Yatri: First electric motorcycle to be made in Nepal • Hacker News Board

Re: Yatri: First electric motorcycle to be made in Nepal

#61

Post by dharmab » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 3:49 PM UTC

cerberusss wrote: post #43

BubRoss wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I can tell, a huge part is that they are incredibly overpriced. No one is going to pay $14k for an electric cycle when a brand new gas cycle costs $8k. People put together their own scooters from batteries, a controller and an electric motor on YouTube all the time, but companies are trying to get people to give up the same amount that could buy them a Ducati.

A friend of mine drives a zero. The very low cost per mile makes it cost effective.

Only if you compare it to a similar brand new bike and ride it over 15,000 miles. Most motorcycle owners never exceed 10k on a single bike.

https://youtu.be/-U8JK7lUqA8?t=319

Re: Yatri: First electric motorcycle to be made in Nepal

#62

Post by dharmab » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 3:52 PM UTC

mayniac wrote: post #27

milap wrote: post #25

Here is a video of the motorbike running in the Himalayas https://youtu.be/uNKIqbdIS9o

Not a single shot of the bike going around a corner... Those footpegs look very low. At 0:32 it looks like the rider's toes are only an inch away from the ground.

I used to scrape my toes when turning left at intersections on my old KTM if I didn't move my toes back on the peg. It's not a terribly unusual stance for a road bike.

Re: Yatri: First electric motorcycle to be made in Nepal

#63

Post by balfirevic » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 3:52 PM UTC

gambiting wrote: post #54

imglorp wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electrics are still milking the premium market, is the problem. In the West, a brand new Ninja 400 fuel injected sport bike is $US 5000, new. Through economies of scale, and their getting the bugs out and widening tolerances over its 30 years history, they're now the AK-47 of bikes: cheap and dependable. You can spend $20k on a bike, but you don't need to. Similar Honda and Suzuki models. Harley and BMW can't and won…

I mean, this is around $4000 new and the 80km range is enough for daily use, what's the problem? Electric bikes with similar range have been a thing for a very long time, there's loads of choice in the market already(in EU anyway, no idea about US) https://allegro.pl/oferta/motorower-skuter-elektryczny-super...

The problem is that is basically a toy (speed-wise, power-wise and range-wise) compared to an even cheaper gasoline motorcycle.

Re: Yatri: First electric motorcycle to be made in Nepal

#64

Post by gpapilion » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 3:55 PM UTC

IgorPartola wrote: post #48

imglorp wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electrics are still milking the premium market, is the problem. In the West, a brand new Ninja 400 fuel injected sport bike is $US 5000, new. Through economies of scale, and their getting the bugs out and widening tolerances over its 30 years history, they're now the AK-47 of bikes: cheap and dependable. You can spend $20k on a bike, but you don't need to. Similar Honda and Suzuki models. Harley and BMW can't and won…

This is correct. Also consider that almost any Japanese bike can be had used for $3k or under. Electric bikes are in low five figures and the used market is basically non-existent. We have no data on how reliable they will be long term either. Plus range and availability of charging stations is a thing. But I think the main reason we won’t see ICE motorcycles go away soon is simply because used bikes are such a huge…

What makes this a reality is that bikes are driven far less as daily drivers than cars are so typically the engines aren’t abused or used outside of a recreational(long trips, weekend runs, ...) setting by most riders. A ten year old bike may only have 30k miles on it, and most of its useful life left.

This has been my experience in the US, at least.

Re: Yatri: First electric motorcycle to be made in Nepal

#65

Post by 9nGQluzmnq3M » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 4:01 PM UTC

How much of this is actually made in Nepal? India's been churning out vast quantities of increasingly decent domestic/joint venture bikes for decades now and is starting to get serious about car manufacturing, but I wasn't aware that Nepal was building much in the way of anything -- there can't possibly be much of a local supply chain.

Re: Yatri: First electric motorcycle to be made in Nepal

#66

Post by dharmab » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 4:07 PM UTC

gpapilion wrote: post #64

IgorPartola wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is correct. Also consider that almost any Japanese bike can be had used for $3k or under. Electric bikes are in low five figures and the used market is basically non-existent. We have no data on how reliable they will be long term either. Plus range and availability of charging stations is a thing. But I think the main reason we won’t see ICE motorcycles go away soon is simply because used bikes are such a huge…

What makes this a reality is that bikes are driven far less as daily drivers than cars are so typically the engines aren’t abused or used outside of a recreational(long trips, weekend runs, ...) setting by most riders. A ten year old bike may only have 30k miles on it, and most of its useful life left. This has been my experience in the US, at least.

I have a bot that scrapes used motorcycle listings for sale in my part of the US [1], and I've never seen anything listed with more than 70k miles.

Furthermore, those 70k mile bikes were all meticulously maintained by older owners, and I could have bought any of them for under $4k and probably ridden coast to coast the next day without issue.

[1] https://github.com/dharmab/ksl-bike-sniper

Re: Yatri: First electric motorcycle to be made in Nepal

#67

Post by dharmab » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 4:10 PM UTC

jacobush wrote: post #44

imglorp wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electrics are still milking the premium market, is the problem. In the West, a brand new Ninja 400 fuel injected sport bike is $US 5000, new. Through economies of scale, and their getting the bugs out and widening tolerances over its 30 years history, they're now the AK-47 of bikes: cheap and dependable. You can spend $20k on a bike, but you don't need to. Similar Honda and Suzuki models. Harley and BMW can't and won…

Wow, I didn't know about the Kawasaki Ninja 400. That's a really impressive bike at a fantastic price. That would have been like 2000 dollars in 1987. Completely unheard of. Motorcycles have come a long way.

It has never been a better time to be a rider, you can get some seriously amazing bikes for the money.

Unfortunately it is a very bad time to try to make money in the motorcycle industry right now. Older riders are aging out and interested young people can't afford bikes due to student debt and other debt.

Re: Yatri: First electric motorcycle to be made in Nepal

#68

Post by gambiting » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 4:10 PM UTC

balfirevic wrote: post #63

gambiting wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, this is around $4000 new and the 80km range is enough for daily use, what's the problem? Electric bikes with similar range have been a thing for a very long time, there's loads of choice in the market already(in EU anyway, no idea about US) https://allegro.pl/oferta/motorower-skuter-elektryczny-super...

The problem is that is basically a toy (speed-wise, power-wise and range-wise) compared to an even cheaper gasoline motorcycle.

Sure, but those require a full A-class driving licence, which is both a significant time and financial investment. This you can ride with either a very simple theory-based test or even without any qualification at all.

Re: Yatri: First electric motorcycle to be made in Nepal

#69

Post by polymorph1sm » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 4:14 PM UTC

One thing I notice with electric motorcycle is that riding experience is much better than gasoline version ( way less vibration and better throttle control ). In Taiwan there's a local company call Gogoro selling electric scooter (Scooter/motorcycle is a very common here). Another interesting feature is that it doesn't rely on charging station rather you swap the empty battery for charged ones from any battery exchange stations ( of course you had to pay for it).

Re: Yatri: First electric motorcycle to be made in Nepal

#70

Post by peatmoss » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 4:18 PM UTC

leggomylibro wrote: post #58

dharmab wrote: post #57

There are other companies targeting other areas of the market. Ultra high end: Harley Davidson Livewire, Zero SR/F High end: Fuell, Cake Mid range: Zero S/DS/FX Low end: Sur-on Light Bee, CSC City Slicker The biggest problem for electric bikes is recharge time. Motorcycle batteries are physically small and have low range, and take hours to recharge compared to 1-2 minutes to refuel at a gas station. That makes them u…

Wow, what kind of adventure bikes can be ridden for thousands of miles at a time? I only get about 200-250 miles on dirt, and that's with an extra tank of gas strapped to the back. Are they like 650cc+ with huge fuel tanks? I shudder to think of trying to pick one of those up on a muddy slope... Anyways, an electric bike that could do ~200 miles seems like it could do well as a replacement for smaller engines, but I…

I assume they mean with periodic stops for gasoline, which is a lot more common than a quick charge station.

That said, it’s an interesting thought exercise to go unsupported and make your own (solar) fuel via motorcycle. Of course to maximize charging / travel you’d have to ride at night, which would sort of suck.