ElectricMotorcycleForum.com
Makes And Models => Other Electric Motorcycles => Topic started by: skadamo on November 20, 2009, 02:17:39 AM
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Wired posted a pic to the Grace electric bicycle (http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/11/grace-an-electric-motorcycle-disguised-as-a-bike/).
http://www.grace.de/ (http://www.grace.de/)
Let’s get one thing straight: Grace is not an electric bicycle. Grace is, instead, the “world’s first legal street E-motorbike.†But whatever it is, its fast.
The Li-ion battery powered bike can hit 45km/h (28mph), powered by a 1.3KW motor (this is actually limited by law — some hacking will get you up to 65km/h, or 40mph), and it will run for an average of 25 miles before needing a recharge. To stop you again, the stiff aluminum bike is equipped with disk brakes front and rear.
Interesting enough. What I though was more thought provoking was a comment left on the post (copied below the picture).
(http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2009/11/grace.jpg)
Ultra light electric vehicles like this are going to be unbelievably cool, and they are going to wreak havoc on our vehicle regulation laws. The mopeds of the 70’s did the same thing - not a bicycle, not a motorcycle, not a scooter. They were too fast for bike paths and roadway bike lanes, but too slow for auto lanes. But the problem was limited because mopeds are still relatively unattractive - noisy, smelly, heavy, underpowered, filled with gasoline and oil, hard to start, etc.
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The advent of the cheap long range lithium battery is nearly here, and it’s going to mean an explosion of little stealth rockets that, like this bike, look, sound, smell, and weigh pretty much like a regular bike but act like a small motorcycle. These bikes will get cheap, like less than $750 (read: on par with a nice bicycle.) You’ll be able to lift them onto a bus, take them on elevators, and park them in your cubicle without people complaining, because, hey, it’s just a bike, right? People will ride them on the beach boardwalk and bike paths and sidewalks and some of these people will go 30mph instead of 8mph like all the other bikers. It’s gonna be a problem.
Personally I think this is where part of the electric motorcycle market will go eventually. I also think it will lead to some interesting legal battles.
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A video of the @gracebikes (http://twitter.com/gracebikes) bike...
www.grace.de (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItPAhJMbSto#normal)
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Thats not a bad looking electric bicycle, i like the tyres and the headlights, the fram looks very high in that photo, or maybe the woman is just short hehe