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[Richard230]

This weekend I attended a BMW motorcycle rally that was held in Northern California.  The last seminar held at the rally was a group discussion about motorcycles in general.  It was chaired by Fred Rau, a prolific magazine article author, Gabe Ets-Hawkins, former City Bike magazine editor and a lady from So. CA who runs a motorcycle safety street riding school.   After talking about BMW motorcycles and the state of the industry for an hour, I threw out the subject of electric motorcycles, along with commenting how much I liked my Zero and how it had replaced my BMW bikes for trips of under 100 miles - which is most of my riding.

Now the odd thing was that only Gabe, who had authored several electric motorcycle articles in City Bike, seemed to have any thing to say about the new technology (he is quite supportive of electric power) on the panel.  Fred Rau was beating the drum for the reverse-trike Cam Am Spyder, which he said was the fastest growing segment of the motorcycle sport, while the safety riding class lady had nothing to say.  One person in the 30-member audience seemed to be aware of electric motorcycles and asked a couple of questions, but everyone else appeared to be either not interested or knew little or nothing about the technology.  Naturally, I did my best to explain the advantages of riding electric and how useful an electric motorcycle can be for commuting and for local riding, which is what most of use do every day. It was hard to tell how my comments were received as there appeared to be little reaction from the audience.

It sure seems to me that the word about electric motorcycles needs to be spread among the public better than what is currently happening right now.  While there are many of us in the sport that are very familiar with their advantages, there are a great many other members of the public and even long-time riding enthusiasts, who seem to be quite uninformed regarding the advantages of electric motorcycles and recent improvements in performance and usable range. 

While we can always beat the drum at a personal level, I really think that the industry and the motorcycling press need to do a better job spreading the word.  I think doing something that would get electric motorcycle riding into news articles and that would capture the interest of the popular press is the best way to gain the public's attention.  While I appreciate what Terry had done riding his electric egg all over the country, I believe it would be more useful to perform such demonstrations with a stock vehicle that the public can recognize as something that they can buy off a showroom floor.

I wonder how electric motorcycles would be received in the State of Jefferson?   

[benswing]

While I appreciate what Terry had done riding his electric egg all over the country, I believe it would be more useful to perform such demonstrations with a stock vehicle that the public can recognize as something that they can buy off a showroom floor.

This is exactly what I am doing, but I'm not as good at PR as Terry.  Both of my 4,000 miles trips were done on stock bikes with the only modifications being ones you can get from dealers.

Also, I think what Terry is doing is absolutely crucial!  However, getting butts in seats (demo rides) and getting more of us out there to motorcycle events are good ways to accomplish this. 

I agree with you, but it takes time and resources.

[protomech]

I think the younger crowd is more aware. I've gone to several bike nights where people immediately recognized the bike, and at various bike shops the employees have come out to check out the bike and have mentioned at least hearing the Zero name. Not meaning any offense, BMW motorcycle rally demographics probably skew a little older and a little more insular .. like Harley owners, it'll take BMW releasing a full electric in the US (like the C evolution) to really get their attention.

[Mike Werner]

Most of the work is left to us owners. The specific electric manufacturers do very little for promotion like ads, maybe a few races and that's it They don't have the ad-dollars that the big established manufacturers have, so it's understandable.

The big boys like BMW and Harley do very little and look at their e-efforts as minimum. I've got a request in with BMW PR for some data for an article on electric motorcycles and scooters, but as usual, no response. They just aren't interested. For the time being the ev are a minimum-service, very little, very expensive - a niche market.

So it's up to us owners to blow the electric horns at any stage.

[Burton]

I plan on giving people seat time for reviews

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?p=25074278#post25074278

First review / friend riding the bike. He is already thinking of how to get one himself and has told everyone he rides with about it.

[Richard230]

I think Protomech is correct.  My habit of attending BMW rallies and muscle car shows puts me in the old folks (like me) crowd.  And most of us are Luddites that tend to shy away from anything that looks new or electrical.  Hence the popularity of retro-styled bikes, like the Honda CB1100, the BMW R nineT, the Triumph Bonneville, etc.  It is hard to make an electric motorcycle look retro - unless you are Czech and pattern one after a 1950's cyclops scooter.   

Still, word of mouth is not going to get the job done very quickly.  I can recall when Zero was first starting out (when they had lots of orders and no product to ship), they had an amazing PR department.  They seemed to show up in the news every few weeks.  I think they even took a ride to the White House, along with stopping by various news organizations and doing other things that got them national press recognition at very little cost.  It got my attention and attracted me to the idea of owning an electric motorcycle.  Too bad their production department wasn't as efficient as their PR department.   

[kensiko]

Talking about Can-Am, did you know that they were manufactured here in Quebec? I heard that they are working on a hybrid version, but it's been a while.

[Doug S]

Okay, I rant and rave to everyone who asks, or friends/family who don't even ask, about how wonderful my bike is. But I'll admit that I'm guilty as charged. I don't do enough EV evangelism.

But how do I go about doing that? What do you suggest? I'm not much of an organizer (I'm a social outcast and I like it that way); like most of us, I don't have a lot of spare time; and I'm not the kind of guy that lets strangers ride my bike.

Let's hear some ideas!

[Richard230]

Well, you can always attend an EV rally like I plan to this Saturday at De Anza College in Cupertino.  I should have no problem spreading the "word" there.   

But the truth is that word-of-mouth just isn't getting the job done.  I think the U.S. motorcycle magazines have been pretty generous with their EV articles in the past, in spite of getting little or no advertizing revenue from Zero and Brammo.  It would be interesting to know how electric motorcycles have been received in the pages of the European enthusiast magazines.  I would like to see an electric vehicle "Cannon Ball" "race", including motorcycles and cars run every year.  I think that would be fun and maybe they could make a "Cannon Ball" movie.  With the right stars and the usual movie BS, it could be entertaining and would be a great way to introduce the public to the practicality of electric vehicles.     I wonder if Jack Elam is still around?  Probably not.  I think he wore out his finger in the last CB movie.   

[Doug S]

Let's hear some ideas!

Okay, I did something. The town I live in (El Cajon, a suburb of San Diego) hosts the "Cajon Classic Cruise" every year from April through October, Wednesday nights from 5-8 pm. I thought it was just hot rods, but it turns out that bikes are included, and a local sportsbike club puts in an appearance. I signed up over my lunch hour and am going to drop by tomorrow. I'm not going to be giving out any test rides but I'll direct people to Rocket Motorcycles if they're interested.

Anybody else in San Diego? Come on out to East County for what should be a very hot evening!

[Richard230]

Let's hear some ideas!

Okay, I did something. The town I live in (El Cajon, a suburb of San Diego) hosts the "Cajon Classic Cruise" every year from April through October, Wednesday nights from 5-8 pm. I thought it was just hot rods, but it turns out that bikes are included, and a local sportsbike club puts in an appearance. I signed up over my lunch hour and am going to drop by tomorrow. I'm not going to be giving out any test rides but I'll direct people to Rocket Motorcycles if they're interested.

Anybody else in San Diego? Come on out to East County for what should be a very hot evening!

I hope you have better luck than I have showing off my GPR-S and then my Zeros at car and bike shows during the past 5 years.  I have exhibited my bikes in at least 12 shows and never got very much interest in my bikes, maybe two people during the show would stop by and ask me about my electric motorcycle.  I always carried brochures and business cards of my dealer to hand out to interested people.  I still have most of the brochures and all of the business cards.

[Doug S]

I hope you have better luck than I have showing off my GPR-S and then my Zeros at car and bike shows during the past 5 years.

I just checked the forecast, its supposed to be "only" 97 tomorrow....today was forecast for 101, we got 106.

If it's unlikely I'll have much interest anyhow, maybe I'll try it some other time.

[benswing]

Any time I go to a motorcycle or car show I don't have time to take a break.  Everyone wants to hear about electric motorcycles.

[Richard230]

Speaking of spreading the word, the American Motorcyclist Association is doing a pretty good job.  The October issue of their monthly magazine, American Motorcyclist , contains a very positive four page article on electric motorcycles starting on page 34.  It covers the LiveWire, Zero, Brammo and many others, including a sidebar about DIY elmotos and bikes being made by universities.  It includes quotes and interviews with various electric motorcycle company marketing VPs, along with Harlan Flagg of Hollywood Electrics.  A really great article and well worth reading if you can find an issue.  Plus, it goes out to tens of thousands of motorcycle owners and enthusiasts.  Great exposure, and I would love to see that article in a more general publication, such as a major auto enthusiast magazine and maybe Popular Science, or the like.   

[benswing]

Is there a version of the magazine that is online?  I'm interested in reading that article.