{"id":1904,"date":"2018-12-23T07:03:25","date_gmt":"2018-12-23T15:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=1904"},"modified":"2021-03-16T19:44:23","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T02:44:23","slug":"dream-bikes-the-ideal-electric-motorcycle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2018\/12\/23\/dream-bikes-the-ideal-electric-motorcycle\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ideal Electric Motorcycle"},"content":{"rendered":"

I like to read the ExhaustNotes blog. In the aerospace industry, if you liked what your team created too much, we called it drinking your own bath water. The risk in drinking your own bath water was that you lost sight of what was important to the customer and you stopped reviewing your work objectively.\u00a0 Anyway, every once in a while I\u2019ll read through the blog to see what looks good and what we could maybe do better. And in doing that I realized that old Arjiu<\/em> and I hadn\u2019t done a dream bike piece recently.<\/p>\n

That brings us to today and the dream bike bit du jour<\/em>:\u00a0 The Ideal Electric Motorcycle.<\/strong> I\u2019m going to define the specs for what I think would be a riotously successful electric motorcycle.\u00a0 Bear with me…I think this is going to be good, which can sometimes happen even with bath water.<\/p>\n

I guess the first order of business is to consider the current crop of ebikes’ weaknesses.\u00a0 That’s easy.\u00a0 Limited range, limited top speed, long recharge times, clunky and bulky external chargers (for some bikes), and the biggest one of all (at least to me):\u00a0 A near complete lack of cool. Yeah, I\u2019m defining the specs for an ebike that would do well in the US, and the lack of cool is a very big deal.\u00a0 We have to address that. It\u2019s a serious shortfall in all the ebikes I\u2019ve seen.\u00a0 I mean, nobody visualizes themselves as Steve McQueen jumping a fence in Nazi Germany on an ebike.\u00a0 Nobody thinks of themselves as Peter Fonda kickstarting a silent ebike to take Nancy Sinatra for a ride.<\/p>\n

Remember that old Harley ad? The one that showed a toddler in a Harley T-shirt with the this question at the bottom: When did it start for you?<\/strong> That ad says it all. I know for me, and I suspect for nearly all of you, our fascination with motorcycles originated when we were wee ones and we saw a motorcycle that stopped us in our Buster Brown tracks. You know what I\u2019m talking about. A bike that made us just stop and stare, usually for a long period of time. I have two such recollections: One was a 1950\u2019s era Harley Duo-Glide dresser (with a monstrous V-twin engine, corrugated exhaust headers, and drop-dead-deep-gorgeous paint); the other was a \u201964 500cc Triumph twin (white with gold accents, pea-shooter mufflers, Triumph\u2019s \u201cparcel grid\u201d on the gas tank, a matching tach and speedo, and those magnificent, sweeping exhaust headers). Yeah, those bikes defined cool. They were visually arresting things. None of the ebikes currently on the market do that for me. Like my old platoon sergeant used to say, this is something we need to talk about.<\/p>\n

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Serious cool. Visually arresting. I’m not saying an ebike should look like a Panhead, but a Panhead has a cool factor that no current ebike possesses. We need to address that.\u00a0 We need to find a way to have an ebike elicit the same kind of irrational, emotional, I-need-this-in-my-life response.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Okay, enough reminiscing. Let\u2019s get to the specs. The way I see it, we need to address weight, size, top end, range, recharging, cost, comfort, and the cool factor. Here we go, boys and girls…<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s hit the elephant in the room first, and that\u2019s the range issue. We need more. Nobody has a motorcycle with decent range. The City Slicker, under best case conditions (I\u2019m talking low speeds and summer temperatures) can do about 60 miles, maybe a scosh more, and obtaining the last few miles involves really low speeds and lots of prayer. Zero claims much greater range, but every magazine that\u2019s tested the Zero shoots those claims down with a heartfelt dismissal that goes along the lines of \u201cin your dreams, Zero.\u201d Nope, the range on the current crop of ebikes just isn\u2019t where it needs to be yet. Where is that? Hey, I\u2019m writing the spec. I\u2019d say 250 miles. Put an ebike out there that can go an honest 250 miles at normal speeds, and I\u2019m in. I think that should be doable at a reasonable price (I\u2019ll say more on that in a bit). Yeah, a 250-mile range would make an ebike viable for me.<\/p>\n

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We want range, and lots of it. If an ebike had a range of 250 miles and a recharge time of 30 minutes, I could ride to Mama Espinoza’s in El Rosario, charge the bike while I was enjoying one of the old gal’s lobster burritos, and make it all the way to Guerrero Negro in a day. Where do I sign?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next up: Recharging. Look, the bottom line is I don\u2019t want to wait 8 hours to recharge a bike. As long as I\u2019m writing the spec and dreaming out loud, I\u2019d like to see a sub-30-minute recharge time. When I stop at a gas station, it\u2019s about 10 minutes to pull up to the pump, put the bike on the sidestand, get off, take off my gloves, unlock the fuel cap, get out my wallet, put the credit card in the gas pump, enter my zip code, pick the octane level I want, take the nozzle out of the pump, peel back the nozzle’s foreskin so the fuel will flow (hey, we live in Kalifornia), put fuel in the tank, and then reverse the process. Add another rider or maybe another ten riders (if I\u2019m on one of my Baja tours and I\u2019m being my usual hardass self about not wasting time), and a fuel stop grows to maybe 30 minutes. I\u2019m used to that, and that\u2019s what I want in an ebike: Quick replenishment. That\u2019s beyond the current state of the art, but don’t tell me we can’t do it.\u00a0 The solution is obvious: We need to change the state of the art.<\/p>\n

On the recharger, I want it built into the bike, with a simple cord that pulls out of the bike to plug in someplace (kind of like you get on a vacuum cleaner). Give me a 15-foot cord and I\u2019m good to go. I don\u2019t want to screw around with an external power converter, because then I’d have to find a place to carry it on the bike.\u00a0 Build that thing into the motorcycle.\u00a0 Zero has the right idea on this one.<\/p>\n

I think an 85-mph top speed is good. I know, I know…maybe you\u2019re one of those guys:\u00a0 Ah need at least a 1000cc and Ah need to go at least a hunnert else they\u2019ll run me down on the freeway.\u00a0<\/em> If that\u2019s you, don\u2019t waste any more time here; go back to posting stupid stuff on Facebook and the other forums. Here\u2019s the deal: I\u2019ve been riding for a few years, and the times I\u2019ve needed to go above 85 mph are few and far between. In fact, I\u2019ve never<\/span> actually \u201cneeded\u201d to go over 85.\u00a0 Adding top end takes a big bite out of an ebike. I\u2019m willing to give up stupid top end to get more range, shorter recharge times, and less weight. So, 85 mph it is. Give me that in an ebike and I\u2019m a happy camper.<\/p>\n

I want a reasonable amount of stowage space so I can do Baja without bungee cords. Some folks look like they\u2019re moving when they go on an overnight motorcycle trip. \u00a0 I’ve ridden with those guys.\u00a0 They and their bikes are like the opening Beverly Hillbillies<\/em> scene with Granny on top of the pickup truck (not that\u2019s there\u2019s anything wrong with being a hillbilly, or a Granny, for that matter). The City Slicker has a cool stowage compartment where the fuel tank would be on a gas bike. Something like that would work just fine for me. I don\u2019t need to change my underwear every day on a motorcycle trip.<\/p>\n

The ideal motorcycle (not just an ebike, but any motorcycle, in my opinion) should have a seat height no higher than 30 inches, a weight of 400 lbs or less, and physical dimensions that allow for easy u-turns on two-lane roads. None of this 36-inch seat height, 800-lb silliness.\u00a0 The ergonomics should be straight standard motorcycle, too. No Ricky Racer, stupidly-low-clip-on, first-two-years-of-chiropractor-visits-are-free seating positions.\u00a0 And while I\u2019m on doctor references, no gynecological-exam, silly-ass cruiser seating positions, either.\u00a0 If the designers of my ideal ebike could just get a 2006 KLR 650 and duplicate its handlebar\/seat\/footpeg relationship, that would be fine.\u00a0 My KLR had the best seating position of any motorcycle I\u2019ve ever owned.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d vote for 17-inch rear and 19-inch front wheels because that combo just flat seems to work for damn near everything. I won\u2019t be jumping any logs with my ideal ebike or trying to fly across soft sand, and that eliminates the need for a 21-inch front wheel. And everybody has all kinds of tire combos for the 17\/19 setup. To borrow a phrase, why re-invent the wheel?<\/p>\n

I want a plug-and-play bike with BITE. Not as in \u201cbite me,\u201d but as in built-in-test-equipment (like the aerospace industry uses). That would completely eliminate the need for a dealer (come to think of it, it would also eliminate the need for a shop manual). No obscene, inflated dealer freight and setup fees. Nope, I want factory direct. And if anything goes wrong with the bike, it shows me which module I need to remove and replace. Plug and play. I don\u2019t feel the need to fund an on-the-job-training program for a dealer-based, wannabe motorcycle mechanic. BITE me, baby.<\/p>\n

I think the cost of such a bike should be about $7,500. That feels about right for what a motorcycle should cost.\u00a0 Yeah, I know, you probably couldn’t build it for that in America. \u00a0 Maybe India?\u00a0 Or China?\u00a0 Or maybe you could make it in America.\u00a0 Source the subassemblies wherever you need to, keep the UAW and IAM snouts out of the trough, and assemble the bikes here.\u00a0 Create 30 to 50 US jobs at an assembly plant, preferably in Texas or New Mexico.\u00a0 This is doable, folks.\u00a0 Trust me on this.\u00a0 I used to run manufacturing facilities before I moved up to blogging.\u00a0 We can do this.<\/p>\n

So there you have it. Do all of the above, and folks would beat a digital path to your online direct sales website. Yep, all of the above, at $7,500. That\u2019s the ticket.<\/p>\n

Oh, and one last must have: Electric start.\u00a0 Peter and Nancy (and the rest of the Wild Angels<\/em> cast), my apologies in advance, but no kickers on my ideal electric bike.\u00a0 I know they’re cool, but this is the 21st Century.<\/p>\n

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Want to read more of our ebike stuff?\u00a0 Hey, just click here<\/a>!\u00a0 It’s our new index page with all the good ebike articles we’ve done here on the blog.<\/p>\n

More good stuff.\u00a0 It seems the Chairman of the Southern California Motorcycle Association, my new good buddy Gonzo, is a big fan of the ExhaustNotes.us site. \u00a0 We had a nice conversation yesterday, and Gonzo told me he particularly liked our story on the Jack Daniel’s visit<\/a> (so much so they are running it in their newsletter this month) and our first intro piece on the 2005 Three Flags Classic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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One thing led to another…I’ve been invited to the 2019 Three Flags Classic (boy oh boy, I’m really thinking about that one), and I became an SCMA member.\u00a0 You should be, too, even if you’re not living here in the Southland because SCMA’s events are international in reach. \u00a0 You can join right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And one last thing: \u00a0 Want to win a free copy of one of our moto adventure books<\/a>?\u00a0 You can get in on the drawing if you sign up for automatic email blog updates (the widget is in the upper right corner if you’re on a laptop, and below this article if you read the blog on a phone).\u00a0 We’ll never share your email with anyone else!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I like to read the ExhaustNotes blog. In the aerospace industry, if you liked what your team created too much, we called it drinking your own bath water. The risk in drinking your own bath water was that you lost sight of what was important to the customer and you stopped reviewing your work objectively.\u00a0 … Continue reading “The Ideal Electric Motorcycle”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[235,62,96,64,103,89,280],"tags":[33,35,34,71,127],"class_list":["post-1904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-amazon","category-electric-motorcycles","category-feel-good-stuff","category-gear","category-harley-davidson","category-motorcycle-adventure-ride","category-wild-conjecture","tag-csc-city-slicker","tag-csc-electric-motorcycle","tag-electric-motorcycle","tag-electric-motorcycle-range","tag-zero-electric-motorcycle"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1904"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12562,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1904\/revisions\/12562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}