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[Richard230]

Here is an interesting article exploring IC motorcycle designs during the first few years of the 1900's.  Just contrast this bit of history with what is going on now with electric motorcycles and scooters:

http://blog.motorcycle.com/2013/05/31/manufacturers/harley-davidson/top-10-pre-1912-motorcycles

[CrashCash]

I remember seeing 4 or 5 of those at "Art of the Motorcycle"

Speaking of early years, the book that sort of inspired me to get a Zero was "Motorcycles and Side Cars: Construction, Management and Repair" from 1924, by Victor Wilfred Page. It's been reprinted as "Early Motorcycles: Construction, Operation and Repair"

It's pretty damn amazing the shit they put up with in the 1915s.

A lot of bikes didn't have a clutch. When you stopped, the engine stopped. You restarted it by pedaling away until the engine refired. As a matter of fact, the author whines bitterly about the fact that some of the latest models don't have the bicycle pedals.

One of the early "clutches" was a lever that moved an idler so the belt slipped - or not.

Some of the "carburetion" schemes were things like gas evaporating from cotton wicks. Another was simply a hose trying to suck vapors from the gas tank.

One of the "ignition" schemes was opening a shutter to show the combustion flame to the gas vapors. Seriously.

Suspension? We don't need no steenkin' suspension! The hard tail bikes had no rear suspension, and the rider survived by having a seat on springs.

Some of the bikes needed you to pump the lube oil... there wasn't an engine-driven oil pump. Half the engines had the valve train out in the breeze, spitting oil on your pants legs... which was considered a good thing because it meant the engine had oil.

There's pictures of something like 10 or 12 different arrangements of controls.

There's a chapter on how to replace the piston on your Harley with not much more than a hammer and a bench vise.

So if someone in 1915 could put up with all that, I can certainly put up with a 100 or so mile range on my electric bike in 2015, and I'll sit here wondering what electric bikes will be like in 2025.

[Richard230]

I read a book about early motorcycles that described how underpowered they were that they needed LPA ("light pedal assistance") to climb relatively steep roadway hills.  The book said that this LPA would sometimes result in the rider having a heart attack from the exertion of pedaling a 200 pound motorcycle up a dirt road hill, while the engine did its best to provide light IC assistance at the same time.   

We certainly have it better now than they did in the good old days.