Modern Vespa

Piaggio seems to be doing better than other manufacturers in this department, but the Elettrica is still way overpriced compared to the gas models.

Batteries batteries batteries. Still the Achilles' heel of all electrics. I wish there was hydrogen powered bikes and scoots

Hydrogen motorcycles are about 20 years away. And always will be.

Like nuclear fusion reactors!

Yes.

Bu, bu, but, they had one of those 20 years ago!!

And how many gigawatts of power is it currently delivering to the grid?

I guess I had heard it was more of a boutique sort of power.
Rare.
Expensive.
Like, oh, I don't know, passenger pigeon feathers.

as long as it's 1.21 gigawatts, i think we'll be fine.

There's one 8 minutes away from your house and it pumps 728GW into the grid.

My small photovoltaic system really pumps 4.7 Kw on the network, no flight of fantasy.
Every Saturday night I make the "fusion" of mozzarella and it works!

I want those pants NOW!!!

Don't confuse fission and fusion. No one has an operating fusion power plant. Recently the Chinese set a world record for sustaining a fusion plasma for a little under two minutes, and it took more power to run it than it produced.

And the joke is they are ten years in the future, not twenty.

Oh, and the Chinese seem to be releasing radioactive gas from their 'new generation' fission plant.

Getting back to the thread, batteries are still too bulky, heavy, and expensive for the power they can store. Won't always be that way, but that's the way it is now. You can conceal those shortcomings in a 2 ton, $100K car, but not in a bike.

Having said that, I'm looking seriously at the Sondors, if they can deliver it for the promised price. Range is not an issue, but I'm intrigued by the nearly-silent running.

They're Klim Switchbacks, which he's recommended in previous videos.

I find the fit really inconsistent in Klim gear: one size will be too small, and the next size up will be too large. They market their gear as the intersection of riding and hiking, but none of it ever fits me. 🤷‍♂️

And there is absolutely no way to get there any faster.

Gotta agree with the the sarcastic video. All the manufacturers are trying to start at the top end. Motorcycle buyers at the top end aren't like car buyers: they're not looking for performance, let alone efficiency. Those with $20k+ to spend on a bike are looking for Harley/Goldwing clones.

Low end, urban assault vehicles would be a much better place to go to start an electric groundswell. Scooters fit into that.

My wife just bought an ebike. That's the end of the spectrum that's going to see growth. I can already sense that she'll take it to work and then want 'the next step up', be it 'e' or 'ICE'. If there's no 'e' there, she'll go 'ICE'.

I seriously considered a Zero a few years back, but 10 grand (CDN) and next to no dealer network made me nervous.

The dealer went under after about two years so I would have been screwed if I'd done it as the next one is a thousand miles away.

ICE ICE, Baby.

Given the way I ride most of the time, nothing electric on two wheels will do the trick. For our household, even a four-wheeled EV won't truly cut it: closest thing Le Wife will touch is Toyota's RAV4 Prime, which is a bit beyond our reach at the moment. And, given how little fuel my current ride (once I get it back...grrrr), I'm a good deal less a "part of the problem" than my four-wheeled brethren, on more than one front.

I do dig the look of Zero's SR/F, though...wicked-sleek.[/i]

EDIT: As of tonight, the household's CFO has agreed with me to immediately replace our ICE lawn mower with a BEV version: the current one just quit on us, and the likely culprit is the carb, which can't be properly rebuilt, but can only be replaced. I said: "your car doesn't use a carb; my bike doesn't use a carb. 'Nuff said." (Apologies to the carb'd Vespisti in the audience: I grok your love for your machines. Lawn mowers don't make the cut here, however.)

I don' t own, but recently had ~150 miles spin with a RAV4 Prime - that's a pure hooligan machine!

The range really is good in real life too and hybrid tech definitely at the best end of the spectrum, but clearly the car is targeted for those who have a secret rally driver lurking inside them. I'm not kidding if I'll mention the name Toyota Supra with this seemingly harmless sleeper car. The acceleration, cabin sounds on the raw side, a tad harsh ride... it really should have more racy interior and bucket seats, a few red stripes is too modest.

On the down side - my trip ended with a boring, straight piece of a motorway... and once you got tired of blasting past unsuspected premium car drivers, attention turned to the rather noisy cabin and, for a car this size, a perhaps a bit too harsh ride....but yeah, probably the king of hybrid tech at the moment....and a perfect second car for those have twice the money for the first car


... on lawn mowers I had the same situation. My old lawn mower was repaired already twice and now the 'clever' , self adjusting valve system started to go south. At the same time, my old heavy duty ICE trimmer developed a mystery electric fault - a mystery in a sense that it only has a few darn wires in it....you'd think that'd be easy to diagnose, but nope.

The result was a new ICE mower and a new electric trimmer. Yes, probably the last ICE mower I'll buy, but now the price-range equation (we have a largish lawn to mowe) was still superior. For a smaller lawn I'd gone electric. Robots were out 'cause I perversely actually like mowing the lawn.
The trimmer was an easier choise as I don't really need a heavy duty one with steel knives anymore. The electric is light and quiet, if somewat guttles.

I do like the Suzuki hack in the vid.

Makes me think that perhaps I should have saved my late VanVan for a bit of electric tuning...

The problem here is that the minimum viable product in the motorcycle space isn't cost-competitive with ICE-powered motorcycles. Since competition on price isn't an option, it's necessary to compete on performance (acceleration, mostly) and status.

There'll probably be expansion upwards from the e-bike category, but there the issues there are the same ones that face scooters: the regulatory environment isn't favorable (extra licensing requirements, lane-splitting prohibitions, parking fees by the car-sized space) and new scooters compete (unfavorably) with used cars in the basic transportation role.

I've mentioned them many times before, but Gogoro is doing very well in Japan and now starting in India. I don't think American culture is conducive to a system like that, though. Personally, I would ride one every day. Escoot with swappable batteries? Sign me up.

And if you haven't seen this, I think we should really keep our eyes on it. By all appearances it makes fission and fusion obsolete. (Looking at you, big concrete dome at Chernobyl.)

It is not the electric motors that are failing ... The problem (always) is the accumulators of electricity.
Fixed the battery problem and everything will be fine.

Atomic energy water heater (boiler), another great Italian idea! Only we can.

(Note: don't try this at home).

Subtitles in 37 languages!

This might solve the problem:

https://www.rideapart.com/news/514216/hydrogen-electric-scooter-prototype-am1/

Or do you think that it will be another thing that is always 2 years away for the next 20 years?

Chris from CLE

To be fair, there is at least one ICE project that is continually out one or two years.

I give you, Elio Motors!

Just watched a debunking video. Guy was really angry and dismissive, but makes a lot of good points.

I retract my last video.

I started my career in physics back when high temperature superconducting ceramics were about to give us levitating cars, powered by home cold fusion reactors. Those were exciting times.

I didn't realize that the "electric sun" folks were making some of the claims they were. When he made the L. Ron Hubbard comparison I knew I was headed to a dark place.

Still all for one of these.

A hundred years ago many of the things being said about today's electric vehicles were being said about ICE. We won't see the electric powered vehicles take over but it will happen.

The large number of ebikes and escooters on the road are an indication of the coming change.

You are aware that lawn mower carbs typically only cost about $15, right? No one invests more than a dime's worth of solvent in attempting to clean them - after that they're just replaced. But they are very simple and often that solvent does the trick.

Vespa $300 carbs are an aberration.

Hmm, a carb for my snowblower from the manufacturer was $160. A similar one from a shop, jetted to work, was $60. One of the e-bay $15 ones was cosmetically and externally similar, but failed to work. Caveat emptor.

And e-motorcycles are not universally failing:

https://electrek.co/2021/06/22/popular-electric-motorcycle-brand-reopens-orders-closes-again-2-hours-later-after-selling-out/#more-186331


Not everyone demands 150 MPH top speed and 300 miles range. Some folks just want to get around.

That was the thesis of the video.

Back to the video, the guy makes some very good points.

First, the industry has it wrong, pushing big, sport and touring motorcycles.

They should be focusing on light, urban transportation.

Which they are by making and selling tons of e-bikes.

Which is sort of what he made from the Suzuki frame and electric kit.

As for range and power, that frame has space for at least two more of those little batteries.

Bill

BMW's electric scooter runs 15" tires and goes 75mph for up to 80 miles. 1h quick charge; 3h from a wall outlet. Their specs mention a secondary battery, but I haven't seen details yet.

Almost a reasonable alternative to the GTS if you can swap batteries, except it's 50% more expensive. I wonder how the battery would actually fare if I rode it like I ride my Vespa.

If I could locate a frame like that Suzuki, I'd build an electric bike similar to his. It'd be a fun project.

Of what you said I only made the cold "leavening" of the pizza.