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The problems with electric motorcycles are well-summarised here: "Why electric motorcycles are failing" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2zlYpy6QCM https://www.

The problems with electric motorcycles are well-summarised here: "Why electric motorcycles are failing" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2zlYpy6QCM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2zlYpy6QCM . It's just kind of a bad product/market fit. I am not willing to pay 6 grand for a bike with a 37 mile highway range, sorry. My equivalently-priced ICE bike gets two times that _per gallon_. The key, i think, is to realize that what good electric motors give us is a moped that doesn't suck. It's a different market entirely, it's The Right Answer, and they are predictably selling like hotcakes. 3 grand, no license or insurance paperwork, you can use 'em on bike paths, and 50 mph range and if your battery shits out, well, you have a _bicycle_, you'll get home -- that's a city commuter worth considering!

stefan_ 5y ago
Like you are going to have a choice. There is going to be a day you can't register a combustion engine vehicle, but frankly given motorcycle manufacturers are doing everything in their power to make their bikes as loud and obnoxious as possible, it's going to be much much sooner.
- hprotagonist 5y ago
  Don't conflate the manufacturers with the aftermarket pipes crowd. All my bikes have been quite polite, and have all had OEM pipes. I don't see a day when ICE becomes impossible to use. I do see a day where ICE engines are what horses became: basically weird niche toys that weirdoes and rich people play with because they like them, but no longer even close to the dominant transportation method.
- thghtihadanacct 5y ago
  you just dont like harleys
  - timbit42 5y ago
    The only people who like Harleys are the people driving them because the noise goes out the back and they don't realize it's a lot louder for everyone else.
- kube-system 5y ago
  Every loud bike you hear on the street in the US that was made after 1979 is illegally modified.
  - dzhiurgis 5y ago
    Illegal or not I wanna run them over.
- sparrish 5y ago
  Loud pipes save lives. I wanted to put quiet factory pipes on my used Harley but my wife wouldn't let me. She wanted to make sure cars and trucks would hear me even if they didn't see me.
  - timbit42 5y ago
    That theory has been debunked.
  - kube-system 5y ago
    I've never noticed a difference in distracted drivers pulling out in front of me when I'm on a quiet bike vs a loud bike. Most of the sound is going the wrong way anyway.
    - sparrish 5y ago
      I'll grant you drivers pulling in front of you... If you grant me that you're must less likely to have a vehicle beside you push you out of your lane if your bike is loud.
  - peatmoss 5y ago
    You’re much better off getting a headlight modulator. Pipes point the wrong way. Also wear high viz.
sushsjsuauahab 5y ago
the only reason i wouldnt buy an electric motorcycle for that price is because a car driver will eventually run me over
- Tarrosion 5y ago
  Super agree. I would own and use a menagerie of personal electric vehicles if I weren't worried about death by [someone else's] car. (I mean, my main transportation these days is a mechanical bike, and I still worry about death by car)
  - sushsjsuauahab 5y ago
    stay safe, friend! remember that the first roads with motorized vehicles on them were private, and exclusively used by their tycoon financiers :)
- timbit42 5y ago
  The idea that louder motorcycles are less likely to be in accidents has been debunked.
  - sushsjsuauahab 5y ago
    Well, I'm saying that people run over motorcyclists regardless of any controlling factor.
King-Aaron 5y ago
Eventually batteries will hopefully come down further in price to make these things more competitive with traditional bikes. Personally I love the idea of an electric bike for the commute, and I think that one of these would be amazing to take out into the bush for camping (or in particular, hunting - going through a track completely silently would be great). The range is the big issue in that regard of course. As with all of this tech, it's just early days I suppose. If you wound the clock back 150 years a fuel burning bike would likely have comparable problems
m463 5y ago
People complained about the original leaf with its limited range too. And plenty of people used them to get around town. Many people buy by judging what they "might need", without really knowing or accepting what they "do need"
- Steltek 5y ago
  I've only bookmarked the above video for later but isn't short range more easily filled by e-bikes? You can bypass traffic in the bike lane and lock up at any random street post. If a cheap e-moto is worse than an deluxe e-bike, why bother? (That said, I'm not a fan of e-bikes roughing up regular bikes in bike lanes. People need to start behaving themselves before we get into "this is why we can't have nice things" territory and e-bikes are banned from bike lanes.)
  - m463 5y ago
    Motorcycles are different than e-bikes. Maybe e-bikes work in some heavily congested urban environments, but motorcycles are a different use case: - they can go on the freeway - they can park in places e-bikes might not have a place - they don't need to be pedaled (if you can't be sweaty when you get there) - ground clearance - fenders if the ground is wet - take a passenger etc...
- foobar2021 5y ago
  Does somebody on the west coast “need” an earthquake survival kit or is that just something they “might need”?
- calvinmorrison 5y ago
  Weight is roughly 10x as important on bikes. My bike is 400lb and its not a heavy bike. The ratio of gas weight to total weight. 5 gal tank, what 8lb a gallon? So a very small part of the total weight of the bike. They're physically harder to handle at larger sizes.
- kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
  The original leaf had underspecced batteries and could be easily upgraded. Motorcycles have severe volumetric limitations for storing chemical energy in any form.
thghtihadanacct 5y ago
Ive been riding a zero around a central coast city for a while now and I can say youre spot on. I could have spent less than a quarter the price and got a motor assisted cargo bike. Its going to be years before electric motorcycles catch up but I look forward to when it does.
frogger8 5y ago
Hail to the moto blog king. Ryan Fortnine.
pengaru 5y ago
6 grand new for something street-legal, 70mph capable, with enough range for me to get to town and back, that's magically always full of energy whenever I'm ready to leave home, does not seem like a bad deal at all. I used to ride sportbikes quite a lot in decades past, even rode cross-country a number of times. Putting gas in a motorcycle alone is nuisance enough for me to be willing to pay good money to never have to do again if I wanted to commute to/from town on two wheels. But I'd probably wait to pick one up on the used market, since I never buy any vehicles new. However, sharing roads with today's drivers on two wheels is a completely different problem that will likely prevent me from getting one of these. Though the Enduro model might make a good fit for my off-road play at the desert cabin, and I could put up some solar panels to keep it charged.
- senectus1 5y ago
  not to mention that not all countries get fuel for the silly cheap prices the Americans do.
  - kube-system 5y ago
    True but the 70MPG you could get on a more capable ICE bike isn't terribly expensive even at EU prices for gas, and Americans don't ride motorcycles for primary transportation anyway.
    - dkasper 5y ago
      Depends what you mean by primary transportation, but lots of Americans commute by motorcycle. Especially in california lane splitting is a huge time savings in traffic (and legal here).
      - 14 5y ago
        This is huge for places like LA. 2 hr commute or a 40 minute one where you lane split. I have never personally experienced this but my dad described getting his first bike a cb750 in LA as orgasmic. Being able to ride through traffic and not wait the hours he had to before was like nothing else he says.
Nat3120 5y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkn5wtPYvOM&t=40s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkn5wtPYvOM&t=40s Have you tried Evoke Motorcycles before? I had their Urban Classic for over a year now and its decent. Dont get me wrong its not a replacement for my gas one for longer rides. However, going to work is just fine. They do say they will have one with 600km range https://www.evokemotorcycles.com/6061-gt https://www.evokemotorcycles.com/6061-gt and only 15min changing.... well lets see when it comes out.
comeonseriously 5y ago
> The problems with electric motorcycles are well-summarised here... They're also not obnoxiously loud at 2am, either. Apparently, being very obnoxious is a huge selling point for some people. It's an attention seeking machine.
nathansiy 5y ago
I think whatever the vehicle, be it motorcycle, moped or car, people generally are looking for good value and what that "value" represents to people. Some people will pay $xx.xx for high performance, or maybe acceleration or maybe range; customer preference is going to differ somewhat, especially since this industry is still defining standards and best practices. There are some companies out there already which are focused on best value vs range, and Evoke Motorcycles is offering pretty good range in that department. $8k USD gets you as much as 160 miles on a charge and a 90 min top up at a charging station.

stefan_ 5y ago

Like you are going to have a choice. There is going to be a day you can't register a combustion engine vehicle, but frankly given motorcycle manufacturers are doing everything in their power to make their bikes as loud and obnoxious as possible, it's going to be much much sooner.

hprotagonist 5y ago
Don't conflate the manufacturers with the aftermarket pipes crowd. All my bikes have been quite polite, and have all had OEM pipes. I don't see a day when ICE becomes impossible to use. I do see a day where ICE engines are what horses became: basically weird niche toys that weirdoes and rich people play with because they like them, but no longer even close to the dominant transportation method.
thghtihadanacct 5y ago
you just dont like harleys
- timbit42 5y ago
  The only people who like Harleys are the people driving them because the noise goes out the back and they don't realize it's a lot louder for everyone else.
kube-system 5y ago
Every loud bike you hear on the street in the US that was made after 1979 is illegally modified.
- dzhiurgis 5y ago
  Illegal or not I wanna run them over.
sparrish 5y ago
Loud pipes save lives. I wanted to put quiet factory pipes on my used Harley but my wife wouldn't let me. She wanted to make sure cars and trucks would hear me even if they didn't see me.
- timbit42 5y ago
  That theory has been debunked.
- kube-system 5y ago
  I've never noticed a difference in distracted drivers pulling out in front of me when I'm on a quiet bike vs a loud bike. Most of the sound is going the wrong way anyway.
  - sparrish 5y ago
    I'll grant you drivers pulling in front of you... If you grant me that you're must less likely to have a vehicle beside you push you out of your lane if your bike is loud.
- peatmoss 5y ago
  You’re much better off getting a headlight modulator. Pipes point the wrong way. Also wear high viz.

sushsjsuauahab 5y ago

the only reason i wouldnt buy an electric motorcycle for that price is because a car driver will eventually run me over

Tarrosion 5y ago
Super agree. I would own and use a menagerie of personal electric vehicles if I weren't worried about death by [someone else's] car. (I mean, my main transportation these days is a mechanical bike, and I still worry about death by car)
- sushsjsuauahab 5y ago
  stay safe, friend! remember that the first roads with motorized vehicles on them were private, and exclusively used by their tycoon financiers :)
timbit42 5y ago
The idea that louder motorcycles are less likely to be in accidents has been debunked.
- sushsjsuauahab 5y ago
  Well, I'm saying that people run over motorcyclists regardless of any controlling factor.

King-Aaron 5y ago

Eventually batteries will hopefully come down further in price to make these things more competitive with traditional bikes. Personally I love the idea of an electric bike for the commute, and I think that one of these would be amazing to take out into the bush for camping (or in particular, hunting - going through a track completely silently would be great). The range is the big issue in that regard of course. As with all of this tech, it's just early days I suppose. If you wound the clock back 150 years a fuel burning bike would likely have comparable problems

m463 5y ago

People complained about the original leaf with its limited range too. And plenty of people used them to get around town. Many people buy by judging what they "might need", without really knowing or accepting what they "do need"

Steltek 5y ago
I've only bookmarked the above video for later but isn't short range more easily filled by e-bikes? You can bypass traffic in the bike lane and lock up at any random street post. If a cheap e-moto is worse than an deluxe e-bike, why bother? (That said, I'm not a fan of e-bikes roughing up regular bikes in bike lanes. People need to start behaving themselves before we get into "this is why we can't have nice things" territory and e-bikes are banned from bike lanes.)
- m463 5y ago
  Motorcycles are different than e-bikes. Maybe e-bikes work in some heavily congested urban environments, but motorcycles are a different use case: - they can go on the freeway - they can park in places e-bikes might not have a place - they don't need to be pedaled (if you can't be sweaty when you get there) - ground clearance - fenders if the ground is wet - take a passenger etc...
foobar2021 5y ago
Does somebody on the west coast “need” an earthquake survival kit or is that just something they “might need”?
calvinmorrison 5y ago
Weight is roughly 10x as important on bikes. My bike is 400lb and its not a heavy bike. The ratio of gas weight to total weight. 5 gal tank, what 8lb a gallon? So a very small part of the total weight of the bike. They're physically harder to handle at larger sizes.
kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
The original leaf had underspecced batteries and could be easily upgraded. Motorcycles have severe volumetric limitations for storing chemical energy in any form.

thghtihadanacct 5y ago

Ive been riding a zero around a central coast city for a while now and I can say youre spot on. I could have spent less than a quarter the price and got a motor assisted cargo bike. Its going to be years before electric motorcycles catch up but I look forward to when it does.

frogger8 5y ago

Hail to the moto blog king. Ryan Fortnine.

pengaru 5y ago

6 grand new for something street-legal, 70mph capable, with enough range for me to get to town and back, that's magically always full of energy whenever I'm ready to leave home, does not seem like a bad deal at all. I used to ride sportbikes quite a lot in decades past, even rode cross-country a number of times. Putting gas in a motorcycle alone is nuisance enough for me to be willing to pay good money to never have to do again if I wanted to commute to/from town on two wheels. But I'd probably wait to pick one up on the used market, since I never buy any vehicles new. However, sharing roads with today's drivers on two wheels is a completely different problem that will likely prevent me from getting one of these. Though the Enduro model might make a good fit for my off-road play at the desert cabin, and I could put up some solar panels to keep it charged.

senectus1 5y ago
not to mention that not all countries get fuel for the silly cheap prices the Americans do.
- kube-system 5y ago
  True but the 70MPG you could get on a more capable ICE bike isn't terribly expensive even at EU prices for gas, and Americans don't ride motorcycles for primary transportation anyway.
  - dkasper 5y ago
    Depends what you mean by primary transportation, but lots of Americans commute by motorcycle. Especially in california lane splitting is a huge time savings in traffic (and legal here).
    - 14 5y ago
      This is huge for places like LA. 2 hr commute or a 40 minute one where you lane split. I have never personally experienced this but my dad described getting his first bike a cb750 in LA as orgasmic. Being able to ride through traffic and not wait the hours he had to before was like nothing else he says.

Nat3120 5y ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkn5wtPYvOM&t=40s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkn5wtPYvOM&t=40s Have you tried Evoke Motorcycles before? I had their Urban Classic for over a year now and its decent. Dont get me wrong its not a replacement for my gas one for longer rides. However, going to work is just fine. They do say they will have one with 600km range https://www.evokemotorcycles.com/6061-gt https://www.evokemotorcycles.com/6061-gt and only 15min changing.... well lets see when it comes out.

comeonseriously 5y ago

> The problems with electric motorcycles are well-summarised here... They're also not obnoxiously loud at 2am, either. Apparently, being very obnoxious is a huge selling point for some people. It's an attention seeking machine.

nathansiy 5y ago

I think whatever the vehicle, be it motorcycle, moped or car, people generally are looking for good value and what that "value" represents to people. Some people will pay $xx.xx for high performance, or maybe acceleration or maybe range; customer preference is going to differ somewhat, especially since this industry is still defining standards and best practices. There are some companies out there already which are focused on best value vs range, and Evoke Motorcycles is offering pretty good range in that department. $8k USD gets you as much as 160 miles on a charge and a 90 min top up at a charging station.