electric dirtbikes

[redneckbillybob]

i took a look at a dirtbike magazine the other day, and they were selling and advertising electric dirtbikes! is this really going to be the future of our sport? the electric bikes will replace the 4 stroke, like the 4 stroke did to the 2 stroke? i think an electric dirtbike really lame.

 

[SpeedyManiac]

Don't judge until you try one. I recently tried a Zero Motorcycles electric bike and was pleasantly surprised. Give it a couple more years and they will be awesome.

For now, gas powered engines are still superior, but what happens when there's no riding areas left for gas powered dirtbikes? Electric bikes will be the future, guaranteed. Personally, I'm excited.

 

[RM85rider123]

Don't judge until you try one. I recently tried a Zero Motorcycles electric bike and was pleasantly surprised. Give it a couple more years and they will be awesome.

For now, gas powered engines are still superior, but what happens when there's no riding areas left for gas powered dirtbikes? Electric bikes will be the future, guaranteed. Personally, I'm excited.

How powerful was the electric bike you tried? What cc is it compared to? Seems pretty interesting :cool:

 

[truespode]

How powerful was the electric bike you tried? What cc is it compared to? Seems pretty interesting :cool:

Take a look at this project. They use a CRF250 for the chassis.

http://www.evdrive.com/Emoto_project/moto_project.html#Aug09

Seems the electric bike does ok.

Ivan

 

[SpeedyManiac]

They say it was comparable to a 250 fourstroke. All we had for comparison was my girlfriend's KTM250XCW (two-stroke). At speed, the KTM walked away from the electric bike fairly easy. Same for fast hill climbs. Slow things down a bit (technical terrain, singletrack, etc) and the zero was very competitive, if not better. Electric motors make the same torque (pretty much) whether they're running at almost zero RPM or 14000 RPM. This means at slow speeds (remember, no gearbox) the bike is insane. Comparable to a trials bike. Another amazing thing with the electric bike is how well it hooks up. There's very little wheel spin and instead the bike just finds traction and gets you moving in a hurry.

Next issue (actually, a non-issue) is noise. The electric motor is virtually silent, save for a low whirring noise. I thought I might miss the noise of a gas engine. Nope. Silent is better, seriously. It's fun to be able to talk to your buddies and yell at each other while you're riding. Plus you can sneak up on people/animals and the neighbours won't complain.

Chassis-wise, the zero is pretty cool. The bike is super lightweight - 150lbs ready to ride. It sits a little lower than a standard dirtbike but surprisingly enough I was never cramped (I'm 6' tall, 175lbs). There's no clutch so they've mounted both brakes on the handlebars. It took some getting used to, but was actually pretty nice. This starts to bring up some of the issues with the bike. In order to keep weight down, they've used mountain bike suspension, brakes and front wheel. Sorry, but mountain bike components aren't up to taking the abuse I can put a bike through. The front end is especially scary, IMHO. The mountain bike brakes are also underpowered compared to a dirtbike setup. Zero recently released a new bike (the Zero MX) that has a better front end so hopefully those issues are a null-point now.

Overall I was pretty impressed with the Zero. I see it making a great technical singletrack bike and it would absolutely rule at endurocross. It has a ways to go to be competitive at speed and at motocross, but I'm sure it will get there.

 

[rmc_olderthandirt]

When you are on a single track and come up behind a slower rider, how do you alert them to your presence if you can't rev the engine????

 

[SpeedyManiac]

Stuff 'em and move on to the next victim!

 

[redneckbillybob]

when do you picture these things taking over? another 10 years? or much longer?

 

[brentn]

I read an article on two different models.

The first bike had the same kind of shocks that you could find on a mountain bike, they were garbage but the bike was pretty good and had some decent power. If you see the size of the rear sprockets then you know that's one reason :D

The second bike did fairly well and had full size shocks.

The cons that I remember the most were;
Batteries: They only lasted an hour, and they costed 2600$ each. It took a total of 8 hours to recharge or something like that.

Cheap look: the bikes cost quite a bit of money, like 6K and they looked really cheap, the author was ragging on the plastics and the design. I looked at them and they did look fairly goofy.

The pro's were that it did haul ass on the track, and was able to meet the demands of the rider.

Personally I think the only way something like this is going to succeed is if the emission and environmental laws become strict enough AND battery technology improves. Batteries have relatively stayed the same for the past 100 years, and we have made good progressions on their effeciency but they still suck balls when it comes to real power.

If anything I could see a hydrogen powered dirt bike in the future, but not a battery powered one unless batteries progress far beyond what they are now.

 

[RM85rider123]

Take a look at this project. They use a CRF250 for the chassis.

http://www.evdrive.com/Emoto_project/moto_project.html#Aug09

Seems the electric bike does ok.

Ivan

That's pretty impressive. It seems like the same bike even with an electric engine! There would be no more valve adjustments, top ends, cranks, etc..... I like it!

 

[SpeedyManiac]

Battery technology is constantly improving. The zeros last about 1.5-2 hours right now (less aggressive riders will get more time out of them than that) and I think they plan on having new batteries out fairly soon.

Yes, the bikes are expensive, but they are the future. I will hold off buying one for a few years, but can definitely see getting one in the future.

The plastics are goofy looking, but dirt cheap. $15 for replacements. I don't care if they look cheesy, $15 replacement cost is great though!

 

[jayhedrick]

I kinda think its going 2 suck... Imagine going 2 a race and all you can hear is the bikes landing... No engine revs no exhaust no nothing.... Boring!!!!!!

 

[SpeedyManiac]

Imagine being able to ride anywhere you want. I'll embrace anything that let's me ride more places.

Less sound = more ground.

 

[RM_guy]

Once the price comes down and battery life and quality goes up I will definitely get one...but I'll still keep my 2 stroke! Short trail ride would be a blast and I like the idea of riding in stealth mode. I already have a very quiet bike and you can't even hear me once I'm 20 feet into the trail but zero noise is nice.

 

[jayhedrick]

Imagine being able to ride anywhere you want. I'll embrace anything that let's me ride more places.

Less sound = more ground.

Nice!! Lol I understand more now man

 

[RM85rider123]

Once the price comes down and battery life and quality goes up I will definitely get one...but I'll still keep my 2 stroke! Short trail ride would be a blast and I like the idea of riding in stealth mode. I already have a very quiet bike and you can't even hear me once I'm 20 feet into the trail but zero noise is nice.

Go riding for 2 hours, come back and recharge, eat some lunch, and go back riding again. sounds awesome. Anyways, I looked at one of zero's bikes and they said it had 50 foot pounds of torque :yikes: .

 

[SpeedyManiac]

And it feels like it. Bottom end pull is absolutely ridiculous on the aggressive setting. Unfortunately it doesn't feel as powerful once you get up to higher speeds. Direct drive (no transmission) means it can't compare to a gas powered bike with transmission as far as versatility goes.

 

[stumanarama]

Zero donated a couple batteries to my brothers SAE Hybrid team at Cal Poly and I know personally that they are a whole lot better than the best car battery out there. Batteries have shrunk dramatically in the past 20 or so years and I would say that Zero is definitely at the front of the pack. I don't think two strokes, or four strokes for that matter will ever disappear. However, I do think that over the next ten or fifteen years, electrics will find their way into the top levels of competition, and succeed there.

 

[flyingfuzzball]

didnt someone post something about KTM working on an electric bike awhile back?

 

[RM85rider123]

didnt someone post something about KTM working on an electric bike awhile back?

http://www.twowheelsblog.com/post/1606/ktm-to-produce-electric-bike-in-2010

 

[redneckbillybob]

seems like electric bikes will make mx more like the downhill mtb with their light wieght etc.

 

[SVTMc-G]

all ive read on them so far is that they are built like junk, the zero...and one other.