Got it...

 

Are people actually wearing ear buds in a vehicle, that has speakers? I don't know if I am out of touch, or just BS.

 

I see drivers with earbuds all the time. Almost always males in their early 20s.

The dealer I bought my bike from is a Livewire dealer and their allotment pre-sold within a few days, I was surprised. I actually like the idea of electric motorcycles and would buy one if they were practical but they are not. I love those days where I hope on my bike at 6am and just ride until 11pm with the longest break being a five minute fluids fill & drain. Riding for two hours, then stopping to charge for an hour, then riding two more hours, then charging one more hour, over and over would kill it for me.

The only way I can ever see EVs (cars and bikes) being practical for everyone is one of two ways, and neither will ever happen:

1. Roads wirelessly charge your vehicle as you drive. This has actually been proposed for a short section of an HOV lane in London, England. Cool idea but not feasible to do on every road on earth.

2. This is just a (dumb) idea I came up with that could theoretically work but would never happen. Rather than recharge your battery, you merely replace it at a refuelling station, but there would have to be only one standard battery across the board. Replacements would be like-for-like, meaning if your battery was made in 2016, you stop at a station and replace it with another 2016 battery that was pre-charged, then swap it again for another full 2016 next time you need one.

 

I guess I am out of touch. You got vehicle speakers, why use buds?

Many people ride to work, not just recretionally. This technology is taking off. I don't think this will be the CFL. For autos I have thought, based on no education, that hybrids would be better, for range issues. But technology moves on.

 

That's actually a variation on a bit I picked up from a charter sail captain in Miami.

We hired him for the day. Took the family out for a sail. Had a great time. Fun guy. Decided to invite him out to dinner.

We went to the place where all the locals from his marina hung out. A group of his buds, well tuned up at the bar by then, came over and were giving him a hard time about how slow his sailboat was, how could he stand going so slow, etc. They were all hot rod speedboat guys.

He took their good natured abuse for a few minutes, then simply said "Race you to Bermuda".

Everyone got a good laugh. I got the impression that him and his boys go through the same routine every night.

 

I had a similar thing happen with my wife's cousin. He has a built 62 C10 that hauls ***. Its slammed and rides about 2 or 3 inches off the ground. Anyway the first time he brought it out to show it off he started on about racing me and my F150 4X4.
I told him sure I would race, he asked from where to where and I said from here to there and pointed to the other end of a long muddy corn field across from where we were at. Needless to say he didn't want to race anymore.

 

Electric vehicles are next... Once the technology matures and infrastructure is in place the combustion engine will take a back seat. It will happen a lot faster than we think - it's happening right before our eyes. Very different transportation solutions 5 years from now...

Horse & buggy history all over again, albeit on a faster trajectory.

 

LiveWire MSRP is $29,799*.

 

Certainly the car companies are gearing up here with more and more adverts appearing. Also a major utility company advertising charging technology.

I also saw an article from a company that is about open the first non petrol station for EVs with a plan to create a network of stations strategically placed.

 

$100,000 in specialty tools to be a dealer..... to service a handful of bikes. I heard there is one dealer in all of BC who is doing it. It doesn’t make sense to me to own a bike where I cannot get it worked on if it is a daily rider.... my local dealer will work on my Panhead, and that is the main reason I own it. I ride it almost every day.