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#102018
papasmurf wrote:
Mon Jul 18, 2022 7:24 pm
For what I use motorcycles for an electric motorcycle is totally useless. I live in a rural area. It will cost an arm and a leg put the chargers in my garage. (It would because of local regulation need underground cabling laid from my home to my garage and frankly I cannot afford to replace my current two solo motorcycles and two sidecar outfits which have decades of life left in them.
A charger is about £200 fitted and you don't actually need one to charge an EV just makes it much quicker, at the moment a 3 pin plug socket supply will easily charge EV bikes overnight as the batteries are quite small.
Anyhoo I wouldn't worry too much as the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars doesn't come in until 2030 and no date has yet been announced for bikes so I expect there'll be a healthy supply of new, or nearly new petrol bikes for at least another 15 - 20 years. Besides, if you run old bikes there's nothing to stop you (apart from eventually the supply of petrol at a reasonable cost and in convenient stations) to continue to run a petrol bike for decades to come if you want.
#102040
Trev wrote:
Thu Jul 21, 2022 5:50 pm


A charger is about £200 fitted and you don't actually need one to charge an EV just makes it much quicker, at the moment a 3 pin plug socket supply will easily charge EV bikes overnight as the batteries are quite small.
To put a charger in my garage due to local laws meaning the electric cabling has to be underground plus the charger would been needed for an electric car as well if I can every afford one would cost around £3000. (I have checked.)
#102051
Anyone ignoring this issue is just plain stupid.
I remember the proposed 100bhp limits. The compulsory leg 'protectors', daytime running lights and a host of other ridiculous laws that governments tried to force on us. The MAG successfully defeated these proposals and we all benefited.
The "I'm alright Jack" attitude is dooming our kids and grandkids to boring, computer controlled, police monitored modes of transport. Soulless A-to-B utility vehicles.
Don't you want 'enjoyment' to be in your progeny's future?
#102065
Trev wrote:
Fri Jul 22, 2022 6:40 pm
Wow, that is a wedge, didn't realise that your garage doesn't have an existing power supply. Hopefully you can get hold of ICE bikes for as long as you need them, I think 15+ years is a safe bet before you can't buy new so 30+ years should be ok for decent second hand kit which will do me out
My garage does have an existing power supply BUT it is not of sufficient rating for a fast charger for an electric car. It would need an extra "trip" in the house, about 100 feet of underground wiring. (Going underground to the legally required depth for electric cabling is a major civil engineering job where I live.)
#102069
Electric vehicle car or bike not for me. I was at at junction recently and an electric bike came past, I couldn't hear it so to me they are dangerous how many times have car drivers been made aware of a bike because they could hear it coming. The electric bike sounded crap. Same as cars I've nearly been caught out as a pedestrian because I couldn't hear them. IMO all this net zero stuff is bollox.
#102171
papasmurf wrote:
Sat Jul 23, 2022 7:10 am
Trev wrote:
Fri Jul 22, 2022 6:40 pm
Wow, that is a wedge, didn't realise that your garage doesn't have an existing power supply. Hopefully you can get hold of ICE bikes for as long as you need them, I think 15+ years is a safe bet before you can't buy new so 30+ years should be ok for decent second hand kit which will do me out
My garage does have an existing power supply BUT it is not of sufficient rating for a fast charger for an electric car. It would need an extra "trip" in the house, about 100 feet of underground wiring. (Going underground to the legally required depth for electric cabling is a major civil engineering job where I live.)
Understood, of course there will be some people where the change will be a bit of a pain. I've just had a cable ran from the supply to a charger across the other side of my drive, nearly 40m and that cost me £700 including digging the trench, the cable and 7kw unit, I didn't think that was too bad but we all have different circumstances.

I will say though that I charged EV's at home for over three yeas from just a 3 pin plug supply and my Dad does the same now he has my BMW i3. Yes it's slow (about 12 hours for a full charge) but in reality you rarely charge from 'empty' and even then plug it in by 7pm and it's ready to go next morning. A quicker charger is better but only a neccesity if you use the car (or bike) a lot.

Electric bikes are a different case as still very small batteries at the moment so (IMO) not really viable and although I prefer the cost, convenience and performance of EV in a car, I really hope to continue with petrol bikes as long as possible. Pretty sure there are 30+ years of ICE biking available yet so although I'll probably get an electric bike sometime soon out of curiousity, I hope to be putting petrol in a bike tank for many years to come.
#102282
Interesting read....“critical raw materials”.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... -advantage

" It turns out that an all-electrical future won’t be possible without secure supplies of certain elements we extract from the Earth’s crust. And we’re discovering that there are rather a lot of these critical elements. A full roll call runs from antimony to strontium via cobalt, lithium, magnesium, platinum, tantalum – not to mention other stuff of which this columnist had until recently been blissfully unaware. "

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