While I am not too happy having to wait until 2012 (my guess) before the Empulse is delivered, I get the feeling that I would be a lot more unhappy if I bought an Empulse and then the following year, they completely revamped the bike's technology to make it perform better. If that happened I would feel like current Zero owners, who always seem to have just bought a brand new obsolete model, which has been superseded by a newer model just announced by the factory.
Lots of questions about how this would work... the tesla is a 2 speed auto right?
We imagine a motorcycle for the city centre that can both take on steep hills and drive at high speed, allowing it to be used on the highway or around city motorways.
Interesting feature of the IET "simulated engine breaking". I can only assume this will provide some energy recovery.Let's also hope that it's "simulated engine braking" or it could turn out to be expensive.
Interesting feature of the IET "simulated engine breaking". I can only assume this will provide some energy recovery.Let's also hope that it's "simulated engine braking" or it could turn out to be expensive.
This cannot be a coincidence:
http://www.litogreenmotion.com/ (http://www.litogreenmotion.com/)
But apparently the range, using the same battery back, can be nearly doubled if the power is controlled through a transmission.
assuming the motor is geared to go that speed in its efficiency band
I don't pretend to understand the physics of it - but you probably hit the nail on the head withQuoteassuming the motor is geared to go that speed in its efficiency band
The graph on this thread may have the answer - the efficiency appears to peak at about 2500 RPM - why not keep the motor spinning at this rate and maintain speed via a transmission?
[emphasis mine]
We had a tough decision to make recently: Deliver the Empulse this riding season, or integrate our latest technology and deliver a superior bike in 2012. After much deliberation, we decided to be true to our values and build the best bike we can. We still have a good amount of work and testing to do in order to bring you the world's greatest electric motorcycle. We believe it is going to be worth the wait.
You can add me to the list of people who could be very happy with a single-speed Empulse. I don't need to accelerate hard or go really fast. For me a real-world 80 mile range, with a top speed of 80 mph would be perfect for my use. Having enough acceleration to keep up with most autos is also good enough for me. I'll take the simple single-speed version and let the sport riders wait for the better performing 6-speed model. I use my motorcycles mostly for transportation and not for thrills.
I also agree that it is tough enough to get a new vehicle with new technology on the road and reliable, without adding the additional complexity of a untested (in the hands of the public) transmission and clutch system. Both transmissions and clutches have a long history of failures and it has taken a long time to prefect them. A few years ago even BMW had problems with their transmissions, which caused them to go to another manufacturer for a redesign and a replacement. These things can be a headache.
As I was walking past the Brammo tent at the Infineon Racetrack today, Craig Bramscher came up to me and said "hello". We had a very pleasant conversation for 5 minutes, mostly about the future of the Empulse (well I did sort of steer the conversation in that direction). Craig is clearly very enthusiastic about Brammo's new 6-speed gearbox technology. He said that it would give the Empulse substantially improved acceleration and performance, compared to a single-speed drive. I am pretty sure that you can expect the Empulse to have this new gearbox system when it hits the market.
Thinking further about the revised Empulse, I can see how it will vault the Brammo past all other (that we know of) production electric motorcycles when it comes to quarter-mile performance - and that is what the sportbike market is focused upon - and has been for just about forever. Right now the motorcycle magazines hardly mention the acceleration performance of electric motorcycles due to their slow speed up to 30 mph, or so. If the 6-speed Empulse can rack up some quarter mile times comparable to current IC sportbikes, it could be a game changer for the EV industry. Craig Bramscher has high hopes that the Empulse will become the "motorcycle of the year" when it arrives on the showroom floor.
Unfortunately, until that happens, it looks like we will just have to wait a little longer to get our hands on one.
As I was walking past the Brammo tent at the Infineon Racetrack today, Craig Bramscher came up to me and said "hello". We had a very pleasant conversation for 5 minutes, mostly about the future of the Empulse (well I did sort of steer the conversation in that direction). Craig is clearly very enthusiastic about Brammo's new 6-speed gearbox technology. He said that it would give the Empulse substantially improved acceleration and performance, compared to a single-speed drive. I am pretty sure that you can expect the Empulse to have this new gearbox system when it hits the market.
Thinking further about the revised Empulse, I can see how it will vault the Brammo past all other (that we know of) production electric motorcycles when it comes to quarter-mile performance - and that is what the sportbike market is focused upon - and has been for just about forever. Right now the motorcycle magazines hardly mention the acceleration performance of electric motorcycles due to their slow speed up to 30 mph, or so. If the 6-speed Empulse can rack up some quarter mile times comparable to current IC sportbikes, it could be a game changer for the EV industry. Craig Bramscher has high hopes that the Empulse will become the "motorcycle of the year" when it arrives on the showroom floor.
Unfortunately, until that happens, it looks like we will just have to wait a little longer to get our hands on one.
Good stuff! I am a little bummed that we have to wait until next year, but I realize its for a good reason. The Empulse will put electric motorcycles (and Brammo) on the map in a big way. The Empulse will go nicely with my Ford Focus EV :).