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Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire

#61

Post by chrisseaton »

bananapear wrote: post #60
VBprogrammer wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've expressed the same sentiment before. The problem is that even talking about electric cars gets people's knickers in a twist; they need to be able to drive for 1000 miles straight while towing an apartment on wheels behind them and any vehicle which can't do that just isn't good enough. They'd rather be dead than have to drive one of these.

I’d love an electric car but I also like my caravan (nice cheap (£20 a night) walking holidays in the countryside). I had to settle for a small diesel instead. Towing isn’t something a lot of electric cars seem to be homologated for. I think the only current exception is the Tesla Model X. Unfortunately the post-1997 EU licence restrictions (in the UK) mean that lots of people are restricted to a total gross weight o…

Towing should be a strong point of electric vehicles, with all that torque, shouldn't it?

Re: Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire

#63

Post by hawski »

Razengan wrote: post #32
adrianN wrote: post #5

IMHO the future of personal transportation is vehicles like that. We don't have the space in cities to support 2-3 tons of steel per traveler, and plain bicycles are uncomfortable in bad weather, or when you are physically impaired. But small (electric?) velomobiles with three or four wheels are perfect for city commutes when cycling is not an option. They also don't need 15-20kWh/100km like an electric car would.

Sir Clive Sinclair thought so too and tried to make it happen about 35 years ago, but it didn't quite catch on, to say the least: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5

I was curious, so I went to YouTube and watched a bit of this clip: https://youtu.be/xS6q27VOTOk?t=38

Interesting machine, but it's really a bicycle with a single-speed electric motor. With lots of issues, that currently would be easy to fix with off-the-shelf parts from electric bicycles.

But maybe more important notion is, that it's not fully covered. It's not all-weather vehicle, not even half-weather it seems.

Re: Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire

#64

Post by chrisseaton »

cm2187 wrote: post #28
vanilla-almond wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> three or four wheels are perfect Presumably, not like the three-wheeled Robin Reliant car that launched in the UK in the 1970s :-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQh56geU0X8

aka Mr Bean's car

Mr Bean drove a Mini - he famously drove it from an arm chair on top in one episode. Are you thinking of the Trotter brothers?

Re: Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire

#65

Post by vanderZwan »

adwww wrote: post #46
arethuza wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the news story is also that it was spotted on the M25 which is the orbital motorway round London that is quite busy and that it is, in fact, perfectly legal. Edit: Also it is the BBC which has a track record of regarding unusual vehicles as entertaining: https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/top-gear-technology-cent... From the 'review': "Against: The crash protection is a bit fleshy"

Also it's mildy amusing that the police stopped it because OBVIOUSLY that's not road legal, but it turns out that actually there was nothing they could cite it for - unlike a good number of cars on the road.

To be fair to the police in this situation: most velomobiles would be more like electric bikes and therefore not be legal on motor highways, wouldn't they?

It probably wouldn't be the first time someone eccentric created something cool in their garage and not go through the motions of getting it properly registered.

Re: Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire

#66

Post by kgilpin »

chrisseaton wrote: post #61
bananapear wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d love an electric car but I also like my caravan (nice cheap (£20 a night) walking holidays in the countryside). I had to settle for a small diesel instead. Towing isn’t something a lot of electric cars seem to be homologated for. I think the only current exception is the Tesla Model X. Unfortunately the post-1997 EU licence restrictions (in the UK) mean that lots of people are restricted to a total gross weight o…

Towing should be a strong point of electric vehicles, with all that torque, shouldn't it?

Towing kills the range

Re: Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire

#67

Post by bananapear »

chrisseaton wrote: post #61
bananapear wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d love an electric car but I also like my caravan (nice cheap (£20 a night) walking holidays in the countryside). I had to settle for a small diesel instead. Towing isn’t something a lot of electric cars seem to be homologated for. I think the only current exception is the Tesla Model X. Unfortunately the post-1997 EU licence restrictions (in the UK) mean that lots of people are restricted to a total gross weight o…

Towing should be a strong point of electric vehicles, with all that torque, shouldn't it?

I would think so, but I wonder what effect that has on the range? You can certainly feel the difference a 1300kg trailer makes to pulling away and accelerating, it effectively halves my miles-per-gallon.

Re: Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire

#68

Post by mrtksn »

prawn wrote: post #49
adrianN wrote: post #5

IMHO the future of personal transportation is vehicles like that. We don't have the space in cities to support 2-3 tons of steel per traveler, and plain bicycles are uncomfortable in bad weather, or when you are physically impaired. But small (electric?) velomobiles with three or four wheels are perfect for city commutes when cycling is not an option. They also don't need 15-20kWh/100km like an electric car would.

Why don't we have more golf carts or similar vehicles on urban streets? I assume they're electric and easily rechargeable? Strikes me as a decent, existing platform upon which to build variants - could have a larger tray at the rear, netted storage at the front, etc. RV parks and campground hosts and some retirees use them for getting about in a very local context. I know they're probably serve a lot of the needs I'd…

There’s a town where people only drive golf carts: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pcVGqtmd2wM

It seems like it works for them.

Re: Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire

#69

Post by masklinn »

VBprogrammer wrote: post #34
adrianN wrote: post #5

IMHO the future of personal transportation is vehicles like that. We don't have the space in cities to support 2-3 tons of steel per traveler, and plain bicycles are uncomfortable in bad weather, or when you are physically impaired. But small (electric?) velomobiles with three or four wheels are perfect for city commutes when cycling is not an option. They also don't need 15-20kWh/100km like an electric car would.

I've expressed the same sentiment before. The problem is that even talking about electric cars gets people's knickers in a twist; they need to be able to drive for 1000 miles straight while towing an apartment on wheels behind them and any vehicle which can't do that just isn't good enough. They'd rather be dead than have to drive one of these.

> The problem is that even talking about electric cars gets people's knickers in a twist; they need to be able to drive for 1000 miles straight while towing an apartment on wheels behind them and any vehicle which can't do that just isn't good enough.

I mean that's understandable, if the car you buy can only handle small commuting that means at the very least the additional cost of using other transport methods or renting a car or having a second car (all of which may be problematic or impossible) when you need to see friends, your family, or go on holidays. And that's not "par" money as the EV is not going to be significantly cheaper than an equivalent ICE.

A small and cheap comfy-ish EV might actually be a good option there, as it lets you have a regular car when you need to e.g. go to Ikea (which might be out of range of an EV depending where you live) or drive to the next country or go see your sister a few hundred miles away without significant additional costs, but it needs to be small (so it's not an issue e.g. for people living in cities who may not have access to a garage at all let alone a multi-car one) and cheap (so it's not a drain on resources, or at least not a big one, compared to just using the one car all the time).

Incentives are a thing, and currently EVs mostly incentivise using something else if you don't have fuck you money and more surface than you can use. As-is, plug-in hybrids are probably a better option for single people or single-car households.

Re: Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire

#70

Post by rubber_duck »

adrianN wrote: post #5

IMHO the future of personal transportation is vehicles like that. We don't have the space in cities to support 2-3 tons of steel per traveler, and plain bicycles are uncomfortable in bad weather, or when you are physically impaired. But small (electric?) velomobiles with three or four wheels are perfect for city commutes when cycling is not an option. They also don't need 15-20kWh/100km like an electric car would.

I drive a motorcycle daily and this seems like the drawbacks (low crash protection, lower stability, low load capacity) without the benefits (agility, effortless parking).

If this looks viable to you - consider getting a scooter or a small bike, they are great secondary vehicles when you need to get from a to b alone or with one more person and a lot of fun to drive/very versatile for parking.

There are some electrics but even if you get a ICE it will spend less fuel then a car (untill you get to 600cc sportbikes and derivatives :) )

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