So Honda is getting into the electric motorcycle biz huh? Well, now we know what they plan to do with all the engineering talent suddenly available from their now defunct F1 & AMA efforts.

Motorcycle News (via our friends at AutoBlogGreen) says Honda is serious about building a workable Ebike and selling it to the likes of you and me by 2010. Sure, that sounds plausible. Honda has the engineering grunt and it pretty much has the whole motorcycle thing down, so it seems like a lead pipe cinch.

Not exactly. Honda faces the same hurdles everyone else does: range and recharge times.

I spent some time with an outfit made electric scooters and motorcycles. It was a real geeky operation making scooters and souped-up jobs custom-built to customers' needs, desires and checkbooks. Once or twice a year someone with sacks of money would come in and say something along the lines of "Take my GSX-R and make it electric." We would, but we'd invariably face the same challenges everyone else building EVs faces: range and recharge times.

Yeah, we could build an electric GSX-R that would out haul Valentino Rossi - for about seven to 10 miles. Then you'd stop. And then you'd have to plug it in for six or eight or 10 hours. The bike was cool, but not very practical. You couldn't take the thing up some canyon road on your way out of town to Palm Springs for a three day weekend. These will be the same limitations that Honda will face, but in a couple of not so noticeable ways, electric motorcycles play to Honda's strengths.

For one, bikes are easy. They're small, light and easy to work on. You can fab up and try things on two or three test mules in an afternoon, and that's an order of magnitude or so harder with cars. For another, Honda is a bike company. Yeah, I know, tell that to Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost and Ron Dennis, but it started out primarily as a bike company (OK, go back far enough and it started out as a piston ring company, but still...) then morphed into a car company. What Honda learns from making an Ebike over the next two years can, hopefully, migrate to cars.

Honda confirms working with bikes is favorable on a number of levels.

"History shows that motorcycles remain strong in a difficult market environment and have always supported Honda in difficult times," says CEO Takeo Fukui. "People showed renewed interest in the value of motorcycles which consume less fuel for commuting purposes as well as for their easy-to-own/easy-to-use efficiency."

Good point, Takeo. That's another thing bikes got going for them: They're cheap.

Pound for pound and dollar for dollar motorcycles are the best bet for enthusiast fun. Not for me, of course, because I am comically and frighteningly uncoordinated and that's never a good thing on a motorcycle. But you get my point.

Think of what Honda is doing as a real world proof of concept scheme. Make an electric motorcycle. Make it work. Make it work better. Then import the technology into a car. Repeat the process.

What could go wrong?

Photo: Honda.

2009-07-08 15:26:20
A new day.. a new bike. Electric Motorsports of California By: azhar	Filed Under: Electric Motorcycles
Oakland California USA, Electric Motorsport Inc. has unveiled its two entries for the June/12th Isle of Man TTXGP. In the open class is a modified production electric motorcycle called the GPR-S. The Electric Motorsport GPR-S were the first Production Electricmotorcycles capable of attaining legal freeway speeds in the USA. In the Pro Class, the entry is the Electric Motorsport R144. This conversion is based on an R1 race chassis. This motorcycle utilizes a high performance electric motor designed and manufactured by D&D Motor Systems, Inc. Electric Motorsport is a technology company that specializes in Light Electric Vehicles and electric propulsion systems. Over the past eight years the company's website www.electricmotorsport.com has become a one stop shop for electric vehicle builders around the world. Electric Motorsport is proud to say they have supplied electric drive systems and components to many of the TTXGP teams that will be competing. Why does Electric Motorsport supply its competitors with hi-performance electric drive components? Electric motorsport Founder and CEO Todd Kollin says "its mainly to promote the technology and to have some one to race with, and besides we are in the parts business. Racing is just the fun part and its not much fun without competition." Electric Motorsport Inc has always placed an emphasis on the Electric motorcycle as away of using renewable energy such as solar, wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal to propel ourselves from one location to the next. The company has sold 1000's of electric motorcycle conversion kits. Electric Motorsport even sells books on how to convert your old gas motorcycle to electric. These conversions are great if you have a old bike that does not run so well or has a blown engine. An electric conversion can bring the thing back to life but without having to deal with oil, gas, noise, fumes, warm ups,tune ups, gear boxes, clutches. To learn more check out their website at www.electricmotorsport.com

2008-12-22 13:07:05
Honda Promises An Electric Motorcycle By 2010 By: Tony Borroz	Filed Under: Electric Motorcycles
So Honda is getting into the electric motorcycle biz huh? Well, now we know what they plan to do with all the engineering talent suddenly available from their now defunct F1 & AMA efforts. Motorcycle News (via our friends at AutoBlogGreen) says Honda is serious about building a workable Ebike and selling it to the likes of you and me by 2010. Sure, that sounds plausible. Honda has the engineering grunt and it pretty much has the whole motorcycle thing down, so it seems like a lead pipe cinch. But is it? Not exactly. Honda faces the same hurdles everyone else does: range and recharge times. I spent some time with an outfit made electric scooters and motorcycles. It was a real geeky operation making scooters and souped-up jobs custom-built to customers' needs, desires and checkbooks. Once or twice a year someone with sacks of money would come in and say something along the lines of "Take my GSX-R and make it electric." We would, but we'd invariably face the same challenges everyone else building EVs faces: range and recharge times. Yeah, we could build an electric GSX-R that would out haul Valentino Rossi - for about seven to 10 miles. Then you'd stop. And then you'd have to plug it in for six or eight or 10 hours. The bike was cool, but not very practical. You couldn't take the thing up some canyon road on your way out of town to Palm Springs for a three day weekend. These will be the same limitations that Honda will face, but in a couple of not so noticeable ways, electric motorcycles play to Honda's strengths. For one, bikes are easy. They're small, light and easy to work on. You can fab up and try things on two or three test mules in an afternoon, and that's an order of magnitude or so harder with cars. For another, Honda is a bike company. Yeah, I know, tell that to Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost and Ron Dennis, but it started out primarily as a bike company (OK, go back far enough and it started out as a piston ring company, but still...) then morphed into a car company. What Honda learns from making an Ebike over the next two years can, hopefully, migrate to cars. Honda confirms working with bikes is favorable on a number of levels. "History shows that motorcycles remain strong in a difficult market environment and have always supported Honda in difficult times," says CEO Takeo Fukui. "People showed renewed interest in the value of motorcycles which consume less fuel for commuting purposes as well as for their easy-to-own/easy-to-use efficiency." Good point, Takeo. That's another thing bikes got going for them: They're cheap. Pound for pound and dollar for dollar motorcycles are the best bet for enthusiast fun. Not for me, of course, because I am comically and frighteningly uncoordinated and that's never a good thing on a motorcycle. But you get my point. Think of what Honda is doing as a real world proof of concept scheme. Make an electric motorcycle. Make it work. Make it work better. Then import the technology into a car. Repeat the process. What could go wrong? Photo: Honda.