Total Motorcycle Community Forums

JackoftheGreen wrote:The lack of any exhaust note is an interesting viewpoint. I'm a 'loud pipe' guy myself.

Somewhere here on TMW is a long-standing thread about folk who ride with earplugs in, I remember reading through it with interest a few months ago. I may even have commented. So perhaps the earplug people would welcome a dead-silent ride beneath them, then, it's just wind noise to compete with.
.

As one of the die-hard ear-plug people I have to say that the sound of an engine is one of the key things that sells me a bike. The ear plugs are there for wind noise alone and let me hear the engine better - believe it or not.....

This said I recently went to a high-performance indoor electric go-cart track and similar to my outlook on electric bikes, I was expecting to be disappointed. But the electric carts had awesome performance and the sound from the electric engine was somewhat reminiscent of the sound of a formula 1 car at a distance. This makes me want to try one all the more, and I appreciate that there are companies out there like Zero who continue to move electric bikes closer to the mark. It can't be too much longer until they are a true viable alternative to a regular bike. For that reason - awesome.

Doesn't do it for me. A meh bike. Uncool.

I want one. Too bad its still so costly.

Just about all I ride is errands and an
occasional 100 mile rd trip on the NYS
Trwy. There's time for partial charge on
the way.

I voted: Uncool.

Well, it's not really a solid uncool, more like a "hmmm, not sure if I'd want one, uncool". As many have suggested, the noise of a motorcycle is part of the motorcycling experience, I'm just not sure if I'd want a bike that doesn't sound like anything other than a chain rattle, wind noise and tire noise, that just doesn't sound all that sexy to me.

But I agree, electric motorcycles have come a far distance since I've first put them up on Total Motorcycle several years ago. More range, faster changing, more power. Unfortunately this sounds all very "Throw away technology" to me as who wants an iPhone 1 when iPhone 6 is now out? Kinda worried this will happen to electric motorcycles as well... in fact, it's happened to Film camera gear. I just sold some of my film camera gear as it's harder and harder to find film and processing, even though the technology isn't outdated it's I can't use it like I could before, now I'm forced into digital cameras, and which they are convenient, I doubt I'll keep a digital camera for 20+ years and it will be better in 50+ years!

Could this be what's destined for gas engines then? Sure, your 750cc bike is great today, but what happens when you can't buy gas as easily or it's hard to find? This isn't too far fetched as my neighbor has a 1940's Jaguar that must have leaded gas and he has to go to another state just to buy leaded fuel to run it!

So, good for the industry, but maybe worse for the consumer?

Mike

Your Coolness Factor of the 2014 Zero SR is:

Awesome (3 points) 25% [ 5 ]
Cool (2 points) 45% [ 9 ]
Uncool (1 point) 20% [ 4 ]
Fail (0 point) 10% [ 2 ]

Total votes : 20

= a Coolwall Factor of 61.7%

NOTES: Like the song goes: "The times are a cha-changing" so too is the motorcycle industry with the introduction of Zero's newest bike, the SR. Will electric bikes replace gas ones? Is the future bright for iBike technology or could that technology end up in a landfill in 10 years as no-one wants it as vastly superior models are out today? Time will tell.

Next bike is now up for voting on, have fun!!