ElectricMotorcycleForum.com

Don't forget that you can almost always squeeze out a little more range by going slower. You can't eliminate the loss of charge due to elevation gain, but you can almost always reduce the loss due to wind resistance. If you're willing and able to reduce your speed without risk of being run over by faster-moving traffic, you're almost always capable of reducing your drag and increasing the range.

My main concern is that the new battery pack voltage will be greater than 200VDC. If it's still low, it's just another step down the not-DC-charge-compatible road. Please, please raise the voltage!

I ran the numbers before I bought my 2014 SR, so it must have been in late 2013. I compared it to putting more miles on my BMW 328i, since it was my other vehicle. I wound up with a break-even point somewhere in the 50k (miles) range, and I've got that on my bike now.

Things have changed, though. Gasoline is incredibly cheap right now due to low demand, and electricity is incredibly expensive here in San Diego. (I'm paying $0.52 /kWh, and that's with the EV rate!) So if I ran the numbers today, it might not be much cheaper at all to ride the bike, let alone pay back the purchase price in a reasonable amount of time.

There are other reasons to enjoy electric motorcycles, though. In addition to their riding charms, which are considerable, what it really comes down to for me is the fuel is renewable (at least potentially) and already part of the carbon cycle. I just bought a new barbecue grill, and I went with charcoal instead of propane or natural gas for the exact same reason -- we have GOT to break our addiction to petrochemicals. It won't happen until we make it happen.

Make a bike with 10 minute charging, 400 mile range, no maintenance, better performance than gas at about 7/10s the price.
The things will sell themselves.  There, I just saved everybody a lot of wasted advertising money and survey time.

Yeah...that's not helpful. Engineers have to work with the technologies that are available, making what compromises are possible to achieve the best possible bike. Knowing what the public prioritizes helps them make compromises to get the most desirable bike with today's technology. The ideal bike will remain impossible for the foreseeable future.

On my 2014 SR, I often have to pull the handlebar hard over to the left to make sure things line up well enough to allow the lock to engage. Even just the resilience of the tire rubber on the pavement can cause the handlebar to spring away from full left that the lock won't engage. Just hold it over when you engage the steering lock.

When you think of the size of the hole already punched in our economy, it's staggering. And it's going to get much worse.

For a tiny fraction of that amount of money, we could have gotten in front of this thing by manufacturing test kits by the bajillions, and hiring and training thousands of people to track down anyone who'd had contact with people who came down with the disease. That's how highly contagious diseases with no treatments (like Ebola) are handled, and it's very effective. Shutting down the economy is just a sledge-hammer approach that hurts everyone.

Doug S. Some of us like the carrot juice approach. I want a bike I can use smart, not a show piece with masses of power I cannot use without losing my licence. If I want speed and ultimate handling , I want range as well. That means ICE for the time being. I have an MT07 for that. I don't want to live in a world that is ONLY carrot juice and kale. But I need them ( OK NOT kale, it's aweful). In a revised Mazlow's heirarchy of need , a supercommuter is above a sports electric bike in my case. For me a supercommuter is a tool, and a superbike a toy to play with.
My need is a need. A bike that can carry me into town and back. Starting and finishing at 100kph, and the rest at town speeds. I can charge it from my solar array during the day for power. And one I can afford, which means made in China or India or Thailand, I would think. Anything made in the USA will be way overpriced once it hits Australia. As Zero found out, selling in Aus is just too costly.

All I ask for is a machine that can do all of that. Provide cheesecake thrills and carrot juice abstemiousness, with only one bike taking up space in my garage and wasting my insurance/registration/maintenance dollars. I don't think it's impossible, and I think the existing electric motorcycles come very close to the (at least my) ideal. Okay, MAAAAAYBE you could half commuting expenses again with an ultra minimalist approach, but we're already so far down in the mud I don't think you're really going to benefit much.