Ron George
Active member
It sounded too good to be true and it is.If there was any ride with that sort of range & recharge time I could work with that.Yet it could all become obsolete with new tech anyway.
Would you buy a Tesla Motorcycle?
- Thread starter stan23
- Start date
Killroy1999
Well-known member
Do you really ride a motorcycle for 250 Miles without stopping? They do make fast chargers for motorcycles.
A Zero SR with the "Power Tank" has a 202 mile city range and weighs 458 lb.
Some hobbyists add extra battery "bricks" and you could for a for ~243 miles city and ~502 lb.
The good thing about a larger battery is that you can add miles of range faster without crossing the 1C very safe limit.
You probably want to drive faster than "city" speeds. Well if you are doing 80 MPH the range will cut in half, but if you are riding at a speed not trying to get a ticket in the Santa Cruz Mountains, then you will get ~85% of city range.
Like I said before, a extreme example of a streamlined Zero with extra batteries, got 300 miles range at 70 MPH.
Killroy1999
Well-known member
Tesla has delivered 100+ Model 3, but if you wanted to buy one you would have to get in a line with ~450,000. They are going to be very busy in Fremont. Try and not fuck up, Tesla. :laughing
NorCalAthlete
O_o
I just want a 250-300 lb electric supermoto with 200 miles of range, 10 minutes charge time, and 200 nm of torque. Sound good? Cool. :laughing
Every time I've ridden an E-bike, it makes me grateful that I have both a bicycle and a motorcycle. E-bikes seem like a shitty compromise of both.
I haven't ridden an electric motorcycle yet, but I'm looking forward to the chance. I've heard nothing but good about it. I love the idea of using Tesla's supercharging network, but dollars to donuts that they're not gonna be where I want to go riding.
Archimedes
Fire Watcher
Yeahhh, but they've been trying to make that leap in vehicles since 1979 and yet here we sit, 38 years later, and range is still a barrier to broad adoption of EVs.
This thread title could just as easily have read 'Would you buy a Tesla time machine?'
Well sure I would, but I don't think one's coming anytime soon.
Archimedes
Fire Watcher
These anecdotal examples are nonsense. Real world, E motos that don't weight 500 pounds have about a 50-60 mile commuting range, ridden fairly conservatively. Ride them hard and you get about 30 miles. Is that a useful range for you?
And they take 3-6 hours to charge.
I think an e-Bike would be awesome, but the range isn't there for anything but commuting, they're very heavy and they're ridiculously expensive. 10-15 years from now, maybe it's a different story.
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NeverSayDie
Well-known member
Electric is the future, but I'm going to miss the sound and feel of internal combustion.
Caddywumpus
4N631
Electric Gear driven Cams!
Joebar4000
Well-known member
I borrowed an S from work for a few days this past weekend, and I'm sitting at the Supercharger at 450 volts and 130 amps (HOLY FUCK!), and this er, rather attractive lady pulls up next to me to do the same, and I started wondering, is this going to turn into some new social dynamic on meeting people? I have to wonder how many people have become friends/hooked up after meeting during charging :sex
But yes, it seems obvious that shops, cafes and restaurants could provide charging while you shop, and offer some kind of discount for spending X amount in their store.
The days of centralized power production are numbered.
Imagine when you can charge at work, on solar power, and then reverse part of that when you get home, to run your home. Or charging at the grocery store for some discounted rate. Small businesses get to make money selling you power - and goods.
Back to the topic in hand, can't believe it took pages to mention Zero Motorcycles.
The time to charge is only going to be an issue on longer trips when you don't want to stop.
I think supercapacitors will eventually change all this - charging will be almost as fast as a gasoline refill, and pack degradation is essentially nil. Vehicles will last basically forever, except for bearings/crash damage.
Until then, hydrogen fuel cells as an addition to EV's may be the answer for long-distance trips.
Dunno if they can make them small/light enough for a bike, however :/
Killroy1999
Well-known member
The weight is a factor, but not a big deal.
My 2015 Zero SR 12.5 kW without the added battery (power tank) has a 130 mile range in the Santa Cruz Mountains, can 80% charge in 1hr with 7.9 kW of onboard charging and weighs ~424 lb with the accessory Diginow charger.
Most of my charging is with a normal 110 V outlet at ~1.3 kW for ~2 hrs because I don't need a fast charge when commuting.
A BMW 1200 GS weights 582 lb wet. I'm 5'6" 158 lb and after riding a borrowed GS for 3000 miles, I don't thing the weight is a big deal, IMHO. Not my cup of tea, but doable.
A lot of 600 weight more wet than my bike:
-CBR650F ('14) 465 lb
-Ninja 650 ('14) 467 lb
-YZF-R6 ('13). 426 lb
Sure you can find 600 that weight less, but its not like we are racing here.
http://www.sportrider.com/tech/sportbike-weights-and-measurements
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Joebar4000
Well-known member
Holy shit! You're getting over 10 miles per Kwh in the hills? I knew the bike would be way better than a car, but, dayum. I'm lucky if I see 3.5miles per kwh, and I see more like 1.5mi/kwh in the hills, although that's driving like a twat, I'll admit.
Have to wonder if a universal battery pack swap wouldn't be actually very viable for a bike - they are small enough that you can manhandle them without special equipment, especially if you divvied them into modules.
mean dad
Well-known member
Killroy1999
Well-known member
The Zero FX can battery swap. It may be rarely useful. Tesla Demoed battery swap and had a pilot program with customers, but Tesla abandoned it because of lack of customer interest.
Supercharging is fairly easy without a lot of manpower standing by. I imagine battery swap stations could be un-manned, but they would probably have someone there just in case.