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[roma258]

I trailered my 2014 Empulse R about 1600 miles combined there and back to Little Switzerland, NC, Asheville, NC and finally Robbinsville, NC to ride some of the choicest twisties on the East Coast. Combined I rode about 230 miles in 4 days. All killer, almost no filler.

The trailer setup:


Overlooking Blue Ridge Parkway.


Recharging for the next day:


Longest ride was about 75 miles with a re-charge along the way, brought the charger just in case


Ended up re-charging at a community college, fast charger worked great!


Finally made it to the Dragon!


Killboy had a fast charger too, definitely needed after getting my runs in


Speaking of Killboy, a few action shots:




And the video of one of my runs:


I might try to put some words together about the whole experience, but figure I'd share some pics in the meantime

[teddillard]

Nice! 

Question for ya.  From what I saw of the video, it didn't seem like you shifted at all - is that correct? 

[roma258]

Nice! 

Question for ya.  From what I saw of the video, it didn't seem like you shifted at all - is that correct?

Pretty much did the entire run in second gear. The road has a ton of blind turns and I don't know them well enough to come in carrying a lot of corner speed, second gear gives nice drive on the way out. A couple straights had the shift light flashing, but I just didn't bother to shift up because there's always another corner coming up. I think a few other times I did shift into third, for the faster corners, but I don't think it happens in this video.

[benswing]

Great photos!  That's an amazing place to ride electric!  Met up with ultrarnr down there last summer and rode the dragon 6 times on my Zero! 

Did you have some good conversations with the gas bikers who were there?  I'm glad the L2 charging station is at Killboy now. 

[teddillard]

Thanks.  Still trying to sort out the tranny thing in my head.   

That's a big help, though, since those kinds of roads are exactly what I love to ride.  You don't know the final drive ratio for second, do you offhand?  I could probably look it up...   

[roma258]

Great photos!  That's an amazing place to ride electric!  Met up with ultrarnr down there last summer and rode the dragon 6 times on my Zero! 

Did you have some good conversations with the gas bikers who were there?  I'm glad the L2 charging station is at Killboy now.

Yeah, people are usually pretty stoked and into the bikes. I do get tired of answering the same 3-4 questions over and over again, but it might  just be my rather limited social battery

[frodus]

Thanks.  Still trying to sort out the tranny thing in my head.   

That's a big help, though, since those kinds of roads are exactly what I love to ride.  You don't know the final drive ratio for second, do you offhand?  I could probably look it up...   

have em from another thread for ya Ted:
Primary: 35T/59T = 1.69:1, 2nd:16T/28T = 1.75:1, and Final Drive: 14/38 = 2.71:1. Overall ratio in 2nd is: ~8.015:1

Here's the ratios and Torque for the Empulse R:
http://electricmotorcycleforum.com/boards/index.php?topic=3871.0

Here's the ratios and torque for the Zero SR with the Zero S at the bottom:
http://electricmotorcycleforum.com/boards/index.php?topic=3872.msg23654#msg23654


If you look, the peak torque for the SR and Brammo are almost in-line with eachother somewhere between 2nd and 3rd..... pretty interesting.

[teddillard]

Sweet, thanks! 

[frodus]

The extra weight of the Empulse and its higher torque in 2nd than the SR likely make them pretty similar performance in that gear.

I'm in 2nd most of the time under 45mph, and once on the highway, I'm in 4th. I never use 1st and 6th has been only used a couple times. I do switch between 2, 3, 4 and 5 quite often though.

[roma258]

The extra weight of the Empulse and its higher torque in 2nd than the SR likely make them pretty similar performance in that gear.

I'm in 2nd most of the time under 45mph, and once on the highway, I'm in 4th. I never use 1st and 6th has been only used a couple times. I do switch between 2, 3, 4 and 5 quite often though.

That's almost exactly how I ride my bike. I'll drop into first for a giggle sometimes. Around the city, I just keep it in second and ride like a single speed (good to about 55).

[SteveInNC]

Wow, you were in my neck of the woods. Wish I had known you were coming I would've bought you a beer. Did you stay at the Little Switzerland Inn?


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[Chocula]

That's almost exactly how I ride my bike. I'll drop into first for a giggle sometimes. Around the city, I just keep it in second and ride like a single speed (good to about 55).

I drop mine into 1st for a giggle almost every time I stop.  I use gears 1 - 5 regularly and occasionally use 6th if moving quickly on the freeway.  I don't shift quite as frequently as I do on my ICE bike, mostly because the ICE is more assertive about letting me know when it wants me to shift.

I always ride in sport mode and use the regen similarly to how I use the engine breaking on my ICE bike.  In the canyons, a 2nd gear decent, curve, etc. on my ICE, is still a 2nd gear decent, curve, etc. on my Empluse R. 

[roma258]

Wow, you were in my neck of the woods. Wish I had known you were coming I would've bought you a beer. Did you stay at the Little Switzerland Inn?


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I did indeed

Your neck of the woods has great some riding (I did the 226A to 80 to BRP loop).

[SteveInNC]

Glad to see that you stayed there. My friend Gary who owns it is an advocate of motorcyclist and has had to fight some of the less friendly locals who have tried to get noise ordinances introduced. Of course electric bikes would solve that whole issue. ;-)


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