I can happily drain the tank on my bike in about 250km.
Fuelling up and paying at an OPT doesn't take long, but riding a couple of hours is relatively hard on the body. normally hands (vibration), ears from wind noise, back and legs from being bent over the bike and just tired from concentration level if you have been punting a sports bike around some twisty roads.
For those who don't ride, just imagine clinging to a vibrating tilting barstool in a storm with 100+ Km/h winds for hours on end. And if you fall off it hurts a lot - or you die.
I love riding bikes and don't have an EV yet, but makes me laugh when people claim EVs don't have enough range to be practical. I have to fill up every couple of hundred KM and take a decent break for a coffee nd rest anyway.
It's also funny just how many people claim they need to drive 1000km all the time so EVs can't possibly work. If looking at needing to drive 500km. my wife and I normally choose to fly. and we have petrol powered cars at present.
I did some analysis and our average trip is about 10km one way and maybe 20km per day round trip for the commute, shops etc. Longer trips to visit friends etc are still only about 100km. Only done longer trips about once per year and never driven the car more that 500km in over 5 years. and that trip to Napier would have been very possible to do in similar time with an EV as we stopped in Taupo for a long lunch.
gblack,
Jan 23, 6:58pm
I have a smallish bike (675cc Street Triple) and my wife has an Hybrid (Aqua/Prius C).
You really don't know about bikes or you would know that they are very efficient at turning petrol into noise and movement at a very rapid rate.
My around town running with quite a lot of acceleration burns fuel a bit faster that the wife's much heavier car. I tank up with about 12 litres and start getting fuel light on about 200km. Can check the trip computer but normally over 5l per 100 km. The Hybrid is similar but can get down to 4.5l per 100km. Even got 4l per 100 on open road trip with a bit of effort to drive smoothly.
Comparing a larger bike, the bigger version of my bike (Speed Triple) and an EV, and clearly the car will be more efficient. Main issue. bikes with riders have very high drag. basically the rider makes bikes have drag coefficient of a brick. Also sports bikes tend to be all about power to weight so pull a lot of power out of small engines at high revs, not about fuel efficiency
tygertung,
Jan 23, 7:56pm
If you are riding a bike, one certainly won't want to go more than 200 km without stopping for a break. Same as when driving.
s_nz,
Jan 24, 1:00am
Coefficient of drag will be worse, but frontal area will be a lot lower. It is the product of the two that is important. Commonly referred to as CdA.
I think most of the difference is in the power-train. Quite viable to put a couple of hundred kg/s of a bulky hybrid system in a car, but nonviable on a bike due to weight and bulk. Even without the hybrid system, the push to keep bikes lightweight comes at the expense of efficiency. No chance of a (more efficient, but less peak power) Atkinson cycle engine here.
Also, I don't imagine efficiency is high on a sportsbike buyers critera list, and manufacturers will target attributes buyers will pay for. I would assume something like a GN125 which is sold as an everyday commuter bike would do a lot better with regards to efficiency. Suzuki NZ doesn't list a rated fuel consumption, but a quick google search turned up 3.2L/100km. Which is in the same ballpark as yaris hybrid (3.3L/100km). Of course the GN125 costs under 10% of what a yaris hybrid does.
alowishes,
Jan 24, 1:03am
My Electraglide gets 50+mpg - and carries almost as much as a Yaris!
ascotbks,
Jan 24, 2:25am
depends on if your going 30 km an hour or 130 km
apollo11,
Jan 24, 2:58am
Is that with your missus on the back?
apollo11,
Jan 24, 2:58am
alowishes wrote: .
slarty45,
Jan 24, 4:13am
Rode 500 km with one brief break. NP to Whangarei. Out of the breeze on a BMW R1100RT mile eater
harm_less,
Jan 24, 4:31am
If *you're* going to go to extremes at least use some logic. Where in NZ can you find 200km of road where you can maintain 130kph (for 1 1/2 hours)?
ascotbks,
Jan 24, 5:05am
easy marton to turangi 2am most week days. very easy. probably plenty more but thats the one i know
tygertung,
Jan 24, 7:53am
Lucky for you. I only ride terrible old bikes.
alowishes,
Jan 24, 6:13pm
Done Nelson to Dunedin in one hit (except for fuel stops).
And similar slightly shorter runs
(On an allegedly underpowered and poor handling Harley)
tygertung,
Jan 24, 6:31pm
Yes, but I am weak and don't like to go for a long time on an uncomfortable bike, and 130 km/h is faster than the speed limit.
elect70,
Jan 26, 1:59am
Carry a generator in the boot
franc123,
Jan 26, 2:45am
Agreed, a big filthy diesel one will do the trick just nicely.
onl_148,
Jan 26, 2:48am
As EV's become more popular then the availability of "free charging" away from home / base will reduce. so once your have to pay for charging your EV, either at home via your power bill or away from home at a "pay as you go" charging booth AND there is a RUC type charge made for distance covered then and only then can you sit down and do the maths and compare the true / real cost of running your EV via a ICE car. I think an EV will still win the numbers game, but the degree of the win will be tempered a bit !
s_nz,
Jan 26, 2:49am
Issue is that a generator light enough to pick up is going to be really slow. Charging for an hour on 230v, 8A will only gain about 10km of range. Even in the early days, before the fast charge network was built, people would use the 16Amp outlets at campgrounds to get a bit higher charging speed. Good number of campgrounds available in NZ.
ascotbks,
Jan 26, 4:13am
another factor is battery replacement. an example the new toyota hybrid which has a bank of batteries plus 4 cylinder motor making it very heavy and the battery life is around 160000 kilometers and replacement batteries in usa is approx usa $15000 so probably double here
gazzat22,
Jan 26, 4:35am
something not quite right with you or your bike or both.!
If my memory is correct the newest toyota hybrid is the yaris cross. Weight preimum over the non hybrid version is only 50kg. At 1190 to 1235kg kerb weight for the hybrid version it is hardly a heavy car.
Also one would expect the battery pack in a toyota hybrid to last the life of the vehicle for most people. My lexus hybrid is 15 years old, and has done 200,000km, to my knowledge on the original pack.
Aftermarket options exist for replace / referb of toyota hybrid batteries thanks to the taxi industry who's usage goes far beyond that of private buyers. Prices are a lot lower than you quote.
With regards to pure EV's, it is only really the leaf that has big issues with rapid battery degradation. Other EV's with thermal pack management and the likes look likely for the pack to last the life of the car, with a some reduction in range and fast charge speed of course.
apollo11,
Jan 26, 6:35am
If you can get 20km/l on a bike you're doing OK. My 1000cc bike has a 15l tank and I'm lucky to get 250k motorway cruising.
ascotbks,
Jan 26, 7:34am
sorry talking about a toyota highlander. has a large powerful but economical depending on how its driven V6 engine and being replaced by bank of heavy batterys and large heavy 4 cylinder motor and only using 4 cyclander becauce of room needed to fit batteries and according to reports from usa where its made hardly any savings overall and having to replace a bank of batteries, not just one at 160000 k and the 6 cyclander highlander can do upwards of 800000 k plus without any trouble. prices i quote are straight from usa but probbaly vary but i do klnow prices in nz far excede usa prices. an example rear tail light for a 2 year old one i cracked was quoted by toyota wgtn at app 450 plus fitting $120 which was a matter of unscrewing 2 screws and unplugging lights. took about 10 minutes and tail light i picked up in aussie for A $180
serf407,
Jan 26, 8:27am
RAC EV rescue with Charge Pod. Few ev distracted drivers in the UK run out of charge (in their absent minded smugness) #long cable leads, van, https://youtu.be/os4NoJdY0Pc
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