I've loved motorcycle ever since I was old enough to talk. But lately they've posed a problem for me. They make me ill.
Lately I've noticed myself dreading work on many of my favorite cars and bikes because I've come to associate them with exhaust fumes. The fumes seem to make me feel, well, exhausted. It ruins my day. It wasn't just the 1969 Honda CB350, a 1998 Suzuki GSXR750 that did the same thing to me. So did my 1975 BMW 2002, my 1975 VW Rabbbit and my 1972 Datsun 1200. Turns out old cars easily draw tailpipe emissions in through the trunk or hatch, especially with the windows open. It also turns out that even modern motorcycles emit more unburned fuel than SUV's. These things that I once loved eventually became annoying because of my unusual sensitivity to exhaust fumes.
Enter the electric vehicle. I had the opportunity to drive a Tesla Roadster recently. After that it was final, I had to build an electric car. There was no good reason not to. I'd thought about it for years, lurking on electric vehicle forums, but not able to settle on a good conversion setup I could afford.
One day I'd like to build an electric car. You can't beat the all-weather nature of a car. But the cost of doing it right with lithium batteries is high. Many DIYers seem to spend $8,000 or more on batteries alone to get adequate range and power. That's way beyond my budget.
With the decreased weight, aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance of a motorcycle, you get way more the bang for your buck. Cars seem to average between 2 and 3 miles per kilowatt hour, while motorcycles you can get over nine miles. So let's say you have $3,000 to spend on batteries, and you obtain 9.9 kilowatt hours of lithium battery (a rock bottom price of $1 per amp-hour). That theoretically takes you 89 miles with a motorcycle but only 30 miles in a car.
Performance is also a factor. A slow electric vehicle is so uninspiring. Every electric vehicle should be inspiring. It's much easier to go fast with a motorcycle.
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