Rennie Scaysbrook | October 20, 2021
Cycle News Lowside
COLUMN
They’re coming…
I read with interest the recent news that California will ban the sale of petrol-powered lawn mowers and leaf blowers by 2024. California Governor, Gavin Newsom, signed the law two weeks ago which also has provisions for the outlawing gas-powered generators, chainsaws, weed whackers, and golf carts (the latter is almost entirely electric now, anyway).
As an immigrant, I can’t vote, so I don’t give a crap who is in office or not, although I’ll admit at first, I was rather incredulous to the notion that gas-powered mowers were on death row until I looked in my own garage.
I already own an electric weed whacker and leaf blower, and my petrol-powered lawn mower is very soon up for renewal and will no doubt join the electric revolution, too.
Then I looked at my Norco Sight VLT E-mountain bike. And my fantastic $300 electric Go Trax scooter I use at Chuckwalla when I need a nervous pee just before my race, and I’m a quarter mile away on the other side of the pits.
The Go Trax is absolutely better than a petrol equivalent and the Norco actually makes me want to ride up massive, rocky hills for the prize of tearing back down them with fear in my eyes and a scream in my heart.
Once this fact hit me, Newsom’s incoming law didn’t seem to matter all that much. Then it got me thinking about the other gas-powered things in my driveway, namely my Suzuki GSX-R600 racebike and Husqvarna FS 450 supermoto.
Luckily, these bikes will not be joining the mower scrap heap any time soon. These are still precision instruments, their performance far exceeding any electric equivalent. I know this for a fact because the electric equivalent does not exist. Yet. But it’s coming, oh yes.
Recently I’ve started to change my tune on electric bikes. I have ridden both the Zero SR/F and the Harley-Davidson LiveWire—oh, sorry, I mean LiveWire. Not Harley-Davidson. Both bikes are fun, fast, interesting and I would absolutely not purchase one because the petrol equivalent (there’s that phrase again) is superior in every way save for emissions. Plus, the manufacturers are making damn sure every year they meet these ever-tightening targets for these glorious gas guzzlers.
A face only a mother could love. Hopefully our futuristic silent rides will look a little better than this.
The electric revolution has indeed been a long time coming, but nowhere near as long as it took gas bikes to reach the kind of performance they have now. When the first Zero went on sale in 2009, that thing was a bit of a pile, but ride some of the company’s 2021 models and the difference is pretty astounding. That’s not a long time to gain such performance. It also makes the demise of Alta one of the great tragedies and travesties of modern motorcycling, because here was a company that hit the sweet spot and showed electric bikes didn’t need to be gimmicky, offering a real alternative to the status quo.
And besides, with governments around the world hell bent on destroying the petrol vehicle in all its forms over the coming decades, we better get used to our bikes not making any noise or we won’t be riding at all.
One of the big complaints I hear verbatim from damn near everyone with regards to electric bikes is the lack of noise leads to a lack of engagement and therefore, connection, between rider and bike. While this is true to some extent, I can assure you I am just as connected to a LiveWire barreling into an Armco-lined, decreasing radius left-hander at 80 mph as I am on my GSX-R. The lack of noise can go jump for all I care, because I want to master this corner, survive it, and rip onto the next one.
There are alternatives to the electric conundrum, however. Kawasaki has recently come out and said it will have 10 electric or hybrid bikes in its model range by 2025, and by 2035, the entire range will be either all-electric or hybrid.
The electric revolution has indeed been a long time coming, but nowhere near as long as it took gas bikes to reach the kind of performance they have now.
The company has been pretty vocal about the electrification of its range since debuting a Ninja 400 with its parallel-twin cylinder motor mated to a hybrid electric motor at EICMA in 2019, and the move towards a hybrid set-up (at least the development of one) has been long overdue by the powers that be in the global motorcycle industry.
Kawasaki’s system would allow for the bike—in whichever form/forms it takes—to ride through the city silently on electric propulsion, switching over to petrol for the canyons and then doubling the two via the press of a button for full-send performance. Sounds pretty good, right?
Kawasaki Heavy Industries, the gigantic conglomerate that it is, has also shown a keen interest in hydrogen power for its ships and jet engines, and they have the perfect building block to test it out for motorcycle power with the supercharged H2 motor.
Kawasaki is developing a dual injected version of the supercharged motor that combines normal port fuel injection like we have now with a direct injection system that fires gas straight into the combustion chamber at mega high pressures. The direct injection system is a must because the hydrogen gas needs to be added at high pressure after the cylinder has been filled with air, and when you consider the extra induction forces already present in a supercharged H2, it makes this motor perfect for possible hydrogen power. The only emission would be water vapor, and Newsom won’t get all pissy.
I can assure you I am just as connected to a LiveWire barreling into an Armco-lined, decreasing radius left hander at 80 mph as I am on my GSX-R.
Of course, that’s a long way into the future as hydrogen isn’t readily available in gas stations and the system isn’t anywhere near production ready, but it gives the motorcycle internal combustion engine some hope that it’s not quite on the mower’s death row just yet.
Make no mistake, the next 15-20 years will see monumental change in the motorcycle industry. I can promise you we are currently in the last remaining years of the naturally aspirated superbikes/sport tourers/naked bikes/dirt bikes before electric assistance/propulsion starts to overtake these glorious dinosaurs.
But we need not fear the coming change. It’s coming, so we better get on board, just like electric lawn mowers and Go Trax scooters.CN
