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Messages - Day Trippin

Pages: [1] 2
1
General Discussion / Re: At least they now talk about it.
« on: December 19, 2022, 08:06:48 PM »
As a Tesla owner, I hate the idea of opening up the Tesla charging network to everyone else at its current charger density. One of the reasons I keep buying Teslas is that their charging network works and is well maintained.


The problem with opening up their network is not everyone has the charging points in the same location as Tesla does. Not to mention most of the charging cables are only about 8' long. I've already seen what a cluster truck this can be in Europe, I am not in a hurry for it to come to the US. Since Tesla has the charging port in the same location for all cars, you can clearly tell which stalls are open before you pull in. This is actually very important.


For Tesla charging, to get max charging rate, you don't want to basically be "sharing a charger". So if you pull up to charger 2 and the A side is occupied, if you go to the B side, the person in 2A will have their charging rate halved and yours will be too. I can't tell you how many times I've had some moron pull up to the charger next to me, when 6 others are open, and I watch my charge time double. I usually end up pulling to another stall if I have more than a few minutes left to charge.


My other thought is if you bought one of those cars knowing they had a crappy charging network, then eat your own dog food so to speak. I already have enough idiots to contend with at oversubscribed Tesla charger who have no idea of charging network etiquette as it is. Add in all the other new BEV owners who have no clue how to charge anyway and all it will do is make the charging experience even worse than it can be at times. Think of holidays on major roads. I deal with many things I hate about Teslas just so I can have a typically great charging network.


As an owner of other BEVs, I'd love for the Tesla charging network to be open. I'd even be willing to pay a substantial premium for the use of it. An overpriced charger that works is far better than a cheaper one that doesn't. Hopefully Tesla could use the money to fund expanding their charging network.

2
Harley LiveWire Forum / Re: Would you get a Livewire being 130 mi from closest HD service?
« on: October 29, 2022, 06:14:25 AM »
I have about 3k miles on my LW in the past 2 months of ownership. The only issue I've experienced that requires a dealer is the delamination of the display. This is a cosmetic issue more than a functional issue. Seems to be a pretty common issue. Basically it makes the display look like there is a bubble under a screen protector.

Other than that, the bike has been awesome. That issue is just annoying more than anything. The fact that the display can tilt helps with the issue to make it less noticeable and in general to find a position where there isn't any glare.

I think HD has been very honest on the estimate range. In city usage I am getting about 150 miles if I were to charge it fully and run to 0%. I never do that as it is bad for the battery but it can definitely do it and that is a lot of hard launches.

On the highway, pretty close to 80 miles at pretty high speed (70+). It will easily hit 115mph and then dial back to 110 for sustained max speed. It will pretty much stay there until. you exhaust the battery assuming you have a place you can run that speed for about 40 miles.

I don't think it is the ideal touring electric motorcycle but I am pretty good for about 2 hours in the saddle. Let room is a bit tight but pretty much everything else works well for me. It is one of the few bikes I've owned in my lifetime that I'd buy again if something happened to it. I rode the Zeros and Energicas spent my money on the LiveWire. Cost wasn't a factor for any of them. For me the HD worked the best for my intended use. This is also one of the few bikes I've owned that I like it the more miles I put on it.

3
General Discussion / Re: Tesla Driver != Zero Rider?
« on: October 27, 2022, 08:01:49 AM »
I have a '22 3, '21 Y and '22 S. I have bunch of ICE bikes and a HD LiveWire. With the Teslas, I tend to not get on it hard from a stop. I roll off the line and then get on it.

I have found nailing off the line shreds tires very quickly. Tires on the S are staggered sizes so they cut the treadwear warranty in half. I spend more on tires than I do on charging by a long shot. Rolling into the throttle a bit doesn't slow them down much 0-60 but has really reduced my tire wear by a lot.

The LiveWire launches pretty hard and is a great point and shoot bike on the street. It basically launches perfectly every time. Most of the time with it I also just roll off the line and then hard on it. It will still easily decimate traffic at a light. I think in a lot of ways it is like most Teslas in that after a great launch, it starts to die off a bit over 70-80 mph. The refreshed S is the exception to that. It just keeps pulling hard on up into triple digit speeds.

Basically I drive/ride them all the same way. The exception is when I am towing with the Y. It is still pretty quick even with a 3k load. Another exception is if the missus is in the car. They all launch hard enough she'll get nauseous after a few hits so I just put them in chill mode when she is in the car. If I am in the car with our kid, they are a little adrenalin junkie in training. As soon as mom is gone they want me to put the S in launch mode. So we have some fun runs up to whatever the local speed limit is.

4
Damon / Re: Colosdus taking pre orders
« on: August 27, 2022, 04:02:34 AM »
I am always open to seeing if there is something better out there. I am not married to my Livewire. It worked out to be the best option at the time I was ready to buy for my typical riding. If the Damon actually turns out to be great, I will definitely consider it to add to my fleet and find a safe place to turn up the wick on it.


I will say I am extra cautious about high speeds on a public road. I once was ticked for 100 mph in excess of the posted limit which was 70 mph. So basically the highway patrol said I was traveling in excess of 170 mph. Fortunately I wasn't guilty and the officer ticketed me in error (confused my vehicle with another one). Even though the ticket was issued in error, it still took me almost 2.5 years fighting it to finally get it overturned and countless hours driving to a remote jurisdiction to appear in court.


It was a very good lesson about how this can play out if you are caught legitimately. Since then I always made sure that if I was ever going to get into the upper speed ranges my bikes and cars are capable of on a public road, I made darn sure it was in an area with no enforcement.

5
Damon / Re: Colosdus taking pre orders
« on: August 26, 2022, 07:59:19 PM »
Power is irrelevant if you can't get it to the ground. Relatively tall, short wheelbase motorcycles, ensure that you aren't getting that power to the ground effectively so it only becomes useful at higher speeds. Unless of course you want to extend the swingarm, lower the bike, etc. to really take advantage of it.


Even then, unless you spend your life at the track, or ride on some really open roads with minimal law enforcement, how useful is it other than bragging rights? So great, the motor made 247 HP, not what? Is that really going to improve 0-60 times? Unlikely as traction and wheelies are an issue, so power we be cut. So where does that really matter? Maybe getting close to triple digits or up into triple digits but wheelies can still be an issue. So how much of the 247, assuming it does, can you really put down all of the time on the street?


Sure sounds impressive though...

6
General Discussion / Re: Exporting ABetterRoutePlanner maps to a Garmin Zumo XT
« on: August 26, 2022, 08:49:25 AM »
It may not be a simple export to GPX. You could export first to an Excel file and then use something like Excel to GPX converter software or online with myGeodata converter.

Here is a good website to show you how to do the last part.
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/how-to-convert-excel-xlsx-or-xls-to-gpx

7
Damon / Re: Colosdus taking pre orders
« on: August 25, 2022, 10:12:35 PM »
I am a big guy. When you put me on a short wheelbase, higher seat height bike, it is the ideal scenario for wheelies. I rode the Energicas and on the LW I could consistently get to 60 quicker. It doesn't matter what the bike is theoretically capable of with an ideal rider, it is what it can do with me when I use it.


If I there are wheelies, the power has to be cut. The more wheelie prone, the more the power has to be cut. So basically it is what amount of power can be put down. On the LW, it is lower and longer and even though it has less power, I am quicker because I can use more of it. So unless I put an extended swingarm, or wheelie bars on an Energica, the LW is going to be quicker for me at least to 60. That is where the bulk of my riding is and one of the reasons I passed on buying an Energica. The benefits it might have over the LW were not realized in my riding situation. The old adage in drag racing applies; "It isn't how much power you have, but how much power you can put down".


If I rode on more open roads, or spent my time at higher speeds, the Energica (or Damon) would make more sense. I ride in pretty dense city traffic and the LW is a great tool for that. At the end of the day I have a turbo bike and a supercharged bike that downright make the Energicas look slow. So if I really need a speed fix, I'll hop on one of those. I almost never ride them currently as they are terrible tools for the heavy traffic I deal with. The LW is a great urban assault tool for me. If I hadn't ridden the Energicas as well as the LW, I probably would have bought one of the Energicas. The test ride on the LW showed me it would be better for my riding conditions.


At the end of the day, people need to buy what is best for their usage. It may not be what others might consider to be the "best bike". For my environment, the LW turned out to be the best bike currently, although I had never seriously considered it at first and basically planned on buying an Energica Ego. If I had done that, it would have been a mistake.

8
Damon / Re: Colosdus taking pre orders
« on: August 25, 2022, 06:47:54 AM »
I'll definitely do a test ride. I can't say I love everything about the Livewire but for the vast majority of my riding, there really isn't going to be anything substantially better than it. I rode the Ernegicas and and they were slower to 60 and didn't really pull the Livewire I tested later until close to triple digits.

Where I live currently I am lucky if I can get in a good 0-60 burst. Even on one of my super quick bikes or cars, by the time I hold the throttle open for more than 4 seconds I already need to be hard on the brakes. It is one of the reasons I bought the LW over others I rode. In my environment, nothing really works better than it for an electric motorcycle.

I never thought traffic would be as bad as it is when I moved. Prior to the move, there wasn't a day that I couldn't easily see 150 or better in the car or bikes just coming home from work. Now 0-80 is a far more useful speed range for me. On the plus side, I drive a lot fewer miles to work and in general.

If the Damon turns out to be reliable, I'd definitely consider it. It isn't about the price, it is how I view the value I am receiving for the price. I will be curious to see what the real world range is at 75-85 mph and how fast it charge on L2. It will be interesting to see how the dealer network pans out. That was another stumbling block with Energica. Way too far away from the nearest dealer and far outside of its range even with a L3 charging stop thrown in on the way.

9
Damon / Re: Colosdus taking pre orders
« on: August 25, 2022, 12:32:00 AM »
I have to say Damon was one EV I was really interested in. Still am but until I see real world feedback, I'll ride my Livewire for a while. Not to mention I think I'll be quicker 0-60 on the Livewire than I would on the Damon. Short tall bikes are wheelie prone and then you have to kill the power when you do. I ran into that on the Energicas.

The Damons are nice looking bikes. Really want to what kind of reliability they have before I drop 30-40k on a bike no matter how nice it looks or appears to be engineered.

10
Energica / Re: Gearing Change Impacts
« on: August 25, 2022, 12:20:41 AM »
Interesting to read that Energica uses the speedometer reading to limit the top speed. One of the reasons I was considering the Energica over others was the top speed advantage. The speedo error would tend to negate its advantage on anything other than the Ego.

11
Energica / Re: Test ride on a Ribelle RS
« on: August 21, 2022, 07:12:34 AM »
The Ribelle is a nice ride. I rode it and the Ego. I liked them a lot and Engergica was at the top of my list to buy after the test rides. Ultimately I decided to go with an almost new Livewire after the Energica test ride. It was sort of the dark horse in my list.

It seems like all the current electric bikes make a lot of compromises. All comes down to if they make compromises in areas that matter to you.

12
Energica / Re: Help! Ribelle not working anymore
« on: July 27, 2022, 01:59:32 AM »
This is an interesting thread to follow. Especially since a Ribelle was one of the top bikes on my list. Forum wisdom here says the bikes are very well put together and after sales support is very good. Nice to know they shut down in August as well.

Hopefully this will get sorted shortly but exactly the kind of thing I was worried about as the nearest dealer would be 4 hours minimum away from me.

Good luck jotjotde! Let us know how it turns out.

13
Energica / Re: Talk me out of a Zero
« on: July 23, 2022, 10:23:12 PM »
Paddock stands have benefits but I have 12 bikes. Six of them need a paddock stand. A total PITA to adjust them for each bike. Not to mention the taller bikes are pretty much a 2-person job to do it safely. I'll take the little extra weight for the greatly added convenience. I couldn't believe even my latest Africa Twin didn't come with a center stand. Trying to get that thing on a paddock stand with the panniers and top box on was an exercise in terror. Once I had the center stand on it, easy peezy, pumpkin squeeze.

I can't forget the one time my son "helped" me get the bike off the paddock stand. Basically he took it upon himself to do it. No, the bike didn't fall off or over. Instead, once it started to come down, the design of the stand made sure that the loop that is the handle popped up so quick it shattered the tail light. I'll chalk that up to operator error and poor design but never would have happened with a center stand.

Having a centers stand also means I can easily do a tire check before rolling out to look for anything that might cause a puncture. So much easier to get a quick shot of chain lube on the road.

The only bikes I haven't put a center stand on are things like my track day bikes or ones where I ride more aggressively; KTM Duke 890R for example. I hate to add more weight to a bike that is only 360 lbs dry before I stripped off any extra parts I could. If the heifer is already pushing 500 pounds, the extra kilo for the conveniences is well worth it on my chain drive bikes. They really should have looked at a belt for the Experia.

Back to my original topic, if Damon didn't almost seem like vaporware and no availability, it might be a viable option too. Lack of dealer for Damon and Lighting basically rule them both off my list.

14
Energica / Re: Talk me out of a Zero
« on: July 23, 2022, 06:29:37 AM »
The responses have been very helpful. I wasn’t aware of the rain issue for the Zero but I rarely ride in rain so not a big issue for me.

I can understand how Zero forces you to unlock things and Energica gives you everything. At the same time, this could be an advantage with respect to battery capacity for a lot of people. By not making the full capacity available, people can’t really charge it to 100% and this well help with battery degradation. I am not sure I’d often need the extra range anyway. It could be useful to have a subscription option though to increase it if I wanted to go on a trip and raise it for that period of time. Reverse would be nice to have. I get the subscription model and in general hate it. I’d also have to lug around extra weight that I am getting no benefit for. At the same time, I can easily upgrade later if I decide I want it. That aspect worked out well my wife’s Tesla where I wanted more performance and was able to unlock it. It knocked off over a half second from the 0-60 time; 4.2 to 3.6 and was well worth the money.

I get the part where customer support may be better for Energica, but an 8 hour round trip minimum to the nearest dealer is a real downside for me. Just one unplanned trip would be a major inconvenience and I couldn’t easily ride the bike there. I plan on keeping it for a while so if there was an issue with the battery down the road, I’d have more coverage with Zero. Both batteries are air cooled but the forced air cooling on the Zero could be an advantage in some of the riding situations I would be in. The liquid cooling of the Energica for the motor would be a big plus.

I went and rode a Zero SR/S today. It actually matched up pretty well on the test ride I took. The one big plus with the Zero is I can get a fully faired bike (a big plus for me) and I have pretty comfy ergonomics on it. Overall the bike was a lot quieter when riding. No chain noise and a lot less high pitched whine going on.

Good to know about the gearing change for the Ribelle. That is one good thing about chain and sprocket but I have a few bikes and keeping the chains lubed is one of my least favorite tasks, especially when no center stand. I didn’t see one it and that is a big miss and I hate dealing with a lift as I have to adjust it for each bike I have without a centerstand.

The Experia ticks a lot of my boxes so maybe worth trying to test ride one if I can find a dealer. Maybe it isn’t quite as slow as I think it will be. I drive EVs all day long so I get the instant torque aspect. My daily driver may not beat a Ribelle or Ego to 60 mph, but it is at least as quick from 30 mph on up and will probably go through the traps quicker. I want my bike to be at least as quick as my daily driver car. If they had gone with the previous drivetrain and made it more like my V-4 Ducati Multistrada, I’d be all in with a deposit on one now. I think its performance is going to be like an old Suzuki 1000cc Vstrom in the quarter mile and I had one of those and it was pretty boring and adding a load just made it worse.

From a fit perspective, the Zero feels roomier for me. The Ego is the typical cramped crotch rocket. The Ribelle is better but not as comfy as the SR/S for me. I never plan to track the bike, or ride super aggressively on backroads (just moderately) so high pegs aren't a benefit for me.

Thanks for the perspective so far. It has been very helpful.

   


15
Energica / Re: Talk me out of a Zero
« on: July 21, 2022, 09:10:27 AM »
If you go for all the upgrades, then Zero can charge in about an hour. Otherwise I believe they say 2.7 hours for the premium version. If not on a fast charger, the Ribelle is 6 hours.

Honestly, this is the least of my concerns as I mentioned if any long range riding I do will most likely be done on a better bike for the purpose; longer range, better wind protection, more comfortable etc.

Any sort of fast charging is mostly academic. From what I've read, you can basically get one fast charge out of the Energicas and then next charge the battery has warmed up so much the thermal management kicks in and your charge rate is much slower anyway. Really negates the impact of fast charging which is the one area where Energica seemed to have a potentially big advantage over the Zero.

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