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MOTORCYCLES Bill
force 1
record
torcyc
his Ki
Are battery-powered bikes the future of motorcycling? Not yet, we say. Here's why, in the
along with what they can do superbly and what they can 't do at all. O-to-6
speed:
few I
BY STEVE ANDERSON

I F YO U TA LK WITH N EA L S A KAI , TH E
man who began Zero Motorcycles,
it's hard not to catch his enthusiasm
for electric motorcycling. Internal-
combustion engines, he likes to point
out, are less than 30 percent efficient.
Electric operation- where losses in the
vehicle can be held to as low as 10 per-
cent- is the better answer. Bring up the
issue of lim ited ra nge on current electric
bi kes, and he waves it away as a passing
phase. "They're getting quicker to re-
charge and quicker to have more energy
per cell. In the next couple of yea rs,
we ' ll have motorcycles with a couple of
hundred miles range. You won't have to
charge them every day, just once a week
or twice. The battery companies are tak-
ing care of the problems."

Bill Dube, the energetic and creative
force behind the most successful- and
record-setting- electric drag- racing mo-
to rcycle wo uld agree. He routinely runs
his Killacycle through the quarte r-mil e
in the 7.8- to 8.0-second range, with a
O-to-60 time of 1 second and terminal
speeds as high as 175 mph, all on a
few cents of electri city per run . "An
electric-powered vehicle could be
the qui ckest thing out there," he
says. "The batteries will sup-
port it. We just don't have
the motors designed for
the appli cation."
As yo u start hanging
out in the electric-
vehicle world, that's
a common theme- almost all the parts 8rammo's first bike, the Enema
(above), has a 3.1 kW-h battery pack
being used for electric motorcycles and
racing cars were originally designed for and will carry its rider a little more than
30 miles before needing a charge. Its
something else. No one has yet built a
dedicated, optimized production motor latest machine, the Empulse, can be
positively filled with batteries (a 10
for an electric bike--or a lightweight,
short-fused, 5000-horsepower motor that kW-h pack in the top-line model) that
occupy all the space between the
wo uld be perfect fo r running against Top
frame rails. Each additional 2 kW-h
Fuel cars.
But the batteri es are progressing. adds 30 pounds, so the 6 kW-h model
weighs just 360 pounds, while the 10
Dube, sponsored by Boston-based A 123
Systems, a specialist in hi gh-power kW-h model scales 42o-with claimed
ranges of 60 and 100 miles for each.
cell s, has been give n a gift by hi s corpo-
rate benefactor: a small pallet of A 123's
extremely limited-producti on
Formula 1 battery cells,
intended fo r use in F 1
kinetic energy recovery
 systems (KERS) when such things were
allowed. They're the hi ghest-power cell s
on the planet that aren't locked in a labo-
ratory, and a 50-pound pack of them w ill
readily support the 550-hp-or-so hi s hot-
rodded industria l motor is capable of on
the dragstrip. With their help, Dube plans
to take 150 pounds off the K illacyc le
and recover his very recently lost title:
owner and rider of the quickest electric
motorcycle on the planet. A ll the while,
he believes it's only a lack of resources
preventi ng him fro m bei ng able to omi t
the adj ective "electric" in that phrase.
With all this optimism, and demon-
strated pelfo rmance to boot, what's to
stop electri c bi kes fro m taking over?
Well , there's the li ttle issues of range and
recharging ti me. Many gasoline-powered
bi kes will go 150 to 200 mi les on a
ta nk of fue l, and replenishing those f ive
ga llons might take all offive minutes.
Recent electric bi kes, such as those made
by Zero or Brammo, have both had li m-
ited perfo rma nce (to p speeds less than 70
mp h) and limited range. An enthusiastic
rider could easily push a f irst-generati on
Brammo Enerti a down to a 20-mile
operating envelope, and Zeros are only
Alternative Fuels for Motorcycles
A rundown of the options
What if the European Union had passed
the recently proposed stringent carbon-
dioxide emissions standard for motorcycles?
What if the peak-oil Cassandras are correct
and gasoline becomes more valuable than
20-year-old Scotch? Don't worry, motor-
cycles will still exist, and still be capable of
ever-increasing performance, but powered
by something other than pure gasoline.
Here's a look at the most likely paths toward
changing how we ride .
Electric
As discussed in the "Electric Motorcycles"
64/CYCLE WORLD
The 2011 Zero S street
model has a 4.5 kW-h lith-
ium-ion battery pack,
good for a 45-mile range in
suburban riding. The pack,
also used in the new Zero
MX model, is put together
with patented intercon-
nects between cells that
make it capable of sur-
viving the kind of high-
impact events an off-road
bike can experience.
margi nally better. Plus, a re-
f ill fo r either is measured not
in minutes but in multiple
hours. Both companies are offering new
bikes w ith more speed and more range.
But, the problem w ith electric bikes
is clear: T hey offer superb performance
possibili ties, as demonstrated by the
Ki llacyc le an d recent electric roadracers
such as the MotoCzysz E I PC or the Chip
Yates SWIGZ electric racer, but with
very limited ra nge and slow recharg ing.
feature, battery-powered bikes have already
begun to evolve into higher-performance
machines, if currently short-ranged. But
electric energy from the grid still has to
come from somewhere. So far, hydroelectric,
wind farms and thermal solar are the most
promising renewable energy options, with
coal , natural gas and nuclear making up the
bulk of current U.S. electricity production. If
we built nuclear breeder reactors, such as
the canceled-in-1994 Integral Fast Reactor,
there is sufficient uranium already in current
U.S. inventories-much of it unusable in
other reactor designs-to match total annual
U.S. energy consumption (petroleum, natural
gas, coal , hydroelectric, everything) for the
lemma, it's necessary to retreat back to a
hi gh-school phys ics course and consider
the di ffe rence between power and energy.
Energy is what's used in do ing wo rk. It
takes a certa in quantity of energy to heat
a pound of water 100 degrees or to trave l
for an hour at 70 mph, fig hti ng w ind
res istance and ro lling drag the entire way.
It's not something motorcyclists typically
think much about, because w ith gasoli ne,
they almost always have enough. If you
start running short, you j ust f ind a gas
pump. You co uld easily thin k of energy
as simil ar to the amount of money yo u
have in your bank account: Just as with
energy, it takes a certa in qu an tity of
money to do certa in thi.ngs.
Power is something e lse; it's the rate
at which yo u can use energy. Have
enough power, and yo u can accelerate
quickly and go very fast; have enough
money, and yo u can buy the machines
that enable yo u to do so. A low-power
eng ine is li ke hav ing an ATM/credit
ca rd w ith a ve ry low limi t: Yo u mi ght
next 400 years! Nuclear fusion is another
possibility, but it suffers from a weird corol-
lary of Zeno's Paradox in which commercial
implementation is always 20 years from the
current year, with the new start date updated
each January 1st.
Biofuels
The most obvious of these is ethanol,
already used in gasohol throughout the U.S.
and a mainstay of the transportation system
in Brazil, where it is produced from sugar
cane. Motorcycles would need to have fuel
systems suitable for high-alcohol fuels such
as E85 or E1 00; use in older machines
would be problematic, as many of their fuel-
www.cycleworld.com

The MotoCzysz E1 PC won the FIM e-Power support electric race at Mazda
Raceway Laguna Seca in 2010 but is likely to be quickly superseded in per-
formance without rapid updates. The thoughtfully designed machine is built
around a 12.5 kW-h battery pack (the five big aluminum boxes in front of the
rider's knees) that utilizes large-format lithium-polymer cells.
have a lot of mo ney at the bank (i.e.,
fuel in the tank), but if yo u can only
withd raw $20 a day, you're not going to
have the same poss ibilities- fo r better
or worse- than if yo u cou ld get it all
more quickly. Conversely, lots of power
with little energy is li ke be ing in Vegas
with a no-li mit ATM card but j ust $200
in the bank: You're soon goi ng to be
standing by the side of the road w ith
your thu mb out.
E lectric ve hi cles wo rk on the same
pri nciples but diffe rently. In an electri c
vehicle, the batteries are the energy
storage device, not a combustible fue l.
T he batteries release energy through a
reversib le chemical reactio n as electric-
ity that is capable of di rectly powering
an electric motor. But a battery's design
and size set limits on both energy and
the rate at which it can be released-
that is, batteries are both power and
energy lim ited. Genera ll y, the motors on
electric vehicles are sized to the limits
imposed by the batteries; there's no
point in havfng a 100-hp motor if the
system components are incompatible. With
one-third less energy per gallon, ethanol
gives both less range for a given fuel-tank
size and requires substantial rejetting or
ECU reprogramming in existing machines.
Plus, current ethanol production from corn
is a) uneconomical without a government
subsidy; b) raises food prices; and c) uses
almost as much or more petroleum in its
production as it replaces . Much research is
focused on more-efficient ethanol production
from plant waste (corn stalks, etc.) and may
bring more cost-effective ethanol production
in the next decades.
Methanol is currently produced from natu-
ral gas and is a very attractive fuel if the in-
frastructure were there to support it. Direct-
------------------------------
66/CYCLE WORLD
batteries can't release electricity qui ckly
enough to ach ieve that level of power.
For electri c vehi cles, and particularly
in reference to battery capabiliti es,
power is almost always expressed in
kil owatts, not horsepower. It 's mere ly a
un it change, however, since I kil owatt
is eq ual to 1.34 horsepower. And when
dealing w ith electri city, energy is ge n-
era ll y exp ressed in terms of kilowatt-
hou rs, or kW-h, rather than in horse-
power-hours. The po int of all this is that
we can use those same uni ts to compare
batteries and gasoline.
It turns out gasoli ne is very energetic,
indeed. A single ga ll on of gaso line,
when burned wi th the oxygen free ly
available in the a ir, can re lease 36 kW- h
"Lots of power with little energy is like being in Vegas
with a no-limit ATM card but just $200 in the bank:
You're soon going to be standing by the side of the
road with your thumb out."
injection spark-ignition engines burning
methanol can meet emissions regulations
with turbocharging and 14:1 compression
ratiOS, and do so with more power than any
gasoline engine and overall energy efficiency
rivaling diesels. Methanol can also be pro-
duced from biomass, but as with ethanol,
economic production to compete with $3-a-
gallon gasoline has yet to be achieved.
Synthetic fuels
Synthetic gasoline can be produced from
coal-a technology developed by Hitler's
Germany and perfected in South Africa when
a worldwide ban on exports to that country
was enforced during the apartheid era. It
generates substantially higher carbon-diox-
of energy in the for m of heat. But,
because interna l-combustion engines
aren't te rribly effic ient in converting
that heat into wo rk, perhaps on ly as
li ttle as 6.7 kW-h of that is actua lly us-
abl e. Meas ured aga inst weight instead
of vo lume, gaso li ne, as processed into
energy by a typ ica l eng ine, is good for
about 2.3 kW-h per kil ogram (and we're
using metric here because almost no one
ta lks about battery specific energy in
any other units than kW-hlkg).
The bad news about batteries is that
compared to gasoline, they 're almost off
the chart in specif ic energy. Lead-acid
batteries, at 0.04 kW-h/kg, are pathetic;
in tenns of rid ing range, almost 370
pOUl1ds of lead-acid batteries would be
needed to match what an engine can do
with a gallon of gasoline. It's only when
you get to the latest IithiUl11-ion batteries,
a battery type that has only been com-
mercially ava ilable for about 15 years,
does it get much better, and even then it's
only a matter of degree. It takes 60 lb. of
the latest, greatest and most-expensive
li thium-ion cells to equal what a gallon (6
lb.) of gasoline can do. And in an actual
motorcycle, those cells will have to be
encased, protected, monitored by addi-
tional electronics and have some attention
paid to controlling thei r temperature. The
hardware necessary to do all that wi ll add
10 to 20 percent to the pack weight.
What's more, although lithium- ion
ce ll s have been ga ini ng energy density
ever since they f irst became commer-
c ia lly avai lable, the ri se is linear and
not exceptionally rapid. It's go ing to
--------- .....
ide emissions than would burning the coal
in electric power plants for electric vehicles,
but it will power current vehicles.
Improving gasoline efficiency in new
motorcycles
Motorcycle fuel consumption could likely
be halved, with motorcycles capable of 60-
plus mpg becoming common. This involves
following the path of the auto industry and
pursuing every possible efficiency increase
with internal-combustion engines. For high-
performance vehicles, direct injection of a
tiny amount of supplemental methanol during
high-load conditions can prevent detonation,
allowing substantially higher compression
and the improved power and efficiency it
www.cycleworld.com
 be a long time before batteries catch
up to the specific energy of gaso line.
That wi ll almost certa inly requ ire a
step-leap upward with an unpred ictable
breakthrough in getting an exotic cell
chem istry to work somep lace other than
in theories.
Why electric vehicles weren 't happen-
ing before, though, was the cost. Until
recently, a rule of thumb was that a
completed lithium-ion battery pack for a
vehic le cost about $1000 per kW- h. That
would have placed a pack that matched
the usable energy in a ga llon of gasoline
at north of $6000- and that's the manu-
facturer's cost. It wou ld have added
$12,000 to the sticker price, and un less
the ma nufacturer offered an unusually
heavy discount, a rep lacement pack
would have reta iled for around $20,000 .
Fortunately, even as carmakers have
begun to embrace some degree of elec-
trification, the entire consumer elec-
tronics industry beat them there, with
lithium-ion batteries essentia lly standard
in every laptop computer and cell phone
made. The resultant vo lume increases
have started driving prices down; cur-
rent costs are perhaps half as high as
before and sti ll fa ll ing. Indeed, the ub iq-
uitous 18650 size cell (l8mm in d iam-
eter, 65mm long, just a little bigger than
an AA alka line), which can be fou nd in
most Windows laptop computers, has
fallen to the point that if you aren't buy-
ing cutting-edge energy capacity in each
cell, a manufacturer could put a pack of
those together for about $350 per kW-h.
Curiously, as General Motors looks
to drive lithium-ion battery-pack prices
down for the Vo lt and its other hybrids
by using large-format prismatic cells
that will simplify pack construction ,
California start-up Tesla is riding the
consumer-electronics learning curve
and building its pure-e lectric cars .
around battehes consisting of literally
brings; but it would require a small on-board
methanol tank, perhaps a half-gallon or so.
Variable valve-timing can improve low-load
operation, and smaller, turbocharged engines
can be more efficient during cruise while
still hitting big peak power numbers. Wider
gearbox ranges with more gears would allow
more-efficient highway cruising. Better aero-
dynamics and lighter vehicle weight always
improve efficiency. If peak power weren 't the
highest goal, relatively long-stroke engines
turning at lower rpm can be more efficient
for touring bikes and cruisers.
Other Alternatives
Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) , a gas
mixture consisting of mostly methane, is
60/CYCLE WORLD
thousands of those tiny 18650 cell s. Its
next car, the Tesla S sedan, may actu-
ally u e 8000 cell s in its optional high-
capacity battery pack.
Why? Because Tes la expects to be
able to put packs together for $200 per
kW-h by 20 12 using the cell s that every
battery company in the wo rld seems to
be making, with the competition driv-
ing prices down faster than the seem-
ingly more-rational GM approac h. Both
Toyota and Panasonic, a major lithium-
ion cell supplier, have invested in Tes la.
The company looks to solve the range
problem by brute force: get the battery
cost low enough that you can affo rd to
buy a rea lly big and heavy one.
Indeed, the amount of research go-
ing into battery technology right now
is un precedented, and electric vehicles
are interesting because of some of the
already commonly used to power low-emis-
sions internal-combustion engines in urban
fleets such as taxis and city buses, and you
can buy a few CNG-powered cars directly
from manufacturers.
One CNG drawback for motorcycles is that
the compressed gas is less energy-dense
than gasoline; and to achieve equal range, the
capacity of the 3600-psi-capable CNG tank
(which for structural reasons almost certainly
must be round or cylindrical with round ends)
would have to be three times greater than a
gasoline tank. But natural gas is readily avail-
able in the U.S.; and thanks to new extraction
methods, the available gas is equal to a 100-
year supply at current usage rates.
Another gaseous fuel frequently discussed
--------~
Bill Dube's Killacycle is perhaps the The
best example of the kind of perfor- race
mance that can be obtained from With
electric bikes for short distances: 7.8 and
seconds and 175 mph in a quarter- best
mile. It uses high-power A 123 26650
cells originally designed for DeWalt sevel
36-volt cordless tools; it takes 1210 rate,
of them to make up the 200-pound garaj
pack in the current Killacycle. limit
homl
results. Remember earlier when we said Bu
that batteries are limited in both power moto
and energy capacity? Well , it's possible goinl
to optinlize for one or the other, so there twee!
are both " power" cells and "energy" cells. factu
Amelican battery company A 123 has pack
specialized in the first, and its cells, while mcre
having less than half the energy of the form
highest-energy cells of its competitors, Th
have exceptional power, as much as 20
kW/kg (12 hp/lb.) for its Fonnula I cells.
As long as you're willi ng to live with
a ga ll on of gasoli ne 's worth of energy
capacity, it's possible to put together a
complete electric powertrain- motor,
contro ller and battery pack- that either
matches the weight of sportbike and rac-
ing engines or is on ly slightly heavier.
Try to matc h f ive ga llons, though, and
the complete powertrains get piggishly
heavy. What's more, the power cells are
capable of being charged exception-
ally quickly- as long as you ' ve spent
----------
for the future is hydrogen, whose only ex-
haust by-products are heated air and a little
water vapor. Hydrogen requires a direct-in-
jection system and the tailoring of an engine
for its extremely fast burn characteristics.
It also is a difficult fuel to store; the volume
of a hydrogen tank filled to 5000 psi has
to be four times larger than an equivalent-
range gasoline tank- unless you want to
deal with liquid hydrogen at -423 degrees F.
And for hydrogen to be a low-carbon fuel ,
it has to be made by low-carbon energy,
either renewable or nuclear. Finally, there is
essentially no current hydrogen distribution
network for vehicle use, and the energy lost
in compressing and transporting it would be
significant. - Steve Anderson
------
www.cycleworld.com
 least until batteries improve to the po int
where a 35 or 40 kW-h pac k can be part
of a 375-pound motorcycle.
In fact, the most interesting applica-
ti ons of electrifi cati on are for bikes that
a lready have tiny gas tanks, such as
motocross or tri als, and that also only
spend a small fraction of their time
at full power. With only the ex pected
improvements in battery perform ance,
it should be possibl e within the next
several years to build an extremely com-
petiti ve electric motocrosser capable of
The most recent electric motorcycle to make the news is the Chip Yates/SWIGZ f ini shing 20-minute motos and being
race bike that made the podium in a club race against Open-class Superbikes. recharged between heats. Thi s should
With an 11 kW-h battery pack and a 190-hp electric motor, it can out-accelerate open up entirely new pos ibiliti es of
and out-speed club-level Ducati 1198s, but not for long: Range is 25 miles at qui et urban motocross on courses built
best. It also looks like the product of a mad inventor in a home garage. on vaca nt lots in industria l neighbor-
hoods. And drag rac ing, with its defined
several thousand doll ars to have a hi gh- Brammo and Zero for their urban com- quarter-mil e commute, is idea l for hi gh-
rate, 220-volt charger installed in your muter and off-road models. For ultimate power, low-energy applicati ons.
garage. A standard 120-volt outlet is performance, high-powered electric But what will rea lly make or break
limited to 1.5 kW, making a high-power bikes priced like Bimotas (or more) may electri c motorcycles will be how cur-
home circuit essenti al for fast charges. soon be able to hang with or even better rent motorcyc li sts react to them. With
But what does all this mean for electric intern al-combustion-powered sportbikes, seaml ess performance, no gea r shi fting
motorcycles? In the near future, there 's even on the racetrack, but only for min- and the loudest sounds being only motor
going to be a complicated trade-off be- utes; the ones with longer range will be whine and the annoying ly loud whir of
tween power, range and cost. If a manu- too heavy. Electri c road racers over the a chain (no longe r masked by exhaust
facturer chooses a relatively large battery next several yea rs eventually are likely note), it may si mply be that electric mo-
pack, the price, weight and range will to set some impress ive lap times. but it's torcyc les aren't as engagi ng as internal-
increase, particularly if power and per- going to be only for race lengths much combustion models.
formance have stayed relatively modest. shorter than a 50-mile AMA Superbike For that, only time, and tastes, wi ll
This will likely be the strategy of ra ce or a 45-minute MotoGP race, at tell. i:!l