Six Speed Empulse - It's official(?)

[protomech]

Few reasons:

1. Money.
2. Race motors (Agni, Parker) may be more flexible than the Perm engines motors used in the Enertia.
3. Performance has been limited more by available battery capacity than by motor performance. This may change with the shift to shorter races with the TTX75 bikes on the same field.
4. The bikes can likely be geared so that the critical range of speeds are within 80% of peak power .. probably something like 60-120 mph. A transmission will help a bit here - possibly 10-15% more power over a non-transmission bike - but the weight/packaging could be spent on a bigger motor or more batteries instead.
5. As you say, reliability could be a concern.
6. Money.
7. Development time.
8. Durable, inexpensive, compact/lightweight.. pick one and a half.

[WanderLust]

I am afraid that for a little performance increase we loose a lot of reliability.
Why is the Empulse RR not fitted with the clutch and gearbox?
My guess is that it would break...

Because they really want the good will associated with something like that?
ICE bikes have had clutch/gear setups since the beginning of time, do the clutch cables snap from time to time? sure... but how often? If you don't get your bike serviced and clean that's bound to happen...
I'm sure they'll have some maintenance schedule to take wear and replacement into account...

[Richard230]

For whatever it is worth, I haven't had a clutch cable break since owning my first motorized vehicle, a 1962 Vespa 125 (which would break a clutch cable every couple of thousand miles). It took a few years, but I think most manufacturers of cables have got the technology figured out. Clutches, now - that is another matter.   

[kingcharles]

For whatever it is worth, I haven't had a clutch cable break since owning my first motorized vehicle, a 1962 Vespa 125 (which would break a clutch cable every couple of thousand miles). It took a few years, but I think most manufacturers of cables have got the technology figured out. Clutches, now - that is another matter.   

The clutch cable is not what I am worried about. It is the way the power of the electric motor is fed into the gearbox and the way the gears are engaged inside it. I think the gearbox will use quite some different parts/setup than a conventional one to cope with the lack of mass in the electric motor and the high torque it can produce.

[Vibetrippin]

Concidering the amount of torque it can produce it doesn't need all the mass that an ICE needs. The flywheel in your ICE bike is there to give the engine a helping hand when you ask for some torque.

There are a lot of things going on in ICE vehicles that are completely unnessesary as soon as you switch to electric. I'm sure that Brammo is going to be thoroughly testing this system out before it gets into our hands.

[protomech]

Everyone who has pre-ordered will be kept full informed via the Empulse Newsletter and they will be contacted by their local dealer 90 days before their Empulse goes into production.

Rest assured delivering the Empulse in volume is our #1 priority.

Has anyone received a newsletter update?

The first and only update I received was on August 17th 2011. I'm not sure if I screwed up my email or if the newsletters are a case of the best of intentions..

[Brammofan]

I haven't received one either.  I'm sure that you'll at least hear about it soon after it's sent, if you keep reading the forum.

[FreepZ]

At 935 in line, I expect to hear happy tales of folks acquiring Empulses on this forum long before I see mine. Then again, just how many bikes will the Flexibles be able to make in a month?

I'm also curious to know when Brammo is going to pick the lucky someone who's going to get their Empulse for free. Probably not long before the first batch of Empulses are ready to ship, since the hope of a free bike is probably an incentive for some people.