Passes & Canyons Blog

A scene from downtown Colorado Springs during the 2010 PPIHC.

Anyone who doubts that electric motorcycles will be more and more common in years to come just has their eyes closed. They just keep getting better and better, with greater and greater range as batteries continue to improve. Plus, they’re fun to ride! I know; I’ve ridden a bunch of them.

All this is not lost on the folks who host the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. For the first time this year they will include a class for electric bikes. At this moment there are six competitors entered in this class, all riding Zero bikes: two FX models, one MX, and three S. Just so you’ll know, the FX is for urban riding and is billed as “the fastest accelerating Zero ever.” The MX is the track bike in the family, and the S is the basic street bike.

The riders on these bikes include Aaron Frank, editor of Motorcyclists magazine, five guys I’ve never heard of: Nathan Barker, Jeff Clark, Jeremiah Johnson, Rich Ted, and Brandon Miller. People who follow racing more closely may have heard of some or all of them, as they’ve all got experience.

From what I read it seems this could become a popular class, at least for awhile. Whereas racers in other classes have worked for years developing better and better (read: more expensive) machines, to the point that it squeezes out the small guys, electrics is wide open and nearly everyone is riding a bike that is nearly stock (read: inexpensive, at least compared to what it could be).

Now, I’m not at all sure why there are no competitors on bikes from other companies. Where are the Brammos? Where are the guys who are competing in the Isle of Man on various custom bikes? This class ought to grow in years to come.

Of course, there is one electric superbike competing, a Lightning, ridden by Chip Yates, but in a different class. That gives you some idea how good that bike is. “We don’t need no stinkin’ class of our own; we’ll go up against the gas burners!” And Yates will have competition: Greg Tracy will be riding a concept model Amarok P1A Super Bike.

This year’s Pikes Peak in set for June 30. The week before that, though, is the best time to see the machines and meet the riders. I’m going to try to get down there again this year.

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Biker Quote for Today

Sometimes riding a slow bike fast is an adventure in itself.

Dan Patino's Kickstarter page for his Going Green project.

One of the more entrepreneurial people I know is Dan Patino, and Dan is back now with his latest project. Working through the crowd-funding website Kickstarter.com, Dan is seeking to raise money to do a documentary film about going green on an electric motorcycle.

As Dan’s page on Kickstarter tells it, this is to be “An Electric Motorcycle, HD POV Cameras, Social Media, The Wild West, and 7 Months of Filming. Discovering innovative and creative ways to be, “Going Green.”

This Documentary Film is a creative and innovative Project. With the goal of documenting and discovering that being, “Green” can be fun! While filming this documentary, I will be on a 100% Electric Motorcycle. Sharing with the public how fun, practical, and rewarding riding an electric motorcycle can be. We will be traveling to the latest innovative “Green” programs being implemented today. Seeing what is being done about reducing carbon emissions. As I travel along, I will be documenting the public’s views on carbon emissions, and the greater issue of Global Warming.

Join me in the beautiful Western US in making this film. Filming begins on Earth Day April 22, 2013 and ending Nov 1, 2013. The Film will be produced and release on Earth Day, 2014.

In case you’re not familiar with how crowd-funding via Kickstarter.com works, the person seeking the funding puts up their proposal with a set amount needed to get going. If that amount is not pledged within the specific time allotted, nobody hands over a penny. In return for their money, presuming the project does get funded, the fundee commits to specific rewards or product or whatever to those who pledge, and usually the more you pledge the more stuff you get.

In Dan’s case, this ranges from a $10 donor receiving a thank-you note and a signed photo (electronic) all the way up to a $10,000 donor who would get everything smaller donors receive plus an invitation to come to the filming and be in the film, as well as being listed as “Executive Director” in the credits.

Dan figures that he will need to raise $49,777 to carry out this project and he has until March 11 to raise the money. So far he has two backers who have pledged a total of $110. So he has a ways to go and just a month to get there.

I certainly wish Dan the best in this latest venture, and I told him that if he gets it going I want a chance to ride the electric bike. I’ve ridden Zeros but have never ridden a Brammo, and I presume from the photos he posted that he plans to use a Brammo.

But as of this moment, the clock is ticking. Gonna be interesting to see if he can make this work.

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Biker Quote for Today

Bikes are better than women because motorcycles don’t mind if you look at other motorcycles, or if you buy motorcycle magazines.

These Zero electric motorcycles might need playing cards in their spokes.

Every kid who has ever dreamed of riding a motorcycle has at least considered the option of attaching playing cards to their bicycle wheels so the spokes will hit them and make “motorcycle-like” noises. I know I did more than just consider it.

Is that what we need to do with electric motorcycles? After all, they’re so quiet pedestrians are likely to walk out in front of them while busy texting on their smart phones.

This is a serious question, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) wants to know what you think about it. No, not the playing cards, but should electric motorcycles be required to make some noise that warns people that they’re there?

The proposed rule is titled, “Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Minimum Sound Requirements for Hybrid and Electric Vehicles.” Here’s part of it:

As required by the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act (PSEA) of 2010 this rule proposes to establish a Federal motor vehicle safety standard (FMVSS) setting minimum sound requirements for hybrid and electric vehicles. This new standard would require hybrid and electric passenger cars, light trucks and vans (LTVs), medium and heavy duty, trucks, and buses, low speed vehicles (LSVs), and motorcycles to produce sounds meeting the requirements of this standard.

This standard would ensure that blind, visually-impaired, and other pedestrians are able to detect and recognize nearby hybrid and electric vehicles, as required by the PSEA, by requiring that hybrid and electric vehicles emit sound that pedestrians would be able to hear in a range of ambient environments and contain acoustic signal content that pedestrians will recognize as being emitted from a vehicle.

So the NHTSA is asking for comments. The Motorcycle Industry Council has come out against the rule, for a variety of reasons that I don’t find particularly compelling. Not that I support the rule; I just don’t think the MIC has made much of an argument.

So what do other people think? Well, conveniently, the (currently) 80 comments are all right there for anyone to read, so let’s read a few.

Kipling Inscore (is that his name?) says, in part:

I do not believe that current study shows sufficient evidence of a safety problem caused by electric (EV) and hybrid (HV) vehicles being too quiet; I think further study is needed. I will, however, state my remaining points as if assuming that there is a “quiet vehicle problem” and that the solution is to impose a minimum sound requirement. A minimum sound requirement should apply to all motor vehicles, not just those currently most likely to be too quiet.

Now there’s a familiar argument. Funny, I’m accustomed to seeing it presented in regard to the issue of motorcycles making too much noise.

Joel Stottlemire says that:

The proposed regulation on minimum sound requirements for hybrid and electric vehicles are at best only minimally effective. At any speed faster than a few feet per second, audible warnings do not give sufficient reaction time to pedestrians and contribute to noise pollution.

Says David B. Rees:

I oppose mandatory noise pollution. The proposed standards do not appear to appreciably increase safety but do increase noise pollution. We should be aiming to make noisy cars quieter, not quiet cars noisier.

And here’s a note from Joe Adams:

Our society is becoming more and more noisy. Many low flow toilets sound like an explosion when operating. Many hand driers sound like a jet aircraft. City streets are extraordinarily noisy. The new electric cars are a step in the direction of achieving more QUIET in society. Adding an artificial noise to these cars is similar to adding the reverse backup “beep” on construction vehicles. The flaw in the concept of reverse backup alarms is that such alarms fail to acknowledge a basic trait in human nature: people tend to filter out irritating noises that go on all day long.

There seems to be a consistent theme there. I didn’t read them all but the comments I did read are pretty solidly in opposition to this rule. What do you think? You can offer your own comments to the NHTSA up until March 15.

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Biker Quote for Today

You’re a biker wannabe if your $500 boots aren’t scuffed from riding.

I’ve been reading about how Zero Motorcycles was working to get their electric bikes into regular motorcycle dealerships, and I had presumed that here in Denver that would be Fay Myers. Surprisingly, no. Zero just announced that they will be available instead at Grand Prix Motorsports, over at 3105 West County Line Road, in Littleton.

The reason I was figuring Fay Myers is that Zero was in town recently offering demo rides and they were doing so at Fay Myers. Talking with one of the Zero guys at that time, he told me they were looking to get into dealerships and Fay Myers was high on their list. Then later I got a marketing call from someone at Fay Myers asking about my interest in Zero’s bikes.

Apparently those calls showed insufficient interest to lead Fay Myers to make the leap. But Grand Prix jumped in.

Moving into dealerships has got to be a good move for Zero. I read an interview awhile back with some honcho at Brammo, Zero’s main electric motorcycle competitor, who said their initial expectations had been changed. They started out thinking that having no-shift electrics would help lure in non-riders who would be less intimidated. That has proved to be a wrong assumption. Most people buying electrics already ride gas-powered bikes. So Brammo decided the best way to sell more electrics would be to make them as comparable to the gas bikes as possible, and they are now adding gearing to their bikes, rather than scooter-style twist and go.

It stands to reason then that if people who already ride are the ones buying the electrics, you need to sell the electrics at regular dealerships.

In a related story, I just saw a piece yesterday about a new charging system used by the Nissan Leaf (if I remember correctly) electric car that gives a full charge in 30 minutes. And there was a story in the Denver Post about some local outfit that believes they have technology to produce batteries that are a tenth the size and last 10 times as long as current ones. It is technological advancements like these that are going to make electric motorcycles a truly viable option in a much shorter time than most people think.

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Biker Quote for Today

Image is only for riders who stay on long, straight roads.

I had a really interesting visit today with Chris Ravana, of Blindspot Cycles, with him showing me a couple of his homemade electric motorcycles.

The way Chris does it there’s nothing magical, or even particularly high-tech, about building an electric bike. He goes to a salvage yard and buys an old junk motorcycle body, picks up a few necessary parts, and then puts an electric motor in it. The motor runs off a stack of standard automotive-type batteries, although they are of the deep-cycle variety that can stand to be deeply discharged before being charged again.

And there’s nothing all that special about the motor. It’s just a basic industrial-type electric motor.

The whole business couldn’t be much more straightforward. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail here because I’ll be writing a lot more about Chris and his bikes for RumBum.com and Examiner.com, but, as always, I wanted to tell you the backstory here.

I just ran across an article about Chris and what he’s doing by chance, somewhere on the web, and it turned out he lives just up north in Fort Collins. I emailed him about getting together but didn’t hear anything back, so I called. He apologized for not replying but told me his wife had just had a baby the day before. So he’s been a little, shall we say, busy. Oh yeah, some excuse.

Today was a beautiful and warm day so I jumped on the Kawi and headed up there but along the way it got very cold. I was glad I had my electric vest. We talked about his bikes why he does all this, as well as the other things he does, and then it was time to ride.

Chris had two bikes prepped for us and off we went. This is not the first time I’ve ridden electric motorcycles but it’s still a kick. They’re silent when you’re sitting still, but twist that throttle and you absolutely do go forward, as in right now. Then you can cruise along side by side and talk, because there’s no engine noise. Not shout, talk.

What can I say? It was a lot of fun. He’s an interesting guy.

And then, just to show you how fickle the weather in Colorado can be, I headed back to Denver and rode back into sunshine and warmth. I knew there had been a beautiful day somewhere around here.

Biker Quote for Today

If motorcycles are not allowed in heaven then I’ll ride mine to hell.

I guess it makes sense that it’s happening first with motorcycles. Sure there are some hybrid cars out there, and you’ve got the (very high-end) Tesla roadster. But when it comes to going electric, motorcycles are way out in front.

Think about it. The biggest stumbling block in the quest to successfully produce and market electric vehicles is the limitation of battery power. And the lighter the vehicle, the greater distance you can coax out of those batteries. Motorcycles are lighter than cars. (Duh!) And sure, you can load more batteries into a car than you can onto a motorcycle, but weight is also a big factor in speed. It just makes sense.

Have you seen what is out there now in the way of electric bikes? I’ve been paying some attention but obviously not enough, as the November 2010 issue of Motorcyclist magazine has shown me. This issue, which I’m still working my way through, has story after story about one electric motorcycle maker after another. It’s incredible.

Probably everyone has heard of Brammo and Zero. They’re two of the best-known producers of electric bikes, and they sell smaller bikes with limited range and speed. But have you heard of the MotoCzysz e1pc? This is a superbike and it’s in its third generation. Have you heard of the Mavizen TTX02? Another superbike. How about the Roehr eSuperBike or the Mission Motors Mission One? This is not a complete list.

OK, so hold it. Why all the superbikes? Two simple answers. First, a sportbike is lighter than a bagger–you start small. Second, technological advances frequently come to the racetrack first. What works on the track eventually makes its way into street bikes. Plus, what better way to demonstrate that these things are for real than by going out and kicking the pants of gas-powered bikes?

Not that that has happened yet. We’re not that far along, although a new class in Moto GP has been created specifically for electrics.

Make no mistake. This is going to happen, and probably a lot sooner than most people think. And here’s something for many traditionalist nay-sayers to think about. Many of these companies are American. That’s American iron being produced. And there are a lot of ways to produce electricity that do not put money in the pockets of people half-way around the globe who hate us and wish us harm. The U.S. produces enough of its own oil that we can continue to drive our gas-powered bikes, so they’re not going away. The sooner we shift a significant portion of our vehicles to electricity the better off we’re going to be. It can’t happen soon enough.

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Biker Quote for Today

At the end of the day, you’ve still got to twist that throttle.