Electric Glide in Blue

[Ming the Merciless]

Take one Harley, add 10 car batteries (560 pounds weight), an electric engine, a diesel generator and what do you get?? Answer: this erm, 'innovative' vision of the future.



The engine runs on bio-diesel and charges the batteries in case you run out of juice. Normal charging takes 3 hours. He's also got a solar panel for 'on the run' charging.

The bike can run at respectable speeds of up to 85 mph, has 78 h.p. and 5 gears. Article and video here: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (click to read).

[Gray]

Originally Posted by Ming the Merciless

Take one Harley, add 10 car batteries (560 pounds weight), an electric engine, a diesel generator and what do you get?? Answer: this erm, 'innovative' vision of the future.
The engine runs on bio-diesel and charges the batteries in case you run out of juice. Normal charging takes 3 hours. He's also got a solar panel for 'on the run' charging.

The bike can run at respectable speeds of up to 85 mph, has 78 h.p. and 5 gears. Article and video here:

Well he's made it lighter and faster than stock but why does he need a five speed or any gear box or clutch at all?

[banquo]

With a range of only 60 miles at 55mph, he's going to have to find room for some more batteries... otherwise why not just use the diesel to run the whole thing, and forget all that extra weight...?
Of course it's an insane concept: anyone who wants to build an electric motorcycle needs to look at compactness, light weight, aerodynamics and a minimum of utilising the motor during braking to recharge the batteries, otherwise most of the charge is wasted in stop/start riding.
Assume the sidecar is full of batteries too, so it's not even a motorcycle in the true sense: more of a three wheeled electric car.
Mind you, if it came down to it, and my choice was an electric "bike" or nothing...
There could be a market for interactive headphones, sending real potato-potato sounds to your ears, in response to fake gear shifts and throttle openings, to give you that true Harley feel......

[JMB517794]

Why not connect the diesel motor to a hydraulic pump, take a belt drive off a pulley to the back wheel, and have a hydrostatic drive..................no gears at all just throttle(which could be a fixed throttle to the engine) and variable speed transmission?
uch much lighter, on the other hand why bother at all I like mine just as it is.......................
John B

[JMB517794]

mind you, I do like the idea of an audio track with potato potato potato.....................;)

[MacHarry]

Maybe there coming flowers out of the exhaust pipe

Harry