Camelman
Race Dog
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2012
- Messages
- 620
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Cape Town, South Africa
- Bike
- KTM 690 Adventure
Another weekend has past me by. Another weekend sitting at home mowing the lawn, doing DIY sh!t.... And this a long weekend! :'(. Even Andy did not want to come say hello. Must be afraid I'll ask him to help me fix the Hayadu! :imaposer:
Everything below is broke:
Hayadu: What is working? with less than 1000km on the clock, (which resets itself everytime it shorts out) and the connector between engine and diff now history... Let me stop..
KTM 690 Oryx Rally: Airbox recall. Took them my airbox, they gave me a new one without a sensor. (where's that head against the wall image from skype now)! :'(
KHS Mountainbike. Big-ass puncture. Need a new tube. All shops closed yesterday. :'( :'(
So. I'll tell you instead about the most greatest excellent ride ever! On a electric bike!
Last week Tuesday, Wayne and I went to see Craig Marshall, the importer and sole distributer for Zero Motorcycles in South Africa.
For those of you not in the know, Zero manufactures 100% electric bikes. Go read about it here:
https://www.zeromotorcycles.com/
SA Website:
https://zeromotorcycles.co.za/
He introduced us to the bikes, and we chatted about this and that and all kinds of stuff we talk about whenever there is a bike present.
And then he said: 'Lets go ride them!' Yeah!!!!!!! Been waiting for a hour for that one!!
Being inclined to the more aggressive off-road stuff, I immediately jumped on the FX:
Craig advised to switch it on, check the 'boot' sequence of the liggies on the dash, and turn the throttle slowly. There is no clutch, no gears. Just throttle and brakes, in the normal places.
I turned it slowly, and rode down Craigs driveway. No sound. Nothing, not even a wine. Wayne was on the DS:
At 60km/h we were chatting next to each other down the road. Hot damn! Craig said I was going to smile like kid in a toystore and scream like a girl at a Hanna Montana concert when I opened that throttle. My thought at that stage were: Yeah right. I ride a KTM 690. I can't smile broader.... And then I opened the throttle. Holy F#$%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was hanging onto those bars like a kid strapped to his mom's back with a dog incoming in Kwa-kwa! It was crazy! You open the throttle and 70Nm of torque tries to leave you in the road pretending you're taking a bos-k@k! Lets put it into perspective. It ways 125kg, has more power than a 660 Tenere, more torque than a 690 Enduro and no clutch. Do you even know the insane places you will go up with that bike!
Anyway, I regress. Okay, so here I was screaming like a girl doing 130 km/h in about 4 sec, and then there was a stop street. I saw how I was going to blixem down now, because jy wil mos windgat wees, and ruin Craig's only FX bike. But I did not. The brakes did what they are supposed too, and I stopped. My heart was doing about the same RPM as a Fiat Uno down Voortrekker Road in Parow on a Saturday night! Damn. This was fun. And then I switched it to 'SPORT' mode. Oh yeah. Its got a switch, and a phone app via bloutand. So you can change the setting on the fly like torque output, max kw, regenerative braking, and so on. And when you switch it on 'Sport', out goes all the settings. The computer gives you everything it has. No regen. Gooi mielies pa!
Now Craig was in front on the Zero S, Wayne was behind me on the DS:
I was going bananas on the FX. Over all the little circles thingies, flat-taps wherever possible. Passing motorists with their windows open, and the WTF expression on their faces! They must have thought they had gone deaf. Three bikes passing at 140km/h+ and no sound! Wayne was somewhere behind me. I did not know, and did not care. This was too much fun.
Pretty soon we came to a clearing and stopped. The tar road ended in a little jeep track, and I went onto that. Need to feel the bike off-road and all that, then almost lost it when I turned. That thing will turn on a dime with that torque! Then I came back past them and onto a track running parallel to the tar road. I know I passed Craig and his wife on the tar, with me on the vineyard road. The suspension was spot on. Think mountain bike with a m@erse electric motor! And then that road ended as well. Craig looked a bit worried. Oops. So I swapped with Wayne, and took the controls of the mostest insane road-bike I ever put a leg over!
This is Wayne posing:
And me: :biggrin:
By now I had got the hang of the electric riding stuff. When you're at a stop and want to pull-away fast, or want to overtake like in schnell, you flip the switch to 'Sport' then hang on, want dinge gebeur nou vinnig kwagga! Then when cruising through traffic and its a bit of a bore, switch back to 'Normal' and watch the bike charge itself everytime you brake. Also less torque at pullaway. A bit like riding a 650 Dakar or heaven forbid a KLR 650
, if you know what I mean.
We stopped for some pics, and all to soon had to go back. Ah, man this was really a experience. Never thought that I would have the opportunity to ride a electric bike at 160km/h. It was good. With a range of 250km on the DS and a quick charger in a tank-bag, I can see myself going places for R12 a 'tank'. Big thanks to Craig. Pretty soon all the bikes will be legal and insured and the demo rides will begin. Prepare to be amazed.
They go between R140k and R160k. You'll make that back easy with the 550 000 km lifetime on the battery, no services except maybe to grease the axle.
Life is good! ;D
No back to my broken toys in the garage! :-\
By the way. Below is the Zero MMX. This is the one I'll most likely want. Google it!
Everything below is broke:
Hayadu: What is working? with less than 1000km on the clock, (which resets itself everytime it shorts out) and the connector between engine and diff now history... Let me stop..
KTM 690 Oryx Rally: Airbox recall. Took them my airbox, they gave me a new one without a sensor. (where's that head against the wall image from skype now)! :'(
KHS Mountainbike. Big-ass puncture. Need a new tube. All shops closed yesterday. :'( :'(
So. I'll tell you instead about the most greatest excellent ride ever! On a electric bike!
Last week Tuesday, Wayne and I went to see Craig Marshall, the importer and sole distributer for Zero Motorcycles in South Africa.
For those of you not in the know, Zero manufactures 100% electric bikes. Go read about it here:
https://www.zeromotorcycles.com/
SA Website:
https://zeromotorcycles.co.za/
He introduced us to the bikes, and we chatted about this and that and all kinds of stuff we talk about whenever there is a bike present.
And then he said: 'Lets go ride them!' Yeah!!!!!!! Been waiting for a hour for that one!!
Being inclined to the more aggressive off-road stuff, I immediately jumped on the FX:
Craig advised to switch it on, check the 'boot' sequence of the liggies on the dash, and turn the throttle slowly. There is no clutch, no gears. Just throttle and brakes, in the normal places.
I turned it slowly, and rode down Craigs driveway. No sound. Nothing, not even a wine. Wayne was on the DS:
At 60km/h we were chatting next to each other down the road. Hot damn! Craig said I was going to smile like kid in a toystore and scream like a girl at a Hanna Montana concert when I opened that throttle. My thought at that stage were: Yeah right. I ride a KTM 690. I can't smile broader.... And then I opened the throttle. Holy F#$%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was hanging onto those bars like a kid strapped to his mom's back with a dog incoming in Kwa-kwa! It was crazy! You open the throttle and 70Nm of torque tries to leave you in the road pretending you're taking a bos-k@k! Lets put it into perspective. It ways 125kg, has more power than a 660 Tenere, more torque than a 690 Enduro and no clutch. Do you even know the insane places you will go up with that bike!
Anyway, I regress. Okay, so here I was screaming like a girl doing 130 km/h in about 4 sec, and then there was a stop street. I saw how I was going to blixem down now, because jy wil mos windgat wees, and ruin Craig's only FX bike. But I did not. The brakes did what they are supposed too, and I stopped. My heart was doing about the same RPM as a Fiat Uno down Voortrekker Road in Parow on a Saturday night! Damn. This was fun. And then I switched it to 'SPORT' mode. Oh yeah. Its got a switch, and a phone app via bloutand. So you can change the setting on the fly like torque output, max kw, regenerative braking, and so on. And when you switch it on 'Sport', out goes all the settings. The computer gives you everything it has. No regen. Gooi mielies pa!
Now Craig was in front on the Zero S, Wayne was behind me on the DS:
I was going bananas on the FX. Over all the little circles thingies, flat-taps wherever possible. Passing motorists with their windows open, and the WTF expression on their faces! They must have thought they had gone deaf. Three bikes passing at 140km/h+ and no sound! Wayne was somewhere behind me. I did not know, and did not care. This was too much fun.
Pretty soon we came to a clearing and stopped. The tar road ended in a little jeep track, and I went onto that. Need to feel the bike off-road and all that, then almost lost it when I turned. That thing will turn on a dime with that torque! Then I came back past them and onto a track running parallel to the tar road. I know I passed Craig and his wife on the tar, with me on the vineyard road. The suspension was spot on. Think mountain bike with a m@erse electric motor! And then that road ended as well. Craig looked a bit worried. Oops. So I swapped with Wayne, and took the controls of the mostest insane road-bike I ever put a leg over!
This is Wayne posing:
And me: :biggrin:
By now I had got the hang of the electric riding stuff. When you're at a stop and want to pull-away fast, or want to overtake like in schnell, you flip the switch to 'Sport' then hang on, want dinge gebeur nou vinnig kwagga! Then when cruising through traffic and its a bit of a bore, switch back to 'Normal' and watch the bike charge itself everytime you brake. Also less torque at pullaway. A bit like riding a 650 Dakar or heaven forbid a KLR 650
, if you know what I mean.We stopped for some pics, and all to soon had to go back. Ah, man this was really a experience. Never thought that I would have the opportunity to ride a electric bike at 160km/h. It was good. With a range of 250km on the DS and a quick charger in a tank-bag, I can see myself going places for R12 a 'tank'. Big thanks to Craig. Pretty soon all the bikes will be legal and insured and the demo rides will begin. Prepare to be amazed.
They go between R140k and R160k. You'll make that back easy with the 550 000 km lifetime on the battery, no services except maybe to grease the axle.
Life is good! ;D
No back to my broken toys in the garage! :-\
By the way. Below is the Zero MMX. This is the one I'll most likely want. Google it!
