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[frodus]

You were picked up by Yahoo Autos, nice work, and great article!

https://autos.yahoo.com/news/electric-motorcycle-road-trip-learned-know-124405854.html

[Richard230]

I agree! A great article that includes very useful suggestions when traveling on an electric motorcycle.   

[MichaelJ]

Ben, I saw you on Bing News today, too!

http://www.bing.com/news/search?q=Electric+Motorcycle&bu=http%3a%2f%2fwww.greencarreports.com%2fnews%2f1093161_electric-motorcycle-road-trip-what-i-learned-what-you-need-to-know&FORM=HPPANW

[Doctorbass]

Ben

I'll keep your advices for my 2000km trip on my Zero S 2012 !

These will be usefull i'm sure!

I will cary my DIY compact 6.6kW charger and will add 2 ZF3 battery on it as side case. This will give me about 200 real km at 90km/h.  and 13 real usable kWh energy.

The cycle analyst is also a very usefull tool to install on a 2012 or a 2012 as it does many calculations that the 2013 apps does.

The best way to get the desired range is to know how many Wh per km you need to use and to adjust your speed to keep that Wh/km number. this is the best way i have found with te use of the cycle analyst.

Doc

[benswing]

Here is a summary of the charging challenges on my trip:

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1093161_electric-motorcycle-road-trip-what-i-learned-what-you-need-to-know

So far I rode 4,362 miles this summer and I have one more leg to go.  Will ride up to New Hampshire on Tuesday, July 22nd, then ride up Mt. Washington on July 23rd.  Really looking forward to this particular trip!

Here are a few stats you might be interested in:
-Miles: 4,362
-Real cost to charge: $21.50
-Times riding the tail of the Dragon: 6
-Average distance per travel day: 280.2mi
-Average travel time: 13.5 hours
-Typical travel speed: 55mi/hr (frequent 45mi/hr)
(I stayed off highways much of the time, the main local roads were FAR more interesting and enjoyable!)
-Charging stops per travel day: 4-5
-Time spent charging was usually slightly more than time riding.  (So for 6.25hrs riding, approx 7.25hrs charging.)

[protomech]

I think 55 mph is a knee in the efficiency curve for our 2012 bikes. The smaller rear sprocket might help efficiency at 70 mph, although it would also significantly reduce low-speed acceleration (and improve highway acceleration and top speed).

How did this trip compare to the one last summer?

[benswing]

That's a great question. 

Even though I have had to make all my plans for where to stay, charging, visiting friends, visiting electric motorcycle riders, etc. this trip has been far less stressful.  The Ride the Future Tour was tough, in part because only 2 of us had Verizon as our cell phone carrier.  I'm not paid by them, but those maps of coverage of the US are real!  Almost nobody could communicate with their cell phone, which led to lots of confusion each day. 

Also, I'm able to travel much farther each day.  Basically I have covered the same distance in 12 or 13 days that we covered in 44 days.  I knew my Zero had the capability to do this, but it is nice to prove it.

I definitely miss the camaraderie, though.  Having 10 people on a trip together all going through similar trials and tribulations was truly a bonding experience.  I'll never forget the times we had together on the Ride the Future Tour.  I was roommates with Ben Hopkins, the bicycle rider, for most of the tour and he's such a great guy.  It was fun being his roommate and we had such different experiences.

[benswing]

Frodus, MichealJ & Richard230 thanks for the feedback on the news articles.  I didn't see them until now.  The original article on GreenCarReports.com has about 5,000 views, so the word is getting out! 

Also, I can't even count how many people I spoke to about electric vehicles in person on this trip.  Every single time I stopped to charge there were at least 5 folks who asked about the bike.  Then on the rides (especially at the Tail of the Dragon) I spoke with people every single time I stopped.  Literally hundreds of people have now seen an electric motorcycle in person as a result of this trip. 

That also means I have met some really fascinating people.  Almost everyone I meet has now heard of electric motorcycles, so the conversation begins in a different place than a couple of years ago when nobody had heard of them.

[benswing]

That's it!  Done with the summer road trip in three acts!  What an incredible adventure!  Now it's time to rest and recouperate... 

Here is some interesting info from the journey:

States visited:
16       - NJ, DE, MD, VA, NC, TN, IL, MO, IN, OH, PA, NY, CT, MA, VT, NH
5465.2 - Total miles
3        - rear bearings crushed
300+   - bikers who have seen my Zero (many at the Tail of the Dragon)

550kWh - Total electricity usage
112.68 - kWh from Chargepoint stations (wish it were more...)

$32.89   - Total real cost for me to charge ($17.89 at Chargepoints, $6 at Blink, $9 at 3 RV parks)
$0.0598  - cost per kWh (about half the national avg)
$0.0060  - cost per mile (ICE vehicles are approx $0.10/mile)

6          - Times riding the tail of the dragon
2          - Times riding up Mt. Washington in NH

Let me know if there is any other info you're interested in.

[vchampain]

Impressive ! 3 bearings crushed What do you mean ?

[oobflyer]

3        - rear bearings crushed

How did you deal with this? Is this something you anticipated? Should we bring extra bearings with us on long road trips?!

[benswing]

Not a common issue, not something you can plan for.  I think it may be a result of 20,000 miles with extra weight over the back wheel (chargers & luggage) and stiffening the shocks to the maximum.  Terry said he has had a similar issue after about 20,000 miles but he also has a LOT of extra weight on his bike.

Happened to be close to Phibbs Motorsports in Albany (a Zero dealer) and they fixed me up in 16 hours.  Put some Yamaha bearings in and I was ready to go. 

Here's what happened:
Felt wobbling of rear wheel. 
Pulled over, called Terry & Zero.  Saw bearings hanging out the side of the axle.
Called AAA, they brought my bike to Phibbs Motorsports.
Stayed at a friend's house as planned.
Phibbs called the next day and said they fixed it!   

[kensiko]

So you didn't come in Quebec after all?

[benswing]

Unfortunately, no I didn't make it to Canada.  I was really looking forward to getting up there, but I got an opportunity for a 3-day swing dance performance gig so I just couldn't fit it in.  I now know exactly what it takes to travel farther, and really want to get up there but it won't happen this summer. 

[trikester]

Impressive!!! As a guy who mostly rides dirt and each ride ends back at my starting point (truck, desert cabin, motel, etc.) kudos to you for doing this. 

As for conversations with strangers about e-bikes I think that HD's entry, with all the media buzz that they generated, has greatly increased interest. This will help the industry as a whole and the beauty of it is that they won't actually be a producing competitor until sometime later, maybe two or three years or more.

Trikester