ElectricMotorcycleForum.com

Depends on the vehicle, but most will charge whenever 220VAC is presented. The handshake is for the box, so it'll turn on the power to the connector. The J1772 ports on most EVs themselves generally don't require the handshake.

I apologize for getting a bit snippy before. But, though there's no question mark, "...I'm left wondering if Energica has a "charge only between these hours" function" sounds like a question to me. At least I intended it as one.

I tend to get worked up with bandwidth-wasting non-response responses, like when someone posts a question about a product on Amazon and a dozen people chime in to say, "I don't know." It's one of the main reasons I don't do sociable media very often or at all these days.

Even better is when someone asks for help to fix his print on one of the reddit 3D printing subs, basically saying "I've tried nothing and have no idea what to do next."

I'll look around and see if any of the J1772 chargers have such a function. If not, a simple split-phase 220V timer should do the trick, assuming the charger will start up and begin charging when it's powered up and a load is attached.

And Energica, if you're listening, you should consider adding that function to your firmware.

I've got the new bug, and I'm considering upgrading my 2015 Zero SR to a brand new, shiny Energica (probably the SS9). But I live in San Diego and the residential electrical rates are outrageous here. SDG&E does offer time-of-day plans where between midnight and 6 am the rates are at their "super off-peak" rate, so I'm left wondering if Energica has a "charge only between these hours" function.

It would help quite a bit keeping costs down -- at SDG&E's regular rates, it would cost over $10 worth of electricity to charge the battery pack from 0-100%, which really isn't much cheaper than gasoline for the equivalent amount of riding.

Don't forget that you can almost always squeeze out a little more range by going slower. You can't eliminate the loss of charge due to elevation gain, but you can almost always reduce the loss due to wind resistance. If you're willing and able to reduce your speed without risk of being run over by faster-moving traffic, you're almost always capable of reducing your drag and increasing the range.

My main concern is that the new battery pack voltage will be greater than 200VDC. If it's still low, it's just another step down the not-DC-charge-compatible road. Please, please raise the voltage!

I ran the numbers before I bought my 2014 SR, so it must have been in late 2013. I compared it to putting more miles on my BMW 328i, since it was my other vehicle. I wound up with a break-even point somewhere in the 50k (miles) range, and I've got that on my bike now.

Things have changed, though. Gasoline is incredibly cheap right now due to low demand, and electricity is incredibly expensive here in San Diego. (I'm paying $0.52 /kWh, and that's with the EV rate!) So if I ran the numbers today, it might not be much cheaper at all to ride the bike, let alone pay back the purchase price in a reasonable amount of time.

There are other reasons to enjoy electric motorcycles, though. In addition to their riding charms, which are considerable, what it really comes down to for me is the fuel is renewable (at least potentially) and already part of the carbon cycle. I just bought a new barbecue grill, and I went with charcoal instead of propane or natural gas for the exact same reason -- we have GOT to break our addiction to petrochemicals. It won't happen until we make it happen.

Make a bike with 10 minute charging, 400 mile range, no maintenance, better performance than gas at about 7/10s the price.
The things will sell themselves.  There, I just saved everybody a lot of wasted advertising money and survey time.

Yeah...that's not helpful. Engineers have to work with the technologies that are available, making what compromises are possible to achieve the best possible bike. Knowing what the public prioritizes helps them make compromises to get the most desirable bike with today's technology. The ideal bike will remain impossible for the foreseeable future.

On my 2014 SR, I often have to pull the handlebar hard over to the left to make sure things line up well enough to allow the lock to engage. Even just the resilience of the tire rubber on the pavement can cause the handlebar to spring away from full left that the lock won't engage. Just hold it over when you engage the steering lock.