- Posts: 850
- Thank you received: 7
Times they are a changin
- riverroad
- Topic Author
- Offline
- User
- 1980 1000LTD B4
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- Patton
- Offline
- KZr Legend
- Posts: 18640
- Thank you received: 2098
Good Fortune!
1973 Z1
KZ900 LTD
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- 650ed
- Offline
- User
- Posts: 15344
- Thank you received: 2829
1977 KZ650-C1 Original Owner - Stock (with additional invisible FIAMM horn)
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- jeffasaki
- Offline
- User
- Posts: 999
- Thank you received: 44
78 Z1R
78 KZ1000
76 KH500 gone
71 HS1B 90
81 GS 1100 gone
80 PE400
02 KLR
Ontario Canada
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- 550A2
- Offline
- User
- keep the shiny side up
- Posts: 428
- Thank you received: 1
At least people are trying to cut down on emissions though, things have gotten pretty bad in some places.
82 Honda ATC 200-sold
82 Yamaha Virago 920-sold
82 Yamaha YZ250j-kept
80 Suzuki GS 550-sold
82 Kawasaki KZ550 A2-ride all the time
79 Kawasaki KZ650 C-sold
73 Kawasaki Z1 900E-paid $200, sold $6000
86 Yamaha Radian YX600-new project
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- Becker
- Offline
- User
- The Doctor Will Rise Again
- Posts: 386
- Thank you received: 1
Check out this podcast. THey have a really good interview with Mark miller. He is quite the "colorful character".
motogpod.com/episode/episode-233-rush-delivery
78 KZ750B3
79 KZ400 LTD
78 KZ650C2
79 KZ650C3
78 KZ650B2A
80 KZ650F1
80 KZ650E1
81 CB750K Super Sport
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- testarossa
- Offline
- User
- Attack life, it's only trying to kill you.
- Posts: 3678
- Thank you received: 82
I'm not convinced that electric vehicles actually net any improvement in the environment. Isn't about 60% of electricity of the USA generated by coal fired power plants? Nuclear has huge waste disposal issues. Hydroelectric, screws with rivers and natural migrations of fish. Wind farms kill birds, but are probably the best of the rest. Any form of energy generation has complications, and I feel that electric cars and bikes are a sham that only shifts the pollution from the tailpipe to the smokestack, dumpsite, etc.
I agree with 550A2. A normal motorcycle is about the best option for minimal impact from a single commuter with a single vehicle.
1978 KZ1000 A2 Click--->Build Thread
2004 ZX-10R
2007 Harley Sportster 1200
2020 Harley Street Glide Special
Angola, IN
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- sparkn
- Offline
- User
- Posts: 93
- Thank you received: 0
If it's your forte, this is a good option. The carbon footprint on my '79 has already been paid for and I hope to enjoy it for as long as it's willing.
1979 KZ650 SR
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- MuzzleMike
- Offline
- User
- Rice Only
- Posts: 164
- Thank you received: 1
I already consider my motorcycle enviromentally friendly, thank you.
Yes Mine burns rice not corn .:laugh:
When I repaint my tank I am thinking of painting ( Rice only ) on the tank . :laugh:
82 KZ750 LTD H3
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- 650ed
- Offline
- User
- Posts: 15344
- Thank you received: 2829
"It is much cheaper and lower on the carbon footprint to get the energy from a wall socket than a fuel tank."
Nothing could be further from the truth. You need to do some research instead of simply parroting politically correct propaganda. I hate to burst you bubble, but the energy does not come from "a wall socket." Think big picture; think of what it takes to get the power to the battery and what on the other side of that receptacle – no dear, contrary to what you’ve been told, it’s not magic. Consider production of the equipment to mine and transport the coal, the actual mining of the coal, coal transportation, coal burning generator plant infrastructure, power grid infrastructure, and maintenance of all of the above. Then there’s the pollution related to the burning of the coal (Can you say acid rain? I thought you could.) Then of course there’s the loss of the energy you seek to put into your battery as it passes through various forms (heat, rotational force, electrical power, transformation to lower voltages, finally to battery then back to rotational at motor and Lord knows how many other transformations in between. Then of course there’s the fact that energy is lost as electricity travels through power lines (energy in is more than energy out). Bottom line is the closer the energy source is to the energy use the lower the energy loss. Then what do you do with the billions of batteries as they expire? (oh I know, recycle them – more magic that takes zero energy to do, right?)
If that’s all too complicated for you to ponder, consider the following: If the millions of folks in a given urban area come home after work and turn on their PC’s, TV’s, lights, ovens, air conditioners, and other appliances AND all plug in their millions of electric vehicles the power grid will go kaput. So you build an even bigger power grid, do more coal mining (which anyone can see is just dandy for the environment) burn 10 times as much coal, etc, etc.
I’m not suggesting that there are not be ways to make vehicles more energy efficient and reduce overall energy consumption; there most certainly are. But electric vehicles are for linear thinkers who cannot fathom the bigger picture. Now somebody please help me off this soapbox.
1977 KZ650-C1 Original Owner - Stock (with additional invisible FIAMM horn)
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- 9am53
- Offline
- User
- homebrew, and some bbq
- Posts: 1802
- Thank you received: 3
sparkn wrote:
"It is much cheaper and lower on the carbon footprint to get the energy from a wall socket than a fuel tank."
Nothing could be further from the truth. You need to do some research instead of simply parroting politically correct propaganda. I hate to burst you bubble, but the energy does not come from "a wall socket." Think big picture; think of what it takes to get the power to the battery and what on the other side of that receptacle – no dear, contrary to what you’ve been told, it’s not magic. Consider production of the equipment to mine and transport the coal, the actual mining of the coal, coal transportation, coal burning generator plant infrastructure, power grid infrastructure, and maintenance of all of the above.
Similar environmental costs are acrued in the mining, refining and transport of oil
Then there’s the pollution related to the burning of the coal (Can you say acid rain? I thought you could.)
Similarly, we burn the gas in IC motors.
Then of course there’s the loss of the energy you seek to put into your battery as it passes through various forms (heat, rotational force, electrical power, transformation to lower voltages, finally to battery then back to rotational at motor and Lord knows how many other transformations in between. Then of course there’s the fact that energy is lost as electricity travels through power lines (energy in is more than energy out). Bottom line is the closer the energy source is to the energy use the lower the energy loss. Then what do you do with the billions of batteries as they expire? (oh I know, recycle them – more magic that takes zero energy to do, right?)
The issue of the batteries is I think the biggest hurdle, but technology has come a long way in even the last 10 years
If that’s all too complicated for you to ponder, consider the following: If the millions of folks in a given urban area come home after work and turn on their PC’s, TV’s, lights, ovens, air conditioners, and other appliances AND all plug in their millions of electric vehicles the power grid will go kaput. So you build an even bigger power grid, do more coal mining (which anyone can see is just dandy for the environment) burn 10 times as much coal, etc, etc.
The issue with this is that they are not going to sell enough EV cars to affect the power grid any time soon, and most people will be charging them overnight to take advantage of cheaper hydro costs. This makes the EV charging situation similar to when you are riding your bike, if you plug in a GPS to charge while you ride the extra fuel consumption and added stress to the charging system is negligable, similarly plugging in a ferw thousand EV's at non-peak hours would not be a big deal. Not to mention that most places are slowly moving away from coal power to more renewable forms of hydro production. By the time we have a majority of EV vehicles (maybe someday) power generation would likely be very different than today, and batteries would be much more efficient.
I’m not suggesting that there are not be ways to make vehicles more energy efficient and reduce overall energy consumption; there most certainly are. But electric vehicles are for linear thinkers who cannot fathom the bigger picture. Now somebody please help me off this soapbox.
'84 GPz900r
'71 CB350
s289.photobucket.com/albums/ll231/9am53/
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- trianglelaguna
- Offline
- User
- New and improved - extra strength
- Posts: 8726
- Thank you received: 235
the july sun trying to poke through the hills and expose the dry lake bed to another scorching july noon sun and the smell of race gasses and open pipe combustion fury...
in the grandstands a few hours earlier than i would
get there to watch MotoGP qualifying and score the free stuff ahead of the crowds...
as ten or twelve electric bikes and their teams roll ,dead silent, onto the front straight and take their blocks on the start grids few front most rows........really just a handful compared to any other race in years i bet
a few people come a few go...maybe one or two teams playing race team with an umbrella girl....
one bike has some trouble...few minutes go by...a guy walks out.... still no crowd /fan noise....or any noise on the lake bed at all......the guy lifts a flag.....quietly drops it and waves it around a few times at his left knee....
and the bikes move away...only the sound of chains on sprockets and then they are over the crest and away.......
except for an announcer that came on few moments into the first lap...there were no sounds...no crashing...no passing...a talented few jumped out and were not even near each other ,ever, for the 10 laps ,later they
climbed up to the podium and got their trophies,the 100 or so early attendees sprinkled through the bleachers clapped a few times..... and it was over....
Mr Vetter, a few bleachers over scrolled through his camera display to see his pics...we finished an apple and went trophy hunting ourselves...
and that was it..no big deal no ribbon cutting,the first ever electric bike race at a U.S Grand Prix.....sitting there in the scattered fog with the hills coming out in the sun and silent bikes with riders tucked into the bubble trying to get 1 mph 3/1000 of second down what now seemed like a minute long front straight...silent.....no noise...nothing....i could hear the apple i was eating....
oh....and they WERE motorcycles...not enginecycles as we ride but true "motor"cycles...it was fabulous,exciting-and boring-and-the longest ten lap race i've ever seen....and also a bit scary to imagine the big brother future....although these bikes,in their current state are not a threat any time soon....like the little half inch mice scurrying under the dinosaurs feet...
and i was there.....eating my apple....thinking, was this what folks saw in 1936 with supercharged streamlined 250 racers that were probably as foreign to them as these things were to me ....
oh,and i will be there next yr too...eating an orange this time...change is good......
i better go.....my laptop needs a quart of deisel
1976 KZ900
2003 ZX12R
2007 FZ1000
2004 ninja 250R for wife
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.