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Sw, WI
US
Edited Date/Time
1/25/2012 6:23pm
Honda, Yamaha to launch electric motorcycles
Powersports Business
Tuesday September 16, 2008
Honda Motor Corp., and Yamaha Motor Corp., have allegedly set launch dates for electric motorcycles, reported the Nikkei Business Daily.
The paper said Yamaha aims to launch electric motorcycles by 2010 with a range of 60 mph. Honda is expected to launch lithium-ion battery electric motorcycles in 2011. Officials at Honda and Yamaha Motor said they are developing electric motorcycles but have yet to decide specifics.
Powersports Business
Tuesday September 16, 2008
Honda Motor Corp., and Yamaha Motor Corp., have allegedly set launch dates for electric motorcycles, reported the Nikkei Business Daily.
The paper said Yamaha aims to launch electric motorcycles by 2010 with a range of 60 mph. Honda is expected to launch lithium-ion battery electric motorcycles in 2011. Officials at Honda and Yamaha Motor said they are developing electric motorcycles but have yet to decide specifics.
The Shop
1. charge time...... imagine going out and running the battery dry... a "quick" charge will take at least an hour, typically a bit more for a 1C charge rate.... most cells aren't designed for a 2C charge, but even then, at 2C, with the amperage "ramp-down" at the end of charge, you are still looking at over 30 minutes to be back at full charge again....
2. sound.... or lack there of.... you know where your wrist is turned, but without the exhaust note to also indicate the rpm of the engine, expect to get some strange bursts of throttle when you least expect it.....
3. cycle life- no, not motorcycle life... cycle life of the batteries in use..... even the most elite of Li-Ion cells right now can only do 20-30C discharges for perhaps 50 cycles, then the cells need replaced....... what's that mean to you and i? it means that they'll either be slow, or if they are run hard, it'll cost ya in replacing the cells more often.....
4. and perhaps the very worst of the downsides- ridability.... yup.. all that glorious torque from a dead stop should be a good thing, but in dirt bikes with limited grip, it means very difficult to take off from a dead stop..... and... if brushless motors are used, it will take years to develop proper speed controller software to soften up all the strange "hits" and quirks in the powerband.... sensored brushless motors, large electronic speed controllers, with a shitload of settings via your laptop is where we are headed..... various settings for start power, current limiting, motor timing, drag brake, total brake, and the infamous "punch" setting.... oh boy....
5. overdischarge- most speed controllers will include low voltage cut-offs to protect the cells from over discharged while riding.... but, these types of cells will be ruined if allowed to discharge too far.......
6. lithium battery fires................. just google it..... LOL... once these types of cells hit thermal runaway, it's all over folks.... and a raging chemical fire under your seat just isn't fun, nor funny......
i've typed too much sh!t already...... LOL..... but trust me, there are plenty of downsides....
1993 32 MB of ram cost $1400
2008 4 GB of ram costs under $100
You gotta start somewhere. Its not gonna be great the first year, if you don't try to walk from crawling how are you ever gonna run? They build it, I will buy it to support it. The idea tickles me of places I could ride unnoticed.
better yet how cool would it be when the "electric" class lines up, riders could actually hear the spectators....
hell throw the electric bike in the truck, carry a couple spare charged up batterys and your good for the day.
for our riding park which has houses being built close by every year, electric off road is something that will be welcomed big time......................
The lack of noise is going to be a huge boon to off-road riding.
they will "bottle" the smell of race gas, and make ring tones and cd's of mx sounds of yesteryear......then sell it, it's the way things work.
then we will have riders who will have sound checks on the bikes, not for engine noise, but for the speakers being to loud.
Pit Row
What will the exhaust guys do, start making speakers?
Even has a powerbomb....
1. charge time - will no doubt get better in time. not to mention, people take half our breaks between motos anyway
2. sound - easy fix, i'll put baseball cards in my spokes. or someone can develop a small device that we can bolt on to make it sound like a 2t.
3. cycle life - again, do you really think this technology has peaked?
4. youre not exactly an optomist huh?
5. like 1, 3, & 4, if it cant be done today, it will never be done right?
6. fyi, there was a time with a gasoline powered vehicle was thought to be extremely dangerous.
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