Ok, please keep in mind: this is not complete!!! I am still researching some stuff here (noted in the body of the text) and will be adding information as I get it. Essentially, you guys are my guinea pigs. If you see something that doesn't make sense, or want more clarification, please let me know. And you can also let me know if you like it
In order to be hip in today’s automotive market one must have “electric”, “hybrid” or “biodiesel” in your name. But what about motorcycles? This is a segment of the commuting category that is too often overlooked, even overshadowed by scooters in some places. But why shouldn’t there be an electric motorcycle? Battery technology is improving with each passing year and electricity, regardless of how it is generated, is much more efficient than an internal combustion engine when properly used. Discovering a local manufacturer of electric motorcycles, I set out to find out what this new breed of two-wheel transport had to offer.
Electric Motorsport is located in Oakland, Ca, in a rugged industrial area encircled by Highways 880, 80, 980 and 580. Todd Kollin founded the company 9 years ago, starting out with electric power-assisted bicycles and then electric scooters before moving on to the big Kahuna: electric motorcycles. Progress is steady in the shop, with constant advancements in technology and equipment moving the electric motorcycle from inside one man’s head and out to the track.
The key limiting factor in any electric vehicle is the battery. With recent advancements in lithium battery technology, it is now possible to put lightweight, long-lasting and fast-charging batteries inside the frame of a typical motorcycle chassis. Without the need for a fuel tank, transmission, cylinders and exhaust, there’s a lot of space available for an alternative power source. Put some lightweight batteries down here and suddenly you have a low-maintenance and energy efficient way to get around town.
When I showed up at Electric Motorsport’s warehouse/shop I was surprised by how small and crammed it was. Granted there are only five people who work there, but every available space was taken up by bikes, all in various stages of construction and de-construction. A short counter served more as a divider to the office space behind it than anything else, with potted plants vying for space in front of it. Shelves were stacked with parts and tool bins were everywhere. A couple of bikes were in mid-build, their half-finished carcasses propped up on stands in a side room. Amazing metal art decorated the area above the cupboards and early production scooters and project bikes were tucked into corners. But despite the accumulation of stuff there was a definite sense of organization. Everything had its place and that’s where it was. There were just lots of things trying to be in the same place.
The first bikes were Frankenstein affairs: commercially available street bikes with their motors ripped out and batteries strapped into place. Slowly, the process was refined. A company in Thailand that has been making motorcycle chassis for over 40 years was contacted and a new frame was designed for use by Electric Motorsport. This new frame would be just wide enough to hold the battery packs and strong enough to take the weight and stress of holding everything together. Certain suspension allowances were made, using inverted forks on the front but sticking to dual shocks on the rear. Why continue to use the old-school dual shocks, one might ask? Simple: space. By keeping the shocks off to the sides, there is space available to tuck the power controller where a mono-shock would normally be. And while the dual shocks are not adjustable for height, there is still the ability to adjust the stiffness, giving you a more comfortable ride based on the rider’s needs.
I had made arrangements with another Todd who works at Electric Motorsports to test ride one of their bikes, the GPR-S. The actual production model was tucked in among half a dozen other bikes so they had me try out one of the early prototype models for my spin around the block. I was working with Martin, the guru who puts the bikes together. He was incredibly knowledgeable about what the bikes could and couldn’t do, and what it would take to make them do more. He spewed numbers faster than I could make sense of them, talking about amps and volts and cycles. He showed me the bike he was currently putting together, the colors available, the batteries currently used as well as older batteries that had since been superceded by “bigger, better, faster”. Martin described the power controller and the motor and how they worked together to create a smooth power transfer to the rear wheel. He described how everything was carefully put together so that moisture and rain would have no effect on the performance of the bike. And then he led me to the bike that he rode daily to and from work and the bike that I would take out for a test ride. It was small and light and deceptively silent. I didn’t even realize that it was “on” until Martin reached over and gently rolled on the throttle while propping the rear wheel up. The tire spun but there was no noise at all, save for a slight whirr of the chain as it was pulled over the sprocket teeth.
Sitting on the GPR I felt like I was on a toy. I am tall and am used to tall bikes like my KLR 650 and BMW 1150GS. This was not a tall bike by any standard. But this is a good thing I think, as I recall the number of times I’ve heard someone complain how their choice of motorcycle is limited because they can’t reach the ground comfortably enough to give them the confidence to ride. The bike was also light, weighing less than 300 pounds with the weight of the 16V batteries centered low. So I hiked my right foot up to the peg, not used to the sportier position that this bike commanded. I gingerly played with the throttle while my left hand grabbed absent-mindedly for the clutch. But there was no clutch, just as there was no gearshift lever. Speed is controlled purely through the potentiometer integrated into the throttle. Satisfied that the bike was truly “on” and that it didn’t take much to move it from a stopped position, I scouted my exit from the crowded parking lot and made my way to the street. The bike moved stealthily among the cars as I got used to the easy roll of the throttle.
Naturally, once on the street I wanted to know what kind of “get up and go” this bike had. I rolled hard on the throttle, expecting the requisite engine noise to accompany the burst of speed. I got neither: the motor remained silent and the bike surged forward languidly. I gave the bike some more time with the throttle and the speed was building steadily before I came to my first stop sign. I reached for the clutch and the front brake, completely forgetting that there was nothing for my left hand to do out there and that I also had a rear brake pedal to use. The bike stopped competently enough, although once again the lack of engine noise threw me off as I came to a silent halt. The only noises I heard were the tires on the pavement, the chain running through the sprockets and the wind passing over my helmet.
I was not near any wide open spaces that would allow me to test the bikes nimbleness at quick “S” curves, or any hills to see if there would be a performance drop, but instead I was in this bike’s native territory: urban, industrial, commuting terrain. I was in a neighborhood of homes, warehouses, railroad tracks and delivery trucks. I’d have to keep my eyes open for road hazards in addition to paying attention to how the bike handled it, all without me getting lost and taking an accidental “extended” test ride.
Stop signs were frequent and I got to test the brakes more often than I cared for. The front and rear single rotors did a more than adequate job of bringing down the speed of the bike, while the regenerative qualities of the motor (currently set at 40%, but adjustable based on desired performance) provided a bit of the engine breaking that I’m used to on a standard gas powered motorcycle. I repeatedly tried to pour on the power at take off, but the way that the power controller was set up, this wasn’t going to happen. The guys at the shop had set up this bike for maximum battery life and not high performance. Which is to say that the bike is fully capable of taking off quickly, just not the way it was configured.
At one point I held the throttle steady at 30mph to see how smooth the power flowed to the drive chain. I was surprised at a slight surging, but was later reassured by Martin that this was because the bike had not been completely tweaked in the controller. This was evident when he let me take out the second prototype. Still not a final production model, this bike was set up better and had a few improvements integrated into it over the first bike I took out. The suspension had been upgraded and the power controller was a little more lenient on how fast I could go. It also maintained a very smooth pace when I held the throttle steady.
Of course I was also on standard production models. Performance can be bought for a price. Custom-made motors and adjusted power controllers can greatly increase the horsepower and speed of these bikes. But Electric Motorsport isn’t mass-producing race bikes; they’re making commuting bikes. Bikes with just enough power to get you comfortably and safely to work and maybe out to dinner with friends, all with minimal maintenance. Martin estimates that by riding the original prototype to work every day he spends approximately $7 month in electricity. Keep air in the tires and lube the chain once in a while and you’re done. And other than consumables like tires and brake pads, there are no other costs involved in the daily operation of an electric motorcycle.
Some people wonder about the lifespan of the battery itself and what to do with it when it finally refuses to take another charge. There are horror stories of traditional lead-acid batteries leaking their toxins into water systems after being improperly disposed of. There’s none of that here. When the lithium batteries finally reach the end of their lifespan (approximately 3,000 cycles – that’s about 8 years of daily use) Electric Motorsport will take the old batteries in for recycling. And recycling lithium batteries is much easier than standard lead-acid batteries, so it doesn’t take much to put them back into circulation. The current batteries will cost you about $2,000 to replace, but Electric Motorsport is already working on using a new and improved battery with 10 times the range, something that should be available within a couple of years. Therefore, by the time the original batteries fail there will no doubt be a vast improvement in what you get in trade.
Because of the amount of the batteries’ power, there is little effect when running standard electrical items, such as headlights and signals. And of course depending on the draw, one could conceivably hook up auxiliary lights and even heated gear or a GPS without severely affecting the output. And speaking of output, since there’s no gas, there’s no gas gauge. So how do you know when you’re about to run out of “fuel”? The instrument cluster on the prototype electric bike that I test rode was the same generic instrument cluster I’d expect to find on any motorcycle. But I found that I didn’t look at it much, as the relevant information was instead showing on a small LCD screen attached to the handle bar. This little screen showed me how fast I was going, the power draw on the batteries and the remaining power left. There were many other tidbits of information accessible through this box, more detailed information necessary to those who actually knew what to do with that sort of data. And for those who don’t pay attention to the information displayed, there is a sort of “reserve” tank: when the batteries reach a certain level they cut to half power. This gives you enough juice to make it to somewhere to plug in and won’t just leave you suddenly stranded on the side of the road. Just how far is it until that reserve level is hit? That depends on a couple of factors: how the power controller set up and how aggressively has the bike been ridden. One should expect to get about between 35 and 60 miles out of a full charge, depending on the conditions.
And once the batteries are low, there are many options for recharging them. The speed at which the batteries are recharged is highly dependent upon how good the charger itself is. A cheap, $20 charger will do the job, but it might take a day or more. However, a $2,000 charger could do the same job in seven minutes. A compromise is Electric Motorsport’s optional 15amp “speed charger”. This unit can be installed in the bike, the plug located where gas would normally be poured into the tank, and will give a full charge within 1-½ hours. Without the speed charger and using a standard 110V outlet with 7amps, the batteries should be fully charged in 6 hours. For those with an even stronger environmental bent, a solar panel could be used, but the rate of charging would be so slow (2-3 days) that it could be deemed inefficient.
The good news is that once the batteries are charged, they hold their charge for at least 6 months. There is no drain on the system while the bike sits idle. And there is no “memory”, so if you’re on the edge of your power availability and you don’t have a full 6 hours to charge the batteries, whatever time you do have will add to the existing power supply without adversely affecting the battery’s future capacities.
Since the batteries are only as good as what they power, what about the motor that is turning the rear wheel? A DC Permanent magnet motor has been mounted behind the batteries, tucked in front the rear wheel and under the power controller. The AC batteries feed the power controller where the electricity is then converted to DC and regulated according to what kind of performance the rider is demanding of the motorcycle. The power controller is also where the torque is regulated so as to avoid the electric switch phenomenon. **Please note that I’m awaiting confirmation on this paragraph. I didn’t quite follow the “flow” while I was there and have since asked for clarification.**
The basic electric motorcycle offered to the public has been dictated primarily by cost. But that doesn’t mean that the more can’t be done with a little ingenuity or more money. More batteries could be added in side bags or a top case to increase range. A small gas-powered motor could be added to act as a small generator to recharge in the instance that no outlets are handy. And along the same lines, one could even use a sidecar to generate power, using the rotation of the third wheel to feed power into a custom-made alternator.
The market for an electric motorcycle is growing. Electric Motorsport is putting a lot of research into available technologies and are constantly upgrading what they have with what is new on the market. They have achieved “developer” status with the creative people who design and make lithium batteries and therefore have early hands-on access to new products before they’re commercially available. This allows them to do their own testing and researching, configuring the bike for maximum range and power. While Todd does all of his research and testing here in Oakland, he is finding that his production line can’t keep up. Since the demand for the bikes is global (over 750 for Switzerland alone, plus more for the rest of Europe, Scandinavia, South Africa and at least half a dozen other countries) and the chassis are already made in Thailand, he is planning on moving the final production line overseas as well. All of the components are standard motorcycle parts, where applicable, and no corners have been cut in trying to keep the weight down with less substantial parts.
What else is in the future of motorcycles at Electric Motorsport? Other than the constant quest to increase the range and power output, Todd is also working on creating an off-road version of the electric motorcycle. He has a working model now but it is being revamped with an improved frame and other parts. Imagine how the complaints against “noisy two-strokes” would die off as these stealthy electric bikes made their way through the woods.
Every idea has to start somewhere, and the evolution of battery technology means that the electric motorcycle’s time has come. With the improvements that are bound to happen every year and society’s efforts to pursue alternative fuels, the electric motorcycle will be able to better fill the gap between “scooter” and “car” and give people a choice in how they get around. It may not be the bike for all people, but it is an alternative, and a welcome one at that.
