Brammo Owners Forum

Air cooling will not suffice at the moment which is shown by the problems the Nissan Leaf has in hot areas.
Maybe when batteries can operate at higher temperatures it can become interesting.
For bikes this is even more true because they have less 'skin' around the batteries than cars and when parked in the sun will heat up even more.
That is why such a black box as used on the Zero S is dangerous in my opinion when parked in the sun.

This is a joke, right?  Cars trap their low, wide packs inside a shell, between a greenhouse and a pavement surface.  A shell as airtight as possible, above a pavement surface as close as possible, to reduce drag.  Motorcycles, as empirically demonstrated, place their packs above the skin height (air layer  against the ground), with a generally-vertical layout that coincidentally supports convection.  As for color, you're telling me you see in the infrared?

Carlos

Now that is what I call doing your due diligence homework before taking on the task of running a small electric motorcycle start-up company, after being in an organization like HP. I guess he heard some positive comments.

...or maybe he learned his lesson, from being in an organization like HP!

I'm told that, as news of Carly Fiorina's booting got posted and read, you could hear a wave of cheering and yelling sweep across the place.  Maybe that's a Silicon-Valley legend, maybe not.  Then her successor seems to have done as badly.

I should also point out that the motorcycle business is not that big, compared to either computers or cars.  You can't hide behind layers and layers; visiting a dealership and chatting with the boss on hand should be done by even more people than just Richard Walker.

Carlos

If they are going to introduce the scooter to the U.S. this fall, it can't be a prototype. It typically takes BMW a long time to get new models to the U.S. My F650GS was manufactured in June 2008 and didn't arrive at my dealer's showroom until September. They must have the factory set up to produce the model now in order to get it here by the "fall".  

BMW's motorcycle production is done in batches- their single motorcycle operation is set up for a run of, say, tourers.  After they've built up an inventory of that model, they switch it to another model.  Meanwhile, that stock of tourers has to last months and months.  Don't know if the scooter setup is similar, or if it's a separate system.  Possibly even a contractor facility, given that scooters move in much higher volumes overall.

Carlos

Ehhh, Soichiro Honda started out in mopeds, not sedans or generators.  Seems to have worked out for him, though of course postwar Japan is kind of an unusual market.

Carlos

Yes, pretty much J1772 or other Level 2.  I've never seen a Level 1 in this country that had lockout/payment/membership capabilities- anyone else?

Carlos

Not to excuse or rationalize it, but... $2.49/hr pays for the electronics, housing, installation time, etc.  If you see free charging (of any level), that means someone deliberately or coincidentally took the hit on installation.  I have some municipal charging locations around me that are free, but only due to various subsidies.  There are other accessible building outlets where 120V charging is free by default (for now), since I called up their staff. They said there is no official policy on plugging into accessible outlets.  So as long as I'm not being a d*ck about it, I fully intend to draw maybe 70 cents of juice.  Still, those unofficial outlets exist because the maintenance staff needed them, so the building owner took the hit on installation for me.

Handy rule in general: don't be a d*ck.  If someone objects to you plugging in, be courteous.  Even if that someone is just a bystander, calmly explain how little the electricity costs, etc.  Don't get upset, don't be confrontational.  As long as the EV community is small, every one of us becomes a de facto spokesman for the rest of us, like it or not.

Also, I can grumble and gripe about $2.49 charging, but I'd rather have it around for emergencies than nothing at all.  I look at it like Starbucks: Starbucks prices make a lot more sense once you realize the drinks are basically milkshakes, and the store a modern-day soda fountain or candy shop.  So I buy the occasional milkshake as a treat to myself; I would never go to Starbucks if I was fixing a daily coffee habit. 

Carlos

Any biodiesel vehicles, or SVO?  Biodiesel requires methanol, but even the cheap stuff is made from natural gas, not oil.

Carlos

The gap between electric and gassers is really closing fast... soon we will see them hanging with liter bikes. The only limiting factor now is the batteries really.

Well, sure, if you have a sponsor.  Like computers before them, the issue is not what they can do, but what YOU can do with the one that you can actually afford.  Right now, no one has built the equivalent of the Apple IIC, though plenty of people have built their Apple I.  Meanwhile MotoCzysz has demonstrated to the world their Unix monster. 

Carlos