Well, that’s a nice boost. I get more and more tempted by the Rebelle every time. Might just have to arrange a test-ride sometime after lockdown 
er sign me up! that is one sexy looking electric bike…
Range though, what’s the ranges?
Not the same bike but:
That is the same bike, just without the RS addon this story mentions, but I believe that’s just software tweaks to get it off the line quicker, so it should offer the same range, more or less, depending on how many race starts you do 
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Full details here:
oh boy!
even on the ultra urban there is enough mileage for me! however, only 2 dealers according to their website in the UK. Neither close enough for me to want to go visit.
Still, all the numbers are seriously heading in the right direction.
interestingly there is a dealer on Reunion island which is so small you could go from one end to the other and back on a single charge…
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In the video that Tromboman posted, he said he got around 100 miles to a charge for normal riding, but used 60% of a full charge doing just 40 motorway miles!
That’s an awful lot less than the claimed 400 KM ~ 250 mile range and whilst it’s undoubtedly a nice looking bike, makes it pretty irrelevant for the real world.
What makes you say that?
100 miles is fine. That’s there or there about’s for most bikes of this size. If I was touring I wouldn’t want to do more than 100 miles before stopping to plug in, get some fast-charge and have a break, get a drink, a bite to eat, etc. @pricetta’s bladder certainly can’t go further than that.
Where it would start to get a little more challenging would be if you go off the beaten path and don’t find fast-chargers (quite hard nowadays in the civilised world). That said, electricity is a lot more abundant than petrol, so whilst you couldn’t fast charge, you could easily find a socket to plug into, relax and let the world go by for a bit. That’s part of the fun of touring at times.
If you were just using it for normal around-you riding then that mileage would be way more than you need. You’d never be far from a plug or charger and if you were using it for commuting, well you’d only need to charge every few days at work or home whilst you’re busy doing other stuff
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100 miles may be fine for running around locally, but if I was say going up to Manchester I’d only be getting a range of 65-70 miles, so I’d need to recharge 3 times, which based on the guy’s experience in the video takes around 40 minutes or the fast charge. So, ride for 50 minutes, charge for 40 minutes, repeat & repeat again. Not really what I’d call practical. If I was to ride over to the see the other half in Strasbourg, I’d need to do that 7 or 8 times, adding 5-6 hours to the length of the journey. Throw in a few more charges for anyone heading to the Alps.
Re being off the beaten track, sure electricity is plentiful but how many people are going to let strangers just plug into their electrical system? It takes 6 hours for a full charge. Even if you found a cafe/pub etc that let you use their electricity whilst you had a meal, even if you strung lunch out for a couple of hours, you’d only get enough charge to get you another 25-40 miles.
I fail to understand why anyone would spend £23k on something that in real terms offers less than say a Street Triple at a third of the price?
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Early adopters buy into the vision of where things are going and are willing to put up with rough edges or comparative shortcomings. In the case of this bike, the performance, convenience of charging at home/work, lack of emissions, near total reduction in servicing, cheap running costs, general ownership experience and excitement of doing something completely new that will almost certainly be a talking point will be more compelling than an ordinary bike and worth it to them.
At this point though, they shouldn’t be compared with petrol bikes as clearly the battery technology isn’t quite there yet, but they do offer a different experience that is becoming more and more compelling.
If you’re willing to change your perspective a little and change your plans a little, you can have a whole new experience that’s is a hell of a lot of fun (I speak from being an earlier adopter on the electric car side of things, not got an EV bike yet).
On question I have it the throttle response.
On fossil bike lets say you turn the throttle 1/4 round in each gear. Times 6 gears gives you 1.5 full rotation.
What happens on an electric bike with no gears? You clearly can’t rotate the throttle so much in one go.
Is the throttle super sensitive? Or am I over thinking it?
You’re over thinking it it’ll be a linear throttle like on electric cars. You open the throttle as much as you need for the desired speed. Small openings at slow speeds to manage traction and then wider openings at faster speeds to overcome wind resistance/hills, etc.
Basically just like a normal throttle just without having to change gear. All the usual traction control assists apply too.
Edit: actually, it wouldn’t surprise me if there is some softening of the throttle at slow speeds to manage traction, like how it’s done atm in lower gears. Ie you ask for 40% throttle at 5mph and it actually gives you 20%.
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The light speed response in acceleration or deceleration is quite interesting from a traction control perspective… there’s basically zero lag between software detecting a slip scenario and being able to intervene in the output of motion, so there seems to be more of an opportunity to prevent a crash.
In comparison, with an engine you’ve got quite a bit of delay between the software detecting the slip scenario and it affecting the engines four stroke cycle to reduce engine output, i.e. TC could get much better with EVs.
I’d have no problem with an electric bike but remember, not all bikes are ridden for fun or on the same journey on a regular basis. I’m a courier and the thought of stopping every hour for a couple of hours to re-fuel is crazy. I had a run from Rainham to Oxford and back on Thursday, 220-odd miles, not possible right now and doubtful if it will ever be using batteries. The trick that most people are missing/ignoring is the potential for hydrogen as a vehicle fuel. Wind and nuclear power can electrolyse hydrogen from water whenever ‘normal’ demand is low, eg overnight, the wind blows most of the time and radioactive isotopes dgrade 24/7. Yes, there are aspects of storage and changes to ‘petrol’ tanks to be sorted but it’s not impossible. With the right backing, hydrogen could provide biking just like it is now.
Swappable batteries. Like a soda stream. Fill up in an instant, just like with petrol.
Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, and Kawasaki formed the Swappable Batteries Consortium for Electric Motorcycles to produce a single shared standard. A few months ago they started trials in Osaka.
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I don’t want to admit it but electric is the future.
I say this coming from the absolute gem of an engine in the ZZR1400.
One thing that scares me is the ease of use. For example, if you have a quick bike, you have the gears, the engine braking etc to contend with. You can still get yourself in trouble but these electric things seem like ‘twist and go’ with R1 power. Add to that the silence.
*gulp
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I thought I read somewhere that new electric vehicles have to emit sound now, but I could have dreamt that to be fair.
I was walking through a car park the other day and almost got run down by an electric DPD van.
I have my wits about me and I kid you not, I genuinely did not hear it coming. I was shocked.
He was also in a rush for his KFC so that may have played a part…
Funny you say that, years ago I saw a pret electric van and a blind guy with a guide dog, dog thought it was safe to cross the road as it obviously didn’t realise i had to shout at the guy to stop.
Even for me then, I thought this was going to be an issue which you’d think would have been at least looked at by now.
The government has further cemented its position as a global leader in the transition to zero emission transport, by securing new regulations to make electric vehicles safer and provide greater confidence to vulnerable road users.
By which they mean they mean they implemented an E.U. regulation passed in 2014 as they were legally required to do. Leading the world, but in a 28-way tie. Still counts, number one, number one!
Although regulation 540/2014 only requires an acoustic warning system for four-wheeled vehicles, and only when below a speed of 20 km/h. Above that the wind noise is deemed to provide sufficient warning.
It also only affects new type approvals from July 1st last year, older models without a warning system can still be sold until June 30th next year. After which it will be become mandatory for all new applicable vehicles sold.