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It Was Bound To Happen - Electric Bike

5K views 36 replies 23 participants last post by  cajunbonnie 
#1 ·
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#5 ·
If I could find a reliable electric Triumph used for around $2000, I'd buy one. Until then, craigslist (gas)Triumphs are my favorite bike!
 
#9 ·
Biggest problem is where to recharge away from home . I have two businesses that provide holiday accommodation to provide charge points is not cheap , at some point I will have to stump up the money to have charging stations fitted . Authorities world wide need to make sure all electric vehicles can use the same charge points . Already had a customer who drove from Germany with an electric car .
 
#14 ·
Range and charge time are the killers of electric battery operated vehicles. Solving the charge time barrier helps to make the range barrier less significant. So how to solve the charge time? With swappable battery packs, just like cordless tools. Pull up to a charging station, swap out the battery packs - a standardized PHYSICAL form factor used by ALL cars and motorcycles, and away you go. While you're toodling down the road, the charging station figures out how much juice you used and bills ya. Pretty much the same as swinging by the hardware store to swap out your backyard grill's propane tank for a filled one.
 
#15 ·
My only question is:
Will the battery have enough voltage to kill you ? If so, consider not riding in the rain.

I think its more than urban legend that more than one tow truck driver has been electrocuted when hooking up a Tesla. I was told that some tow drivers in CA wont tow them under any circumstances.

This project will keep the engineers busy and the electric Triumph will be built and sold. It will be called progress and everyone goes home happy. What a shame that the old Triumph company never had mad money to throw at the wall!

Cheers,

Weedie
 
#18 ·
I think its more than urban legend that more than one tow truck driver has been electrocuted when hooking up a Tesla. I was told that some tow drivers in CA wont tow them under any circumstances.
Do you have any links for this? I did a Google search for "Tow Truck Driver Electrocuted" and only got results for ones that were electrocuted due to downed power lines. Then I tried "Tow Truck Driver Electric Car Deaths" and didn't get any hits on that. So I'm just curious how I can find more information.

Thanks!
Craig
 
#19 ·
Sorry Craig no links that I know of.

I heard this from the man I worked for, it was around 2014 or so. He was a state licensed electrician and he kept up on all the national electrical industry news, whatever it was.
He said that the tow driver was laying in a water filled ditch and somehow came in contact with a hot spot while trying to hook up underneath the Tesla.
I have know way of vetting it, that's just the way I heard it, and also that no body was going to tow the Teslas in the state of CA. It could be just scuttlebutt, or Tesla could have had a resulting lawsuit and paid to bury the information.

Stay safe!

Weedie
 
#20 ·
I recently bought an electric scooter that goes 28 miles at 12 mph and weighs 24 pounds. Got the electric bug a little, would love to try an electric motorcycle, but it needs to go 150 miles, and charging away from home is a real issue.
 
#30 · (Edited)
Your last idea about attracting smog/liberals/etc. is correct. This is a social phenomenon called "virtue signaling". Basically, the virtue signaler either refuses to know the full truth by practicing the ostrich strategy - my head in the sand. Or knows/understands the futility of his exercise but does it to convey a message to the world (neighbors, friends, etc.) that he wants to change the world. To outsiders (poor countries, and poor people) it comes across as a phony rich man's problem.

To paraphrase what the author Malcolm Gladwell said in one of his books, the virtue signaler wants to change the world from the comfort of his couch while watching netflix.

The issue with electric vehicles has taken a dogmatic shape. Like everything people believe without understanding, people who believe in this stuff don't look into the details (where the devil is). The Greek economist Varoufakis said that in economy like in religion, people understand the general guidelines, but leave the details to the experts.

They trust that their experts: financial analysts in newspapers/media like their spiritual leaders master the minutiae and details and trust whatever they say. You don't need to get a headache trying to understand the logic all the way. If new york times says Apple stock is good, that's all you need to know.

so when people see all the advertising and the hipsters and cool images of electric stuff, they believe that must be good, why else would it be promoted if it wasn't. My guess people don't understand how millions of dollars spent on public relation campaigns shape the public opinion. Otherwise PR firms wouldn't be in business charging a grand an hour sending emails.

To pick on the guy I quoted above and use him as an example, Malcolm Gladwell is a canadian author who is very popular in liberal circles. Recently he started writing pieces against legalizing marijuana. I thought, that was strange for someone who is popular with the left. Also the timing of the release of his story with another similar story in liberal magazine (mother jones) seemed odd. So I did some research and found an old memo from the 90s by Phillip Morris tobacco lobbyist group calling him (paraphrasing here) a positive asset for us in the journalism world. He is paid handsomely to write whatever they want him to.

bottom line: follow the money. Whenever something is heavily promoted, check whose money is behind the happy campaign.
 
#29 ·
I hasten to add I bought my boy an electric motorbike ( toy ) when he was three years old and he hated it..cost a fortune and he wouldn’t touch it..he said it didn’t sound like a motorbike and he was right..
it lacked soul and passion and all the things that make a motorbike the symbols of freedom,rebellion and sexual prowess ?️
 
#31 ·
haha! I had the same feeling as a child. My father wanted to buy me one of those bicycles that have fairings like a crotch rocket bike, I said where is the sound?

ended up getting a bmx. I had some common sense as a kid lol, I was like this stuff just adds weight and makes it awkward to pedal. It had a tank like thing between the legs....

Got the bmx and as kids we used to stick a small water bottle between the frame and the tire, as the wheel spins the knobbies rub the ridges of the bottle and it made a sound close to a motorcycle vvvvvrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

the bmx price was less so I can say my father was happy to tolerate the noise to save some money on something he knew was nothing more than a look ha!
 
#33 ·
Roller1100...you be careful..the thought police are everywhere and they don’t like smart people capable of independent thought...been down that particular rabbit hole..
Now funny enough back to the electric bike/bicycle...I saw two of them today being pedalled along with a battery for when the going gets tough..as you just said it don’t matter how much fairing you put on it or jazz it up it’s still just an electric bicycle..
just because you bang a triumph sticker on it won’t make it a classic motorbike..An apple ? for instance is not an orange ? no matter how much everyone else says it is or wants you to agree that it is..reminds me of a scene from 1984 where I think it’s John Hurt is being tortured and for it all to stop he as to answer a simple mathematical equation incorrectly..
This electric bicycle masquerading as a motorbike as me all fired up...
 
#35 ·
haha funny!

I don't see how electric vehicles save the planet or save anything for that matter. When you calculate the aggregate cost, cause people only calculate direct costs and forget indirect ones, it's not better and probably more harmful. It may improve eventually ( no one knows for sure) but as an industry trying to take off the initial cost is certainly steep. I say no one knows for sure because economy is not an exact science, it's a (educated perhaps) guessing game...

The counter argument is it will only cost too much initially because it's an infant industry and eventually cost will go down and conditions improve as the manufacturing is scaled. The fallacy in this argument is similar to the ones about using drones. People see drones and think it's the future. Yes, a drone flies over cars and passes everywhere easy and fast. The flaw seems obvious to me, it's ONE drone. once more people start using drones, the air will be saturated and you loose the initial benefit. Just like what happened with cars.

Once electric vehicles spread out, the raw materials will become costly and rare and it's not necessarily going to get easier when more players get involved.

Triumph like other manufacturers, is being subjected to the classic relationship between industrials and politicians. They are building electric bikes kind of like "christian just in case". In case this thing takes off, we want to be here and show that we were researching it and believed it from the beginning etc etc

Triumph execs know, that governments is what makes big industries take off, not some guy inventing stuff in his garage. The airplane industry started this way and so did the oil industry. It helps to pause and think how many gas stations and infrastructure had to be built to make gasoline the practical thing it is today. This wouldn't have happened without solid investments. Car manufacturers couldn't have done it alone. Governments either back industries straight up or put tax incentives to push them forward (a form of socialism: tax payers bearing the cost of the idea.)

With this knowledge in mind, industrials are always looking for cues from politicians. Politicians help industries do well in a variety of ways, like giving them contracts. ( Harley Davidson military contract during world war).

Yes Triumph is building electric bikes but they are not shutting down their bread and butter. they re just trying to play the image they know they are expected to play. They are a corporation with advisors and boards planning long term.

Now to back the virtue signaling, these guys driving Toyota Prius which if you ask me cancels itself out. It gets higher gas mileage but because it carries a heavy load of batteries all the time, it burns more gas when the gas engine kicks in, it's like a loaded pick up truck. So whatever you save using the electric engine, you loose when gas kicks in. Not to mention all the complications added because of the dumb system and cost to have maintenance and mechanics who feel like they have to charge you more because you opted for the hipster vehicle. And the battery packs that cause significant amounts of pollution to be built and only last so many years before you have to buy them again (average 3 to 5 years).

Finally, the dumb Toyota Prius with its advanced technology and its Star Trek dashboard gets about 40 miles per gallon. French car Renault 4L averages 44 miles per gallon and it was made in the 60s and stopped being made in the 80s... so what's Prius' engineers innovation here?

Renault 4L is basic low tech you can fix it yourself. and you are not paying "social status" premiums. So efficient African merchants (Morocco) use it to distribute milk, bread and other goods to the Souks across the country. that's an indicator that it's cheap, solid and reliable. They are still waiting for Tesla though ;)
 
#34 ·
grant.edwards...I’m sure that triumph have crunched the numbers and won’t be out of pocket..
I don’t think the vast majority of motorbike enthusiasts/riders have any real interest in electric bikes as such..I do think if triumph wants to capture our attention and fire our imaginations then they should lean more towards something new and innovative..electric bikes is old hat..we know it can be done but do we really see ourselves trading in our trusty steeds for something so soulless..
I may be wrong and I’m sure others will come up with reasons for an electric bike but I wanna hear/read about real genuine reasons for an electric bike other than the usual eco friendly clap trap
 
#37 ·
It seems to come down simply to three things. If they look good, if they can maintain a charge for at least 150 miles consistently with some sort of quick charge or battery swap out stations, and if the price is right, they will sell. The looks are always going to be debatable but the other two things are pretty easy to pinpoint (just apparently the technology isn't there quite yet to pull off). For me, I view them kinda like sport bikes ... a lot of fun to ride for an hour but I wouldn't want to own one.
 
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