Orange County Choppers builds an electric hog

Yeah but.... it's a nice idea at least!

I saw this thing on the morning news but I had to haul nice person and couldn't watch the details.



Also, here's the Brammo Enertia electric bike for anyone who hasn't seen it: Enertia Bike - Home

 

Must...Make...Noise

 

I was actually thinking about electric motorcycles the other day. I think it's pointless (in 2009). The reason we have hybrid and electric cars is because the weight to power ratio of a car is much greater than that of a motorcycle (in a car, there is about four feet between the sets of wheels; with a motorcycle it's only what is on top of the wheels). Plus, motorcycles don't have much space at all to store batteries. And, motorcycles already get 50mpg. I think engineering efforts are much better spent working on cars, and in 2020 when we have 10X better technology, then we can apply it to a motorcycle.

Okay, so the lower weight to power ratio is also a benefit, as it requires less electricity. A Chevy Volt only goes 40 miles on a 5 year marketing charge.

 

Looking at the above photo, and considering that an electric vehicle makes very little noise, I'll bet it's hell driving that thing through a crowd of people at an auto show.

 

My assumption is that they were trying to reduce unsprung mass? This is a serious question.

 

Even so much as uttering the words range or economy in conjunction with OCC is just not right!! ....so, woops my bad for doing it just now.

But seriously, this thing is 100%, completely, totally and fully built for the novelty of it and nothing else. Talking about it's range? Are you kidding? It'll NEVER be ridden as a daily mode of transportation and of course it's inneficient. The OCC guys aren't engineers by any stretch and I'm pretty sure they weren't going for range at all. Like Tesla wasn't going for range on the Roadster, rather it was all about performance.

Still I totally dig this effort because it could potentially bring new people to the table (of electric two-wheeled rides).

I LOVE the Brammo Enertia bike too, because I can remember all the way back to my teens when I rode a bicycle to work and longed for something motor driven and I sure couldn't afford a car. It hurts that the Brammo Enertia's will go for about 12,000 when they hit the market but it's encouraging that ALL of the special editions are spoken for even before production has begun, so hopefully costs will go down and one day I'll be able to afford one.

The Enertia is not my style either, but then again I refuse to stick to just one style, instead I'm an all around motorbike guy having owned dirtbikes, a cruiser, a sport bike and a standard, in truth I would totally rock an Enertia at a cruiser type bike rally because I've ridden pretty much every other kind of bike there and only had a positive response. Harley guys, as they're sometimes called, would love to talk about an electric bike with you if you showed up to a ride with one, that I know for sure.

 

Very good possibility! The copper windings wouldn't make too much of a difference, but I would hate risking the cracking of the permanent magnets upon hitting a sharp bump in the road.
...but then again, testing might show that the permanent magnets survive just fine. I still wouldn't want all of that unsprung mass though.

 

The Enertia is not the only all-electric motorcycle on the board/in
production. Here are two more worth a look:

ZERO S ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLE

EL MOTO

You know, there are many touring/cruising cycles that have engines
larger than the Prius, even the 1.8L Gen III. At it's most illogical
extension, there are even V8 powered cycles, an idea that Mae West
would heartily approve: "Too much of a good thing is not enough:"

Boss Hoss Cycles

So, I wonder how long will it be before someone puts The Prius
ICE/HSD in a cycle?

 

Regen braking?

 

Does the chopper have it? ...I don't think so. It seems like it should but it occurs to me that they probably would've written a whole paragraph on that to make the point.