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[Richard230]

Today I attended the National Drive Electric Week event at De Anza College in Cupertino, CA, today.  I arrived just in time to get in on the Guinness World Record Attempt for the largest EV parade ever.  My understanding was there there were 507 vehicles in the parade and that beat whatever the old record was.  Fortunately, they allowed our small group of motorcycle riders to ride near the front of the parade.  I counted about 16 motorcycles and four bicycles in our two-wheel group.  The rest of the vehicles in the parade were cars, mostly Leafs. It took over an hour for all of the cars to participate in the parade after we motorcyclists, near the front of the line, returned.

Lightning had their 218 model on display, while they also displayed a red bike which is a pre-"production" "commuter" model.  This bike did not have a price or even an official name yet.  It looks like Lightning is still producing the hand-built 218 to order with a large deposit, while their "commuter" model appears to be a work in progress.

One funny thing that happened is that I found a 120V outlet on the side of a utility shed in the parking lot.  So I plugged in to charge up my bike for the ride back home.  After a couple of hours charging, some dim bulb with a Leaf parked next to me and plugged in his Level 1 charging system into the same outlet that I was using.  Naturally, that move blew the breaker for the entire building, also knocking off charging for the car that was parked along the other side of the building and charging from an outlet on the adjacent wall.  Needless to say, I wasn't happy, but at least the 20% increase in battery charge that I did receive allowed me to ride the 60 miles back home along Skyline Boulevard and back into the Pacifica fog.

Besides Zero and Lightning, all of the major car brands and the usual weird odds and ends, including a prototype electric school bus, were to be found at the event.  Terry was there also.  He mentioned that he is now living in Santa Cruz, no doubt so that he can be close to the Zero factory should he need to make any additional modification or facilitate repairs.   I posted photos on elmoto.net.

[ultrarnr]

Richard230,

Is Lightening actually delivering the LS-218 to customers now? I saw the pics you posted on El Moto. The commuter model looks like it has two motors. The photos of the LS-218 looked like it had rear view mirrors on it and a license plate bracket which is the first time I have seen them on that bike. Obviously indicating street legal version. Have written Lightening a few times but never got a response. Thanks.

[Richard230]

ultrarnr, their ad appears to indicate that the 218 is available for purchase and is likely made to order upon receiving a large deposit.  The bike on display has a license plate because it is the one they are road testing and is also likely the one that the provide to magazine testers to ride.  I am not quite sure what to make of the "commuter" model, especially as it has low bars.  It appears to be similar to the one that they had on display last year at the same show.  I was told it was a "work in progress".  As for the 218 model, see attached photo of their ad display at their exhibit.

[Richard230]

Here is a link to the official EV parade record announcement that I was a part of last Saturday: 

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/7000/largest-parade-of-electric-vehicles

If electric-bicycles had been counted the number in the parade would have been 512.  I guess e-bikes get no respect.

Attached is a photo of the motorcycle lineup near the beginning of the parade.  The e-bikes are behind me.

[Burton]

If Ebikes were included then law enforcement could be out issuing tickets for people riding them not registering them as vehicles

[benswing]

Awesome!  Congrats on being part of the record. 

I went to 3 NDEW events last week plus the Peoples' Climate March in NYC along with 400,000 people.  Always fun showing people an electric motorcycle!

[Richard230]

A couple of other thoughts regarding the EV parade:

I think they should have paraded around the nearest gas station.   

Also, I don't think I could have ridden in that parade for the 30 minutes that it took to travel 2 miles on a conventional IC bike.  It would have been really hard on the clutch and my left hand.  Most IC bikes are not happy with the clutch in at speeds lower than about 10 mph and we were traveling a lot slower than that, so you would have had to feather the clutch continuously.  I also noticed that it was relatively easy to balance my bike with my feet on the pegs while moving slowly for a long time.  I was really impressed watching Terry balance the blimp without putting his feet down or falling over.  That bike is really heavy and he did a great job moving slowly with nothing more than some wiggling.  In fact all of the riders seemed to be able to hold their bikes up at slow speeds during the parade.  I am sure it would have been much more difficult while riding an IC bike that slowly for that distance.

One other comment:  My Zero dealer says that many of their customers are buying IC bikes with dual-clutch automatic transmissions, such as what Honda is offering, and they are willing to pay the additional $1000 for this feature. I think Zero is on the right track with their single-speed, direct-drive design.