May16th, 2015: It’s a glorious, fictional morning and I’m going for my first group motorcycle ride on my new battery powered motorcycle!
Prep goes a little quicker than normal — no engine oil, coolant, air filter, etc to check — and after adjusting the chain, checking air pressure and glancing at the battery meter, I’m ready to gear up and hit the road. 
Getting to Starbucks to meet “the boys” is uneventful, except for the 80 year-old, blue haired woman in a Buick that moved into my lane. No worries, it happens and she apologizes; “Sorry sonny, I didn’t hear you!”
After coffee, the first stop is the requisite fuel stop to get everyone on an equal footing. Ooh, this is a trash talkin’ op that I absolutely CANNOT pass up! ”Haha, you poor suckers! 5 bucks a gallon for gas!? It only cost me 80 cents for my full charge!!!” Profanity, grumbling and mumbling is fired back as I ride around them gassing up and flaunting my 5 full bars on my battery meter.
I lead the group through the few miles of city riding and stop at the last stop sign before the 5 mile straight to the twisities. I wait for all to catch up, see thumbs-up across the board and take off lofting the wheel easily with the great torque of my electric motor. Nearing 50 MPH, I let the front end down just as the my friend’s ZX-10 passes me. He’s a fast rider and certainly, I can’t expect to keep up with him. Right behind him, there goes my friend on his GSXR750. Same deal, my ebike is quick, but come on, those are virtually race bikes, my bike could never expect to keep up!
8 miles ridden, we’ve made it to the twisties! Now, I’ll show off how my ebike handles! Straight line performance? Who cares! I move to the front of the group, again get the thumbs-up from everyone and off we go. I’ll show ‘em! Another wheelie, but this time I’m over the, umm… “tank” as I power launch off the start. Head down and setting up for a series of 20 MPH (marked) corners. The ebike eats ‘em up as I get knee-down and all the way over on the edge. I’m flying through the 20 MPH corners at over 70 MPH! Eat my dust you dead-dinosaur devouring, carbon belching relics of the past!!!
I finish the series of turns, glance at my mirror expecting to see several of the bikes way behind. Of course, Mr. ZX10 and Mr. Gixxer are right with me, but surprisingly, so are Mr. SV650, Ms. Ninja 500 and Ms. Ducati 696? Hmmm, ok. I see how this is gonna be, these guys wanna ride!
The next series of turns is several 40 and 50 MPH (marked) turns, then tightening up into back to back hair-pins, and finally, reopening to a couple of fast sweepers. On the short straight preceding, the Zx10 and Gixxer go by me. I’m, by far, a much better rider, I’ll stay with them. We hit the first 40 miler at roughly 80 and I watch as the two super sports accelerate through and out of it, gapping me substantially. Another 40 miler ahead and as I begin to setup for it, Ms. 696 dives underneath and passes.
A higher speed sweeper approaches and I know I’ll be able to close on Ms. 696. We’re doing 90 as we roll-on for the turn. The Ducati pulls slightly away and at the apex, begins to walk away. I notice we’re at 100MPH as I roll the throttle WFO. Still the Ducati pulls away??? I hit the throttle stop, but my ebike is still only doing 100!? Another sweeper approaches, but just prior, Mr. SV650 goes by. Wow, 100 MPH top speed seemed so fast on the spec sheet!
Two more sweepers, but I know the road tightens up soon, I’ll catch up then. Ms. Ninja 500 (ZX10′s mom,) passes me as I plan my strategy. Shit, where’d she come from? Still, my ebike’s a great handler. (Isn’t it?) The hair-pin’s approaching, I’ll out brake ZX10′s Mom and then catch the others.
Mom has quite a gap on me as she cruises around the turn, but with superior riding skills, I’ll late brake, drop the anchor and make up a lot of that gap. I rush into the corner hard, raise the rear wheel a little with a heavy handed front brake. Then, I let the rear hook up and try to trail both brakes, but the mechanical engineering of the electronics firm that designed my bike, raises it’s ugly head! The bike shutters and shakes as it tries to tank-slap me off! I recover it, but I’m still way too hot for the turn. I pin the throttle and slide through the turn. Yikes! Maybe it needs a firmware upgrade?
My ebike admittedly and knowingly doesn’t have the top speed or acceleration of my real motorcycles, but OMG, it doesn’t have the handling of my other bikes either??? How can that be? These guys have been building these ebikes for a full 16 months! Hell, they even raced in the Isle of Man???
Fortunately, Mom’s tail light is almost visible, so I can hammer it and reel her in. Mom’s an inexperienced rider, so with WFO, damn-the-torpedoes riding, I catch her within a few miles. I pass her on a straight and go after the others that are nowhere in sight.
Up the road, 40 miles now ridden, the others have stopped and are waiting for ZX10′s mom and me. I’m ready to stop as well. I MUST have a tire going down or something, because the bike just doesn’t handle!? I mean, the thing’s probably had a year’s worth of engineering development before it went to production, it HAS TO handle better than that? Tire pressure is correct though. Ms. 696 asks if I’m ill or something? She’d never passed me before…
So let’s give this another go! I let everyone get away, I’ll stay closer this time! I turn on the bike and much to my chagrin and horror, after some very hard riding, my battery meter is down to two and a half bars!!! We’re only 40 miles into the ride and I’ve burned up 50% of my range!!! I tell the guys I’m going to have to go very slowly if I want to make the first Level 2 charging station! They say almost in unison, “we thought you already were going slow!?” Always the comedians! Fuckers!
I have to make the tough call. I can either go home or risk trying to make the Level 2 charging station. I choose the latter and bid adieu to my friends. They won’t stop for probably 80 to 100 more miles and I’m gonna have to ride like a blue-haired old lady in a Buick.
The ebike does wonderfully as I just cruise to the charging station. Nice people on Harleys wave and smile as they pass me. (Thought bubble: Hmmm? I’ve never been passed by a Harley before?) The ebike is in its element and purring like a kitten. (A small kitten.) And this favorite twisty road of mine is amazingly pretty! Somehow, I’d just never had time to notice before!
Thankfully, I’ve made it to charging station! I ask if my rider buddies had been by and yes, I’m told, they had lunch and left 30 minutes ago. Oh well, solo riding is fun too! I’ll just go to the the Level 2 port, plug in my high ampacity cable, have lunch and 2 hours later, I’ll be able to ride again! Uh-oh, there’s already someone plugged into the Level 2 port and I only brought my Level 2 cable. Maybe I can borrow a 110V extension cord?
I finally plug in my bike to 110VAC and order lunch. I won’t be stranded after all! Now, in just eight hours or so, I’ll have enough of a charge to get home. Guess I’ll hang around for dinner too! ☺
You might want to check out this….
Brammo Empulse at YouTube or http://www.brammo.com/empulse/.
I know all about the Empulse. It’s cute.
But eBikes are, currently, an inconsequential sideshow until battery technology makes the “quantum leap” mentioned in my fictional post. Batteries are impractical at this juncture and especially for bikes. For cars, photovoltaics could potentially augment a charging system, but motorcycles don’t have the surface area. So, we ride 100 miles and — best case scenario — stop and charge for 2 hours? More likely 4 to 8 hours? Not me.
I am very glad to see motorcycles used in experimental alternative energy projects, but as of this moment, electric simply isn’t it. It will be wonderful when the day comes that I can silently ride my KTM eDirt bike through the forest for hours and come back to camp with a method to recharge it. I’m a conservationist and environmentalist, so that thought is an attractive one. However, we have to be realistic. That day, as is a practical battery powered street bike, is a LOOOOONG way off!
This Brammo has no gears or clutch. Isn’t that better for a beginner like me?
I understand the range problem though. I wanted to learn to ride so I could travel. That ride you posted to Zion and the race looked like fun and I know a Brammo can’t do that. To learn though, wouldn’t a Brammo be a good a choice? Or without gears, would I just be learning to ride a scooter?
Michelle:
This is precisely where Judy and I disagree. I think ebikes are a poor learning medium for exactly the reason you cite. The ebike teaches you scooter skills, not motorcycle skills. In my opinion, it’s going to be a long time (and hopefully, NEVER) before the majority of bikes are automatics, so learning on an automatic would limit you when you grew into a manual transmission.
And yes, range is the deal breaker. You don’t just ride 100 miles, gas-up and head out. You wait and wait and wait, at an absolute minimum, 2 hours for the bike to charge!!! And that’s if you can find a “mythical” Level 2 charging station. Sans Level 2, with the current 110 volt infrastructure, you’re recharging for EIGHT hours!!! At that rate, it would take 2 weeks to get to Zion!!!
For the scenario described, I absolutely agree that the E-Bike is the “answer to a question no one has asked.” But with a 100 mile range, the E-Bike would be a perfect solution for my daily 20 mile commute, allowing me to leave my Honda ST1300 in the garage for long distance touring. I certainly hope these rides gain some traction.
Entertaining narrative! I’ve added your site to my list regular reading.
Ride safe!