Truth.

And then I woke up to find things had changed...

A couple of things have stirred my otherwise dampened imagination recently and it’s all about electric vehicles and specifically electric motorbikes.

Blindspot Electric Custom Motorcycles
http://www.blindspotcycles.com/bikes.html

Brammo Empulse R from the review in Cycle World here;
http://www.cycleworld.com/2012/11/19/brammo-empulse-r-electric-motorcycle/

Until now the debates have run back and forth over things like “feel” and ideas of what constitutes a real enthusiasts vehicle.  This has gone on safe in the knowledge that unless you want a bike that will outweigh a Honda Gold Wing but not outrun a Honda 500 and be limited to around fifty miles range then its all so much science fiction.  That is until now.

The first thing that, as I mentioned above, stirred me is something called Graphine, a material that I believe will change a lot of our world.  It’s a form of carbon that turns out to be ridiculously easy to make (one scientist uses water dispersant and a computer DVD drive) but it has electrical, thermal and mechanical properties that could replace silicone and steel.  I could babble on for ages but I’ll cut to the chase instead.  Watch this link, right up to about 3 mins :15secomds (after that it repeats in silence with Spanish sub-titles). 

So unless you were distracted during that you will have surmised that a very fast charge, long life battery is a practical feasibility now.  For electric vehicles that’s a game changer.  

Of course there’s a lot of work to be done before we consumers will see the benefit, but if think how fast your tech such as phones and cameras have developed in the last ten years, then you can begin to believe that this is no longer science fiction. 

So the second stirring thing I referred to earlier is this rather extreme but nonetheless exciting illustration of how it could feel – you need sound, by the way;