for granted. Electric stuff is OK, but IMHO until they can produce a battery system that doesn't wear out, can solar charge on the go at a rate faster than draw down while in use, has a capacity that can measured in days instead of hours, and hundreds of miles instead of tens of miles, and has no need to be plugged into an electrical outlet the likely gets power from a fossil fuel generating plant, it's just a toy that has no practical use. The only reason to get an electric car or bike is because you live, work, shop, eat, and play within the charge range of the toy to be of any use.
Very true. It annoys me how certain militant tree hugger types (not sure if you get these in the US) rail on the ICE like it is devil incarnate. They conveniently forget how modern society was build on the combustion engine. Also I agree with you about working on them, even though it is counter intuitive, something would feel like it was missing from an EV, with hardly any components in the power plant.
