Energica

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Race van conversion for years
A mate of mine turned up at Bude tonight on this.
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Wow.. thats a Fugly bke, Id have the Jota all day long.
Only 70 miles set at full power he reckoned, just over 100 set on eco :doh:

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I really really want to like electric bikes, awesome torque, and imagine how cool it must be overtaking a car silently ?.
But there is a lot to be said for liquid fuel, it's a known quantity.. A phisical amount of a substance that you know is enough to get you home. I'd always be a bit worried out on an electric bike. ?
 
Motorcycles are a thing of beauty, and a treat to the senses.

When you think of the classics over the years, 916 Ducati, early Fireblades , RC30 and RC45 Honda's , they just looked right, and with most things, if it looks right , it is right .

I will go on record as saying that 80% of the bikes on sale today look like they have been designed by a committee, and the only thing that surprises me more than the fact that they ever got made, is how many folk buy them . That said, bikes, like women , are an individual taste, and no matter which one you own, it separates you from non owners forever.

And then when you have finished the looking, there is prodding the start button and hearing it burst into life.. the sound of a good 2 stroke with expansion chambers on , an RC30 with the race kit pipe, a Ducati with its awesome booming twin sound and dry clutch that sounds like a blender full of golf balls. Even a Harley with its slow boom boom twin , has its appeal .

And then there is the ride , when you nudge a bike into gear , and it just does what it needs to do , whether it be a racebike, cruiser, tourer or whatever.


3 distinct phases, some bikes look and sound great , and are awful to ride , some look great , sound rubbish, and yet are sublime to throw a leg over. There are many that tick all 3 boxes , but fail on practicality of ownership, which is why for many they are a bike to want , but never to have.

As for this EBike, I am at a loss to see how an overweight bike , that looks like the bastard child of Kryten and Vanessa Feltz , and doesnt make a sound, is ever going to catch on .
 
As for this EBike, I am at a loss to see how an overweight bike , that looks like the bastard child of Kryten and Vanessa Feltz , and doesnt make a sound, is ever going to catch on .

It looks quite normal by today's standards, Darth Vader mated with Transformer.

But you just might get a real surprise if you ride one. I haven't yet but I suspect that the silence and almost unlimited low down torque could be very addictive. For a while.
 
It looks quite normal by today's standards, Darth Vader mated with Transformer.

But you just might get a real surprise if you ride one. I haven't yet but I suspect that the silence and almost unlimited low down torque could be very addictive. For a while.

It does, that doesnt make it any better looking.

And you misuse the word 'unlimited' LOL .. 70 miles on full power is woeful , its almost like buying a pair of shoes that only get you to the end of your road.

I wouldnt want to push it far either.

I will say that some of the most practical of bikes, are not the best looking, but for me , thats not an issue,

ALTA Motors made a great electric dirt bike, followed convention with the design, and worked really hard on getting it to work, like it should, rather than some novelty, and by all accounts it was a good bike, but they folded when the cash ran out, despite a reasonable uptake for demand

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It looks quite normal by today's standards, Darth Vader mated with Transformer.

But you just might get a real surprise if you ride one. I haven't yet but I suspect that the silence and almost unlimited low down torque could be very addictive. For a while.

Agree Brian,marshalling at the TT it’s The longest period of the week.With less than ten racing and only one lap,just the whistle/whine as they pass just doesn’t do it for me.Plus we have been issued with special gloves as they discovered when one crashed it was live!! One caught fire in the paddock and eventually they put it in a skip which the fire brigade quickly filled with water,it burnt and smoked for almost a week mmmm.
I did get out on the CB500x yesterday first time in a while due to injury.With the MOTO GP style pipe on makes a nice sound for an economy bike.I also want to know I won’t have to push it home if I decide to go further when enjoying the ride.
 
I did get out on the CB500x yesterday

I've just done over 1000 miles to Scotland and back, not once did I feel I needed more horses. It was just perfect for the job. Deep joy on single track back roads, in the sunshine.

But I had my first failure. The fuel gauge started performing Space Invaders, I thought I misjudged the fuel and crawled into Perth to find I still had half a tank. The manual said "get to a Honda dealer". The internet told me it was a broken wire. It was, one of the wires on the fuel sender is designed to break in the tank. It is unsupported and moved by the fuel sloshing about and breaks off at the crimp. I soldered it back, I guess a Honda dealer would have fitted a new pump unit. This is at just under 20,000 miles.
 
Blimey.. makes my 1150GS look like a lightweight.
Whats the range on your 1150.. if I had another road bike, that is what I would be looking at I reckon..
 
Whats the range on your 1150.. if I had another road bike, that is what I would be looking at I reckon..

I'm pretty sure that was the one a guy we met at Monza was riding, it had carbs, he just ridden it from Australia then on to UK and back home via Mongolia.

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Whats the range on your 1150.. if I had another road bike, that is what I would be looking at I reckon..
When I was using to and from work, I'd fill up at about 250 miles, I knew where the fuel stops were.

When touring loaded with camping gear I would start looking around the 175-200 miles point.

I bought mine new in 2001, been a fantastic bike 100% reliable.
 
I'm pretty sure that was the one a guy we met at Monza was riding, it had carbs, he just ridden it from Australia then on to UK and back home via Mongolia.
... WHAT ...on a single tank LOL
 
... WHAT ...on a single tank LOL

Probably not.

The attraction for him was the simplicity, non of the massive electronics that infest them now, and this was about 10 years ago, he'd definitely not want a new one.
 
Probably not.

The attraction for him was the simplicity, non of the massive electronics that infest them now, and this was about 10 years ago, he'd definitely not want a new one.

The charm of BMW's is that you can fix them with a hammer.. the old ones are brutally simple, but they seem intent on designing out the simplicity for stuff that you don't really need at all.
 
for stuff that you don't really need at all.

You olde fossil. What do you mean, you don't need a TFT connected display ? How can you ride without 5 axis banked ABS ? Traction control, these things generate real power you know. And quick shift with auto blipper, essential. If you don't have active suspension with "sky hook" the first ripple in the road and you are off.

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I would counter with 'I can ride, I don't need any of them'..

I have spent a long time racing FI bikes and the joys of finding a map that actually translates into rideability and laptime is huge.. too many folk chase dyno numbers to look good, losing sight of what actually matters.

Last years bike had launch control , which is basically an idiot proof way of regulating the revs, and clutch bite so stop the bike bogging or wheelying off the line, it works well.

Quickshifters are great if you know which ones to get , and how to set them .
 
I would counter with 'I can ride, I don't need any of them'..

I have spent a long time racing FI bikes and the joys of finding a map that actually translates into rideability and laptime is huge.. too many folk chase dyno numbers to look good, losing sight of what actually matters.

Last years bike had launch control , which is basically an idiot proof way of regulating the revs, and clutch bite so stop the bike bogging or wheelying off the line, it works well.

Quickshifters are great if you know which ones to get , and how to set them .
I always used the same dyno & always said I'd sacrifice BHP figures for tractability/rideability, Andy at the dyno is a ex sidecar racer so understood what was needed, but as you say so many chase BHP & have knife edge power delivery, "it's a missile mate" ? but dog slow out of corners :rolleyes:
 
I always used the same dyno & always said I'd sacrifice BHP figures for tractability/rideability, Andy at the dyno is a ex sidecar racer so understood what was needed, but as you say so many chase BHP & have knife edge power delivery, "it's a missile mate" ? but dog slow out of corners :rolleyes:

Off topic slightly, we built a bike 10 years ago, that was kickass, motor had loads of coated parts, lots of lightening of parts and general chicanery, better cams and Ti retainers etc , and it was mapped in a way where it made solid useable power straight off the bottom, id didn't feel fast , or come on the cams with a rush, it was just usable linear lower and it was faster than anything else out there , even with my fat ass on it. We loaned the engine to a guy to race at an international in Italy, and went along to ensure his mechanic didn't mess with it. The bike was faster in a straight line that the Factory bike with the world champ on it , with 100cc more. I think they ran it out of fuel twice in the free training sessions, and his mechanic was looking for a fuel leak, which we knew he didn't have.. where everyone leans stuff out to hit numbers , we had it pulling mid to high 10's on the fuel/ air under load, had loads of ignition, and loads of fuel to keep it cool. The result was a bike that was phenomenally fast but didn't feel it and incredibly reliable , as it was never close to the edge on mixture... as the guy that built it and tuned it said, ' they don't go faster by putting less fuel in' .
 
BUMPED IN TO A FRIEND IN FIFE
Harley Davison soft tail slim 1690cc
 

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A good friend of mine in the US has been doing some test/development for an EBike .. having race in the TT Zero a few times , he is well placed to critique a bike of this type.. he said its a nice bit of kit , but wonders what the practicalities of the range of these bikes is, when they are predominantly used for leisure ? Is I was going for a day out, it would seldom be less than 100 miles and usually would be twice that .

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