Electric Motorcycle & Scooter News/Updates

I may sound like I don't want it to work but I really do! I'm just playing skeptic here now because I'm hoping that smart people like yourself will see the arguments and be able to present solutions to the real-world problems being raised. As a small-town rural guy I know too that my geographic location may also be well behind the curve on early adoption on a lot of this new tech.

Electric cruisers in the near future?

Short ride to bar, plug in, have lunch, short ride home. HD Livewire is perfect.

Sigh.... Don't care. Haven't wanted to go back to gas with my car, waiting for the right EV bike to arrive. But you go ahead and hold back as the world passes you by.

No need to plug in, just park in the designated induction charge spot instead of over the oil stain. LOL

You seem nice.

Crawl back under your bridge now, troll.

You're the one going on about cheap gas cans. Look, if you don't find they work for you, cool. But instead just go on about how they can't do blah blah blah. Give it time and you will find something that works, if you care about it.

I look at electric motorbikes like any other classification.. having both strengths and weaknesses.

Supermotos kind of suck for long distance touring.. but they rock for backroad wheelies.
Sport Tourers suck for dirt roads.. but rock for touring
Electric motorbikes suck for long distance touring .. but rock for low maintenance spirited around town commuting

So like with any bike you buy, you assess your needs and pick the right bike .. or two.. or seven or whatever you can afford to cover as many uses as you want.

Electric motorbikes fit a niche.. complaining that they don't fit every use scenario is like complaining a supermoto doesn't fit every use scenario. Of course they don't.. but for the one they do fit they rock.

Don't get me wrong. I'm looking forward to EV's to get even better. I enjoy driving a car with a manual transmission, but, they're going away quickly. When I can no longer buy a car with a manual, I'll just make the jump to electric.

My point about the gas cans is that when operating in a remote area for days in a row, it is easier to take more gas, than to take more electricity.

EV's are the perfect commuter vehicle. It is only a matter of time until I buy an electric motorcycle for commuting. I have 9KW of solar on my roof, and if I add more, I can truly say any EV I charge at home is truly zero emissions. I also like how low maintenance EV's are, especially motorcycles, since most ICE motorcycles require valve adjustments, a labor intensive job on many bikes, and if you do it yourself, annoying to have to pull the bike apart to determine which shims you need, order them, wait for them to arrive, then put it back together.

BUT -- I enjoy 300 mile days on my R1200RS, without having to stop for more than 5-10 minutes to charge. Using an EV for those rides will limit where I can go, as I'd need to stay within a certain distance of available charging stations, and will also put a lot of downtime in the day for those charges.

That said, as charge infrastructure gets built-out, and battery tech improves and range improves, this will be less of a problem.

When those improvements come, I'll be doing most of my riding on an electric motorcycle.

Also, for the record, I'm already enjoying an EV now, I've got a e-mountain bike that I enjoy riding.

Web Bike Worlds initial review of the new Cleveland Falcon with the full livestream video launch embedded: https://www.webbikeworld.com/cleveland-cyclewerks-reveals-the-falcon-01-and-falcon-blk/
They had a large event planned for the launch, but it was cancelled due to the zombie apocalypse. Cleveland says that they're ready for production and are taking orders. Pretty cool looking little bike, but there are still a few questions...
CD

Seems pointless unless you want to support Cleveland CycleWerks or just be different. A Zero FXS is better in every way except where you'd want the lower weight of the Falcon. The ability to remove batteries and possibly carry it places other than a garage is nice, but not worth the price.

I'm not "getting it" either. If the claimed 80 mph top speed it true, its looks dangerously under engineered to me. Frame, shock, forks, all look way to small for the task, or even for normal commuting speeds. Although I do applaud another e-bike offering. Perhaps I'm not understanding the intended use.

Yeah at those speeds, assuming that's even true, it would be highly unstable.

Where do you see 80mph top speed ?
the only thing I see is up to 80 mile range

Somewhere online, but I’m thinking either the person who posted the 80 mph figure was confusing it with the 80 mile range, or I did the confusing.

80 mile range seems maybe doable, 80 mph seems unlikely.

I’m thinking I’m mistaken about the 80 mph figure and I’m too tired right now to look into it further, Lol.

Looking at the frame, shock, and forks, it still seems way under engineered, unless it’s intended to be used like an electric bicycle or a large minibike.

Specs here:

https://www.webbikeworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/FalconSpecifications.jpg

The "Blk Founders Edition" has a claimed top speed of 85mph.

30" Seat height. I thought it looked pretty small and cramped from the various pics, and that specs page confirms my suspicion.

I wish them the best of luck with sales, but let me know when they make a bike for someone > 6' tall with a 33-34" inseam. Can't imagine I would be comfortable on something that small.

At the risk of appearing to pile on, please allow me to pile on. Though my main complaint is not with the Falcon specifically.

Maybe it's a generational thing, but the Falcon seems to have been designed with no sense whatsoever of any Falcon or animal traits, or any sense of motion. It looks like it's trying too hard to appeal to millennials by looking like some electronic device for pocket or desktop. First off, I ride to move. Second, if you're going to be stylish in a stationary consumer products sort of way, you need to study up on Raymond Loewy's work to see how it's done. Not his specific designs so much - they're dated now (though they still hold up remarkably well). Proportion, line and purpose. No matter the time, no matter the style, those three things will always matter.

A headlight that is a horizontal line in a round bucket is not "retro-futurist design." It's an example of design schizophrenia. And seriously - wheel covers? Are you trying to erase all references to motion? How about fenders? Are we to ride this thing only on dry roads, not even through any puddles, or risk spattering ourselves and your 'new, modern aesthetic?' Note that there appear to be no mounting points for fenders, and I challenge anyone to style a set that actually works and doesn't muck up that 'retro-futurist design.' A design that does not accommodate the environment in which it functions is worse than useless. If it's an artistic statement that will never leave its pedestal, fine - have a ball. But if it is to function in the real world, that's quite a different game. To be blunt, missing this self-evident fact brings shame on the designer. Real-world design is a challenge that some are as yet incapable of meeting.

<edit> If I'm not mistaken, they can't get the Falcon FMVSS certified for road use without fenders. Has CCW considered that? </edit>

I don't mean to single out CCW on this because I've seen the same trend elsewhere. It's just more striking on the Falcon.

And here's an issue that IS specific to CCW. "Bike - Moped - Motorcycle." They're trying to use one platform that can function as anything from a 750 W e-bike to an 85 mph roadster. That's not possible without making the extremes of that range marginal at best. That's not a rookie move, it's a clueless amateur move.

Pick a lane. CCW needs to get over themselves and get real. They're not even getting the basics right.

That is an interesting topic, worthy of its own thread.

I don't have a problem with the headlight design, so long as it is bright and throws a good beam. As for the fenders? Yeah, lack of fenders is stupid. That said, shouldn't be too hard to add.

Now, the wheel covers, that's even more stupid. They have real potential to make it handle like crap in gusting crosswinds, or even in the turbulence behind a large truck.

Still, I give them credit for trying. The more choices the better, IMHO.

No argument from the experts...dust from car brakes and tires will still pollute city air even if everyone on the planet goes all-electric.

Fragments of microplastics from tires, road surfaces and brakes already flow into rivers, and ultimately into the sea. We will likely need to pass standards to improve tires and brakes and some are already saying we need to go even further than that by developing policies to just flat-out get people out of their private cars.

Particles from brake wear, tire wear and road surface wear directly contribute to well over half of particle pollution from road transport. So, while emissions of particles from exhausts may be decreasing with EV use, the non-exhaust proportion of road traffic emissions has increased. With the increasing growth in sales of heavier battery-powered electric cars, non-exhaust emissions (NEE) are a very serious problem. This percentage of pollutants stands to only get proportionally higher as EV's increase and vehicle exhausts are cleaned up more.