BIKETEST MISSION ONE ELECTRIC BIKE: The eco bike was all but forgotten when we woke up to our electric future and embraced its return, writes Geoff Hill
I RODE AN electric scooter once that was so memorable, I’ve forgotten what it was called. In fact, I forgot what it was called the moment I got off it.
To be sure, it was a surreal and interesting experience, proceeding through the city with no other sound to mark my existence than a whine like the two-wheeled progeny of an electric milk float.
I expected ancient grannies to rush out into the street waving empty glass bottles, claiming I hadn’t delivered the two pints of gold top and one of orange juice, ordered in 1947.
I also expected Ireland’s aged jaywalkers to step out into the street unaware that I was hurtling silently towards them.
Except when I say hurtling, I mean crawling along at about 20km/h, so maybe the damage wouldn’t have been so bad after all.
Until a few years ago, electric motorcycles hadn’t advanced greatly since the late 1860s, when first mentioned in patents.
Although one appeared in an article in Popular Mechanicsin 1911, they were then buried in the surge of internal combustion technology that accompanied the first World War.
Since then, no one really bothered with them – at least until we all woke up one morning and realised that unless we saved the planet, we’d be six feet deep in melted polar ice by Christmas.
As a result, the last couple of years have seen a flurry of research not only in developing more efficient batteries, but in fuel cell technology, with the ENV from Intelligent Energy, the FC Stack from Honda and Yamaha’s FC-AQEL.
What they’ve all found, of course, is that the biggest advantage of this technology is a quarter of the running costs of a petrol machine. They’re also nearly silent, cheaper to maintain, don’t spew out exhaust gas and most countries don’t charge parking or road tax.
The biggest disadvantage is that, as they’re new, they cost more, in the same way that the first mobile phones were €2,000 or more. It also means that for the moment at least, recharging points are few and far between.
The other problem with electric power is the short range, especially on cold days when battery capacity can drop 80 per cent. Finally their silence means other road users, particularly pedestrians, can’t hear them coming.
Mind you, the EC is already making noises, pardon the pun, about legislation forcing electric vehicles to be fitted with something so that they can be heard approaching. I’m hoping it will be a klaxon, but I fear it will be more sophisticated.
However, in the same way mobile phones changed from expensive bricks to the size of credit cards and given away in lucky bags, electric bikes have already developed beyond recognition.
Take speed, for example: earlier this year, streamlining specialist Mike Corbin set a world electric bike speed record of 283km/h on a one-off machine.
More significantly, with test rider Jeremy Cleland in the saddle, the Mission One electric bike reached 259km/h on the Bonneville Salt Flats in September.
The Mission had already taken fourth place in this year’s Isle of Man TTxGP event for electric bikes, and will be available to customers next year with a top speed of 240km/h and a single-charge range of up to 240kms.
By that time, TTxGP promoter Azhar Hussain will also have up and running a five-race International World Championship for e-bikes, a four-race British e-bike championship and a three-race series in North America, all of which will generate more interest and development.
Particularly since Team Agni, which won the inaugural TTxGP, has teamed up with FIM to offer entrants a €11,530 bike starter pack consisting of a motor, batteries, controller and electronics that can be integrated into existing chassis.
So from a single-lap TT race in 2009 to 12 races on three continents in 2010, the future of e-bike racing – which many thought was doomed to failure – is looking rosy.
On the road, BMW will offer an electric scooter in 2011, possibly based on their semi-enclosed C1 scooter, which was launched in 2001 but scrapped after selling a mere 13,000 worldwide.
In the meantime, like me, you can comfort yourself with the thought that, every time you go out on a petrol-powered superbike like the Yamaha R1, the Honda Fireblade, the Kawasaki ZX-10, the Suzuki Hayabusa or the Ducati 1198s, you’re using a fraction of the road and fuel of an SUV, and still getting better performance than the fastest Ferrari or Porsche.