i've been watching Ewan MacGregor's multiple epic motorcycle trip series on Apple TV+.

the first one was called The Long Way Round and was basically a round the world trip (in 2004).

the second was called The Long Way Down and was a trip from the top of Scotland to the bottom of Africa (in 2007).

the third i'm watching now is the The Long Way Up and is a trip from the bottom of S. America to Los Angeles (in 2019).

for this third one Ewan decided they should use electric motorcycles and they got custom bikes from Harley Davidson for the trip. They were wide eyed and optimistic about using solar panels as part of their charging solution and even got 2 Rivian prototype trucks as their backup vehicles. All so idealistic.

i'm only a couple of episodes in but the trip has been a DISASTER as far as their environmental goals.

charging the bike's battery to it's max range of about 100 miles takes 7 or more hours on a standard plug and of course there's no level 2 or superchargers anywhere.

they've run out of charge a couple of times so far and they've arranged for a giant diesel truck carrying a giant diesel generator to come to where they are to recharge the bikes. not so green.

in over a week they hadn't even gone 1000 mi. (of a 15000 mi. trip)

the weather's really cold probably impacting range and definitely causing recharging problems.

it just shows very clearly that electric vehicles just aren't ready for long distance travel and certainly not motorcycles.

Awesome show though!

 

That also shows that reality, while infinitely random, has a lot more logic to its madness than even the most rabid environmental nutcases. But besides that, as an avid motorcycle rider, the best part of riding is hearing and feeling our amazing gas burning engines that fortunately have been mostly ignored by the envirocretins, and thus unmolested with all the emissions crap.

 

Funny you say that, the guys on the show say they love the silence and lack of vibration of the electric motorcycles because they can hear nature, feel the road better, etc.

 

I haven't seen the show, but I can't think of a response that isn't full of profane homophobia.

Kidding aside, I haven't ridden an electric motorcycle, and honestly have zero interest to. There's just a distinct pleasure that motorcycles deliver that no car ever could, and the engine is a huge part of it. I could see myself in an electric car someday, but not a motorcycle.

 

So i watched the rest of the series and obviously through editing they could have made the issues 'go away' but according to the series, once average temps improved and a software update from harley davidson the range got up to around 150mi and they didn't show the pollution spewing diesel truck and diesel generator any longer.

they did show the bikes saying recharge times of 10 hours or more at various stops plugged into a regular wall outlet. When they finally got into the u.s. and used a commercial charging station, the bikes recharged in 90 minutes i think it was.

But i have to say i was MUCH more impressed by the prototype Rivian trucks on the trip. Although they had pretty unfinished interiors, they were BEASTS on the trip with good range, and withstanding some very harsh terrain. A couple of times they did have issues running out of charge, but one weird feature is the trucks can be TOWED to recharge! So they'd get a tow from a truck passing by to recharge some.

the rivians were also used to recharge the bikes at least once.

While i think lucid is a dud, i think rivian is the real deal.

 

I fail to see how Harley Hog-fans enjoy the straight-pipes, deafening exhaust-noise, and a vibration-level (especially at idle) comparable to a shaking wet dog. The factory puts mufflers on them for a reason....yet most owners remove them.

 

Glad to hear you're coming around on Rivian

The R1T was supposed to be available this month, but they just pushed it back to September due to the semi-conductor shortage. R1S should follow after

 

I have to admit that I very rarely see eye-to-eye with you on anything - but I agree with this comment 1000%. I absolutely can't stand modified exhaust Harleys that are ear splitting deafening - their owners absolutely have to announce their presence 100 miles away..................

 

Ok, not every motorcycle is riding around with an obnoxiously loud straight pipe exhaust. I only mentioned that I am not interested in a silent electric motorcycle, I enjoy hearing the noise my ICE engines make, but both my bikes have mufflers.

When it comes to motorcycle exhaust sound in general, it is a fine balance. You want it loud enough so you are heard by drivers for safety reasons, but at the same time you do not want it to be too loud so that you can't hear the surrounding, especially that you already have a ton of wind and road noise. On my Suzuki, the stock exhaust was much too quiet, so I replaced the stock muffler with a factory muffler from a Harley Sportster, and now it makes just the right amount of noise. The guy I bought the muffler from probably removed it to make his bike ridiculously loud, but thats on him.

Ironically, the Harley muffler is the only part on my bike that is rusting and chrome is peeling off. The rest of the bike and the exhaust is holding up perfect - just shows the difference in quality between American and Japanese manufacturing.

 

I'm with you M&M! I grew up riding motorcycles since I was 13-years-old. When I got my learner's permit at 15 1/2, I straight piped my Honda 55 and got pulled over immediately! Why aren't the modified exhaust codes enforced these days? Some of these a-holes wake up entire neighborhoods and set off car alarms because their bikes are so loud! One must have serious psychological problems to inflict this type of aggravation on their fellow man.

 

Sounds like charging is a lot of fun Just imagine, when every single car or truck on earth as well as boats and freighters and aircraft’s are all electric with a battery. How long will that take then? And how damn expensive?

 

As was stated earlier in the thread, yes electrics still struggle with rapid, long distance use cases. But for around town and in town distance, electric is pretty great. More so if you charge at home. It's not like every single EV will have to be at every single gas station the way ICE cars and motorcycles are. A good chunk of the population does have at home charging capability, or where trucks and fleets store their vehicles. Please stop injecting false paranoia into electric threads.


Will have to add this series to our watch queue!

 

Thank You. I'm glad that you and I can occasionally see eye to eye on some things. Though of course I have my own opinions and experiences, please know I don't troll or post anything on CL just for the express purpose of opposing or arguing with you or anyone else...that is not my style. My disagreements with others are honest....and I'm going to give you the respect of assuming that yours are, too. In a forum of this size, there are bound to be disagreements...in the old Debate section, they got so heated that Dave and the moderators decided to simply do away with that forum, period.

 

Honestly, EVs struggling in South America is vastly different than EVs being more inconvenient to live with for long distance travel here in the states. Total strawman argument and nothing to do with each other. I can go anywhere in a Tesla in the US and yes, it will take longer to get there, but no struggle at all. Would never ever own an EV in South America.

 

I don't know about you, but I don't need a motorcycle to hear and feel my amazing gas