Schnellbandit
I see 4 lights!
Warning, this is a long OP; it isn't a data thing that can be dissected through statistics but IMO contrasts electric motorcycles against motorcycles. It's all just opinion here, no links, no references, no studies.
The post is long, the question are at the end in bold.
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This thread is about the question of electric motorcycles and their benefits vs their disadvantages. The benefits of electric motorcycles are well known, from lower energy costs to less maintenance and then the big one, GREEN (as if motorcycles are even on the list of things driving the elephant in the room-climate change, regardless of your position on the matter). Owners of electric motorcycles talk about those benefits but rarely mention the disadvantages and no, I am not referring to the "R" word - range. Eventually, electric motorcycles will start to have a decent range not always cited with a qualifier such as "city" riding (who the heck rides more than 100 miles in a day in the city and who every gave a care about city range on a motorcycle anyway?). The disadvantages I'm referring to is the loss soul or motorcycling, the essence so to speak, the things we can't quantify but can qualify as they make use feel great and long after the ride is over the things we remember. This essence is what wakes us up in the middle of the night if we hear it, stirs our souls if we smell it, lights up our eyes and make us dream if we see it and with our eyes closed, our hearing cut off from the outside world and our noses rendered almost useless because the air is filtered through a face mask, balaclava or zipped up to the nose jacket our entire body can feel it. It's the essence of the motorcycle and the Electric Transportaion Device or ETD simply doesn't have the capacity to provide it.
The most mundane motorcycle has the essence of motorcycling.
The rider does not bring the essence of motorcycling to the activity, the rider is a partner with the motorcycle in creating it and for that to happen certain things need to exist, things which the
Electric motorcycles take all that away because they operate in some sterile bubble of vibrationless, smell-less, soundless and designless (the under the tank box that looks like it came straight out of a tupperware party) and communicationless transportation product.
When you start your motorcycle (another thing electric motorcycles don't do-you turn them on like an appliance)you immediately hear and feel it. The electric motorcycle remains mute as if it's afraid to say anything. There is silence, with an indicator light you wouldn't even know it could move. The motorcycle tells you it's ready, or not, depending on how it talks to you. It says something no ETD could ever manage. If all is well the motorcycle says something else, it says "let's go somewhere". The where somewhere is has no importance as you have the choice of where that is. It could be around the corner or a corner 3000 miles away but the important thing is you have the choice, a choice because you were asked the question. The entire time you ride a motorcycle it talks to you. It questions your choices, your desires and demands answers. The tachometer or how the RPM range sounds make you think about what the engine is doing. The engine vibrates and tells you if it's ok or needs a respite or upshift. You can't ignore it or you risk peril.
You head out and without looking you have a close idea how fast or slow you are going. It isn't silent or zinging like the ETD is, it makes you a partner in the velocity you're going and the faster you go the more it becomes your partner in that communication between machine and human than no ETD can even begin to mimick. As you ride the motorcycle envelops all your senses, it doesn't isolate you from them.
You stop and your senses are bombarded with the smell of the engine, the heat that wafts up from the cylinders and exhaust headers. Behind you or below you the exhausts burble, pop, grunt, belch, loudly or softly, maybe somewhere in between but you hear it and feel it. The ETD sit there not even bothering enough to say it's on. Basically it doesn't care what you do, it will sit there until the headlight finally drains it of it's silent existence. The motorcycle won't sit there waiting for a silent death, it will jumble, make you hot and make you feel the urgency to ride.
The ETD doesn't care if you ride or not, it's perfectly happy to sit there doing absolutely nothing as if it were some sewing machine. Leave it there and come back 2 years later and it will look the same and be as silent as it was when you left it there. Your motorcycle won't just sit there, it will demand you pay it some attention and threaten you with punishment if you don't. Leave it sit just a little too long and when you start it, it will immediately tell you things as if it is unhappy but it will say hello. The ETD will not even bother to say hello.
I've gone on long enough but by now you have the picture of what I'm talking about.
The three questions I'll leave you with are:
1. Are you willing to give up the essence of what motorcycling is really about in favor of an antiseptic, silent, unfeeling "device" that is the ETD?
2. In our rush to tout "Green" in motorcycling did we forget to ask ourselves if we should embrace giving up the essence of motorcycling or are we doing it just because we can?
3.When the essence of motorcycling is gone there will be no getting it back. Anything made up, created by technology, synthesized through a sound system will just be what someone else has decided you can experience. it won't be an experience, it won't be anything more than an app on your phone. We'll get there soon enough but is it really so important to make that happen as fast as possible?
The post is long, the question are at the end in bold.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This thread is about the question of electric motorcycles and their benefits vs their disadvantages. The benefits of electric motorcycles are well known, from lower energy costs to less maintenance and then the big one, GREEN (as if motorcycles are even on the list of things driving the elephant in the room-climate change, regardless of your position on the matter). Owners of electric motorcycles talk about those benefits but rarely mention the disadvantages and no, I am not referring to the "R" word - range. Eventually, electric motorcycles will start to have a decent range not always cited with a qualifier such as "city" riding (who the heck rides more than 100 miles in a day in the city and who every gave a care about city range on a motorcycle anyway?). The disadvantages I'm referring to is the loss soul or motorcycling, the essence so to speak, the things we can't quantify but can qualify as they make use feel great and long after the ride is over the things we remember. This essence is what wakes us up in the middle of the night if we hear it, stirs our souls if we smell it, lights up our eyes and make us dream if we see it and with our eyes closed, our hearing cut off from the outside world and our noses rendered almost useless because the air is filtered through a face mask, balaclava or zipped up to the nose jacket our entire body can feel it. It's the essence of the motorcycle and the Electric Transportaion Device or ETD simply doesn't have the capacity to provide it.
The most mundane motorcycle has the essence of motorcycling.
The rider does not bring the essence of motorcycling to the activity, the rider is a partner with the motorcycle in creating it and for that to happen certain things need to exist, things which the
Electric motorcycles take all that away because they operate in some sterile bubble of vibrationless, smell-less, soundless and designless (the under the tank box that looks like it came straight out of a tupperware party) and communicationless transportation product.
When you start your motorcycle (another thing electric motorcycles don't do-you turn them on like an appliance)you immediately hear and feel it. The electric motorcycle remains mute as if it's afraid to say anything. There is silence, with an indicator light you wouldn't even know it could move. The motorcycle tells you it's ready, or not, depending on how it talks to you. It says something no ETD could ever manage. If all is well the motorcycle says something else, it says "let's go somewhere". The where somewhere is has no importance as you have the choice of where that is. It could be around the corner or a corner 3000 miles away but the important thing is you have the choice, a choice because you were asked the question. The entire time you ride a motorcycle it talks to you. It questions your choices, your desires and demands answers. The tachometer or how the RPM range sounds make you think about what the engine is doing. The engine vibrates and tells you if it's ok or needs a respite or upshift. You can't ignore it or you risk peril.
You head out and without looking you have a close idea how fast or slow you are going. It isn't silent or zinging like the ETD is, it makes you a partner in the velocity you're going and the faster you go the more it becomes your partner in that communication between machine and human than no ETD can even begin to mimick. As you ride the motorcycle envelops all your senses, it doesn't isolate you from them.
You stop and your senses are bombarded with the smell of the engine, the heat that wafts up from the cylinders and exhaust headers. Behind you or below you the exhausts burble, pop, grunt, belch, loudly or softly, maybe somewhere in between but you hear it and feel it. The ETD sit there not even bothering enough to say it's on. Basically it doesn't care what you do, it will sit there until the headlight finally drains it of it's silent existence. The motorcycle won't sit there waiting for a silent death, it will jumble, make you hot and make you feel the urgency to ride.
The ETD doesn't care if you ride or not, it's perfectly happy to sit there doing absolutely nothing as if it were some sewing machine. Leave it there and come back 2 years later and it will look the same and be as silent as it was when you left it there. Your motorcycle won't just sit there, it will demand you pay it some attention and threaten you with punishment if you don't. Leave it sit just a little too long and when you start it, it will immediately tell you things as if it is unhappy but it will say hello. The ETD will not even bother to say hello.
I've gone on long enough but by now you have the picture of what I'm talking about.
The three questions I'll leave you with are:
1. Are you willing to give up the essence of what motorcycling is really about in favor of an antiseptic, silent, unfeeling "device" that is the ETD?
2. In our rush to tout "Green" in motorcycling did we forget to ask ourselves if we should embrace giving up the essence of motorcycling or are we doing it just because we can?
3.When the essence of motorcycling is gone there will be no getting it back. Anything made up, created by technology, synthesized through a sound system will just be what someone else has decided you can experience. it won't be an experience, it won't be anything more than an app on your phone. We'll get there soon enough but is it really so important to make that happen as fast as possible?
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