Modded electric motorcycle is street-legal, costs under $2K

Tag : Motorcycle Batteries

Battery technology is fine. He could have used any number ofdifferent kinds of lightweight, high-power batteries. CurrieTechnologies and several of the electric bicycle manufacturers havebeen using LiFePO or NiCad for a while now. The bikes with thesebatteries don't even look electric because the batteries are smallenough to hide in the downtube.

The barrier is COST.

LiFePO batteries ain't cheap. NiCad are getting better, but they'restill much more expensive than the heavier Sealed Lead-Acidbatteries that are the most popular for this sort of vehicle. Mybike uses SLAs, and they're HEAVY, but they also give a lot ofpower for a low price. I can replace my whole 36v battery pack foraround $75 with SLAs. If I switched to NiCad or LiFePO, I'd tripleor quadruple that, at least.

Granted, I'd take back some 25 pounds (or more) and have a moredischarge-friendly battery, but it's a lot of cost for somethingthat will need to be replaced annually, or even bi-annually.

"Real" bikers say that the problem with electric motorcycles isthat they're almost silent, and that makes you a candidate forgetting plowed over by people in cars. I can say that I won't takemy electric bike on the road-- I stick to sidewalks (which is legalfor a bicycle here) because a lot of drivers are idiots that don'tconsider that a small tap from their car could kill me. They aretoo busy talking on cell phones to notice smaller two-wheeledvehicles on the road.