With the rising gas prices there have been several options to go with rather than heaving over tons of money to keep you moving. One such option that I found was the Vectrix electric scooters, which run solely on electric power. The bike itself produces zero emissions, but as we all know the whole process of running this bike is not zero emissions due to the emissions from producing the electricity.
The company designed a scooter that you simply plug into the socket for about 3-5 hours and the Nickel metal-hydride batteries gives you about a 35-55 mile range depending on how you drive. For most commuters these days that is a reasonable distant that they travel per day and I know that this would work for me. It has a top speed of 62 mph so you can take it on the highway and it can accelerate from 0-50 in 6.8 seconds which is faster than most cars. One very cool thing about this bike, besides its acceleration, is that it has an advanced throttle which if you rotate backwards it will accelerate and if you rotate the opposite way it engages the regenerative braking. What this braking does is it takes the energy wasted during deceleration and transforms it back into electricity which will recharge the battery. There are several other features about this bike that make it a step above the rest.
If you make a commute every day, like I do, this option is very attractive but with a sticker price of around $12,000 for the 2008 model and $10,000 for the 2007 model, it is not looking like one will end up in my garage anytime soon. Also if you don't like the idea of a scooter there are talks of a new concept which has the body of most sports bikes.
http://www.vectrix.com/portal/ --vectrix website
http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/video_player.shtml?vid=224536 -- Interview with Jay Leno's Vectrix
http://londonbikers.com/articles/cedd7748-c8dc-4c74-b56c-d234fb37ad19 -- Good article on Vectrix
1 comment:
Very cool.
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