ElectricMotorcycleForum.com
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: mattmccutchen on September 26, 2013, 01:35:14 PM
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National Plug In Day (http://pluginday.org/) is this weekend, September 28-29; events will be held at various places and times across the US. (Should it be called National Plug In Weekend? Go figure.) If you like to hang out with other EV enthusiasts, this is for you. Terry Hershner and I will be at the rally in Cupertino, CA (http://pluginday.org/event.php?eventid=38). The organizers of that rally asked me to help recruit more e-motorcyclists, hence the post here; the same would probably apply to any of the events.
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I'm going to the NPID event in Long Island on Saturday and the North Jersey event at the Liberty Science Center with 12 charging stations powered by their massive solar array!
Have a great plugin day!
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I'm heading to the Nashville plugin event. I've been zipping around the Nashville area dropping cards on EVs that I see parked .. hopefully we'll have a couple dozen vehicles : )
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I'll be at the Cupertino event, too. Probably around 10 am. But I'll be riding my Triumph as Cupertino is just too far away to ride to from Pacifica and still have enough charge to get home. When I was there last year (on my BMW), there were plenty of EVs getting recharged by Level 2 dealer charging facilities, but I never saw any free 120V outlets that seemed to be available to the general public. So I'll have to depend upon a couple of gallons of gasoline to get there and back. At least the weather will be beautiful, just like last year. :)
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Richard, of course I and the organizers would rather have you bring your Zero, and I'm willing to go to some trouble to make that happen. You can use my J1772 adapter, splitter, and external charger to get a double-speed charge. I'll be at the rally 10:00-1:30, then I have to leave for an appointment; if you need to charge longer than that (supposedly a full double-speed charge for ZF9 is 4.5 hours), I can come back to pick up the equipment later.
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The Tennessee Valley EV Drivers group is hosting the Plugin Day in Huntsville AL, at the Solar Demonstration Park, on Sunday 29th.
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Hi Matt. You convinced me. Even though my Triumph needs some miles put on it :-[ , I'll ride my Zero to the show (after stopping by the Mountain View BMW dealer at 9 am for coffee, donuts and some electricity :o ) and I should arrive at the show shortly after 10 am via the Foothill Expressway. Your electron donation will be enough to get me home if I take the freeway frontage roads. I plan to leave around 1:30, too.
I told my daughter that she should take the kids to the Marin Plug-in Day display at the Marin Civic Center parking lot on Sunday morning.
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ashnazg - say hi to Josh for me : )
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ashnazg - say hi to Josh for me : )
If I'm able to go, will do. Still wish I had a means to take my Leaf *and* XU up to Huntsville for these meetups.
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Wonder if the XU could fit in the LEAF .. sort of like the Batbike in the Tumbler ..
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Wonder if the XU could fit in the LEAF .. sort of like the Batbike in the Tumbler ..
Well, what's sort of funny here (and demonstrates my inexperience in these matters) is that I found a custom "sort-of-towing" package for my Leaf, which I thought should be good enough to put a moto carrier on, particularly since the XU is so "light". However, I have to presume that the "max tongue weight of 90 lbs" spec on my kit would not actually accommodate a moto carrier and the XU. Further, no one that I'd think could speak knowledgeably on it will tell me that the same kit could manage a small trailer just large enough to hold the XU. Part of my brain keeps insisting that "tongue weight" as measured against a trailer like that is *not* actually "the full combined weight of trailer and contents".
So I have to stick with just writing software :-P
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These hitches are rated for 200 pounds tongue weight, 2000 pounds weight carrying.
http://shop.tlcentral.com/store/pc/2011+-Nissan-Leaf-2-Stealth-Trailer-Hitch-p1067.htm (http://shop.tlcentral.com/store/pc/2011+-Nissan-Leaf-2-Stealth-Trailer-Hitch-p1067.htm)
Seems like it'd be a 'tow at your own risk' deal for sure .. but it probably would handle a light motorcycle carrier.
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Even the "light" hitch mount MC carriers are 40 or 50 pounds. You'd be pushing it on a Class 1 or Class 2 hitch, even with an XU.
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Yeah, you wouldn't want to use a hitch carrier for sure, even if you pulled off the battery. Just seems like a small trailer would work okay. You'd want to make sure the hitch has loops to attach the trailer chains.
According to Uhaul, tongue weight is typically 10 to 15% of the trailer weight, if the weight distribution on the trailer is correct.
http://www.uhaul.com/Trailers/HitchGlossary/#tongueweight (http://www.uhaul.com/Trailers/HitchGlossary/#tongueweight)
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Saw this just in time! I will try to make it out to Cupertino tomorrow via either my ICE bike or car. Still haven't pulled the trigger on the Zero.
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Matt and I, as well as Tango on his Electric Interceptor, rode down to the Cupertino show and hooked up with Lightning. While there Terry kept riding around and around on his homemade streamliner. I think we all had a good time, but we were very much outnumbered by Leafs and other 4-wheelers. Attached is a photo of the Lightning display, with our bikes in the background. Richard Hatfield was nice enough to let me recharge from his rolling photocell van and Matt let me use his extra charger. After 2.5 hours of charging my batteries were fully topped off and ready for the 50-mile ride back home. After arriving home, I still had 5 "bars" showing, in spite of having to ride a few miles at freeway speeds. The weather couldn't have been better.
If you would like to see more photos you can check out my thread on elmoto:
https://www.elmoto.net/showthread.php?3183-National-Plug-in-Day-for-2013 (https://www.elmoto.net/showthread.php?3183-National-Plug-in-Day-for-2013)
P.S. Lightning has sold one production electric motorcycle and has recently received a request for 12 of their 218-mph electric racing superbikes from someone in Europe who is thinking of developing a spec-electric motorcycle racing program.
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I was pretty disappointed that Zero didn't even have a table set up. With so many people on hand, it was a great opportunity to do some outreach.
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The didn't show up last year either. :(
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Nashville plugin day was pretty awesome. We had a TON of LEAFs as you might expect - but what was even more exciting was seeing the number of LEAFs just parked around the event (TACA, Nashville's big arts and crafts fair, was running this weekend along with NPID). When EVs transition from enthusiast ownership to the every day mom & pop then you know they're gaining traction.
We had a local company called NoGas that builds electric scooters; on Saturday we had EasyMotion bringing down their electric pedal bikes and giving out a ton of test rides (they're awesome!). We also had a company there called Rhoadesbikes that builds four wheeled pedalcars .. some with, some without pedal assist. Some even have solar panels (~190W) on the roof for charging.
Leaving the event today, I pulled up at a stoplight next to a Chevy Volt driven by the Chevy rep that spent the entire weekend with the nashville plugin group. We exchanged glances, made revving noises at each other.
Spoilers: 2 wheels > 4 wheels!
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I want one of those vans with the retractable solar panels!
On Saturday I went to the Long Island Plugin Day and saw a couple of homemade motorcycles. We powered up with a portable solar generator.
Then on Sunday, we had our North Jersey Plugin Day at the Liberty Science Center under their solar canopy with 12 charging stations. 12 stations in one place is a LOT for our coast. Still jealous of your plentiful charging locations on the west coast.
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Goddamnit ben, you have that same smile in every picture : P
Friday I went to a meeting at a local songwriter event, and the LEAF owner that drove with you at the Ride the Future Tour talked some about the cross-country trip. Pretty awesome roadtrip.
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Cool, glad you got a chance to meet Duane. He actually isn't a LEAF owner, the first time he ever drove an electric vehicle was at the start of the cross country trip. It was interesting seeing him go through the learning process of how to sustain the range of an electric vehicle while in the midst of a cross country trip. He figured it out pretty quick, though and we had a good time.
Also, one of the girls who rode an electric scooter may have been a performer at that event. Dominique Arciero writes and performs her own songs (2 Story House is one of them) and she rode a scooter across the country.
The documentary we made during the trip is in the editing process now and hopefully will be in theaters sometime early next year.
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These hitches are rated for 200 pounds tongue weight, 2000 pounds weight carrying.
http://shop.tlcentral.com/store/pc/2011+-Nissan-Leaf-2-Stealth-Trailer-Hitch-p1067.htm (http://shop.tlcentral.com/store/pc/2011+-Nissan-Leaf-2-Stealth-Trailer-Hitch-p1067.htm)
Seems like it'd be a 'tow at your own risk' deal for sure .. but it probably would handle a light motorcycle carrier.
That Torklift model is indeed the one I have.
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Vegas had a pretty good turn out as well. Unfortunately, I had to leave right as things
were getting started to get to work across the city. When I left at just after 10 a.m.,
there were already about a dozen Vehicles. Pretty standard fare. A couple plug in Prius,
a couple Volts, a Mitsubishi ImEV, Rav 4 EV, and, my XU. There was also a company from
Vegas that manufactures Electric Bicycles here for commercial use. Later in the day,
several DIY cars from the Las Vegas EV club were there. including a SWEET 60s Vintage
Mustang Conversion.
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including a SWEET 60s Vintage
Mustang Conversion.
Although im obviously a huge EV fan, i'm also a huge Steve McQueen fan, so Mustangs should be V8's, especially if its a 69 fastback. New modern powertrains belong in new modern cars. I don't like it much when OEM's botch electric drive into an ICE model so I don't get converting an original vintage car either.