[eightnoneone]

Terrible idea?!? Have you ever ridden a motorcycle? Or an electric one?

I've been riding for ~40 years and I don't think I've _ever_ met someone who rode an ICE bike for the fuel/emissions efficiency. It's for the fun and adventure. My stock Energica does 0-60 in 2.8s. WAAAY more fun than my 30yo 1100cc.

Pretty GOOD idea from where I'm sitting.

[whartung]

I’ve had by motorcycle license years before I got a car certification. I started on a 180cc scooter. Sipped gas, easy to ride, was legal (barely) on the freeway. Free parking at the university and right in the middle too, instead of the hinterlands.

Was my 100% transportation, rain or shine. SoCal, so not much rain. But, yea it rained. I had an I’ll fitting, $25 open face white helmet from K-Mart, and wore a ski jacket, ski gloves, and ski goggles for gear (the yellow lenses worked really well at night to be honest).

You could catch me with my original Macintosh in those very cool carrying cases we had back then bungeed to the rear seat. I’ve had stacks of books explode off the back when one popped out like a drunk jenga player.

I can attest that my ad hoc gear performed adequately when things got horizontal.

When I got a new job requiring a 30 mile one way commute into the heart of West LA, I traded the scooter in for a 600cc street bike. $2000 with highway robbery financing interest rates. It never crossed my mind to buy a car.

I got free parking at the building (vs $60 per month), free use of car pool lanes and, the crème de la crème of California motorcycle riding, lane splitting. Lane splitting in the rain on slick Bots dots is unnerving. Lane splitting made that commute sane.

Did that for a couple of years, had a scary get off (slick right turn arrow at 2am, I simply shouldn’t have taken that route), and that made me sell the bike. I also sold the Macintosh for $750, and used the money to buy a new bike — the later to be cult favorite, Honda Hawk GT. Dealership had a fire sale on them one weekend, so I got a good deal. The Hawk was notoriously expensive in the day.

Selling the Mac for the bike is one of the best things I ever did. I was a computer geek sans computer for several years.

Oh, the Hawk charted at 38 horsepower. Less than my previous bike. Got it to 110 once at a “high desert test area”. Fast enough for me. I never bought a bike on performance numbers. They were all fast enough (save the scooter). But speed was never my thing.

That bike took me up and down California and around the southwest. Plus my even longer commute when I changed jobs again.

I did finally buy a truck. Test drove it with my M certified license. Didn’t get my actual car license until after I bought it. As many have with many things, I bought the truck because of a girl. And so it goes.

[mynameisash]

Maybe not the only reason, though that's certainly high on my list. I don't find much time to ride recreationally, so probably 98% of my rides are for my commute. My 50 mpg bike is much cheaper to ride than either of our cars. Plus HOV benefits.

I absolutely would factor fuel efficiency into my purchase decision, but it's also not the only reason. Because you're right, they are definitely fun :)

[JumpinJack_Cash]

> > My stock Energica does 0-60 in 2.8s.

Should I be impressed? That's the same of a 1999 Yamaha R6 selling for less than 1000$ [0]

And the R6 can do it all day, you'll run out of tires before you run out of clutch and gas.

The Energica does it once and then it's panting and overheating.

And as always the point in motorsport is that every noob squid and every idiot is capable of going fast in a straight line, the light supersport bikes such as the Ducati and the Yamahas will smoke the Electric motorcycles in corners because the latter are heavy due to the batteries

[0] https://accelerationtimes.com/models/yamaha-yzf-r6-n-a

Sounds like you've been had.

[tiew9Vii]

The R6 is an inline 4, 15500rpm red line, 68nm of torque. Fun bike, on a track or doing illegal speeds on the road. Rest of the time, it has no power.

The Enigica has 215nm of torque, about twice the 2022 R1.

The R6, the power is all up top, it’s gutless down low, you have to be up near the top in the rev range for it to go, engine screaming away. You’d also need to be pretty skilled at launching to get that 2.8s acceleration from it.

The Enigica you get all the torque from the get go, so much they have to limit it at the start. You just twist and it pulls from the off, no flat spots, it just keeps on pulling. It’s the torque that gives you the buzz, trying to hang on.

They are very different power deliveries and the Enigica makes a far better road bike (power wise) with all the torque rather than a high reving 600 il4 that you need to be near red line to get the most out of it. Even a 1000cc il4 with more torque, they don’t really get going until above 6,000rpm then your license is gone as you click in to second gear when making the most of the power band.

The Yamaha MT-09’s/10’a are so popular as they have high torque down low where it’s most practical for everyday riding.