Two electric motorcycles for your viewing pleasure. One is legally a bicycle in British Columbia.

 I was at Victoria's car free event downtown last Sunday. This caused an enormous backup of vehicles, with hundreds circling the area trying to find somewhere to park for this event. I parked about 8 blocks away, but not until I looked for space much closer.

There were many exhibitors of energy-saving and producing devices. The one that really caught my eye was the shiny black, electric motorcycle. Black is a crazy color for a motorcycle. I had a bright red Vespa, and still, people pulled out in front of me. My friend who had a black Harley, had it happen more often. I have no need for a motorcycle, since I want to have the use of my arms, legs and back, for the rest of my life. But if I were so inclined, I would definitely enjoy riding this one. It goes up to 154 kilometers per hour. That's 96 miles per hour. The range, when driven at more sensible speeds, is 150 kilometers. It sells for $10,000. Probably too expensive right now, but I expect the price of these to go down just as the price of almost everything does when produced in greater quantity.

A far less expensive and safer choice, is the purple bike. It is meant to be a city commuter, with a top speed of 55 kph or about 35 mph. It is legally a bicycle, so no licensing or Insurance necessary in British Columbia. The range is 50 kilometers, or about 30 miles. These bikes go for $3,000 or about $2,200 America.

I like it far better than the noisy and stinky Vespa that rattled my bones and set me back $4,000, 11 years ago. That was some of the most expensive driving that I've  ever done. It required license, insurance and a surprisingly large amount of gas for such a small vehicle.

Wow! Amazing stuff coming out of Canada. Thanks.

And people pull out in front of motorcycles not because they don't see you; It's that they expect you to avoid them, they're just selfish. They do the same thing with Semis thinking that the semi can slow down or swerve like a car; In this case they are just too stupid to understand simple physics.

I'm pretty sure that it's because they didn't see them. Nobody wants to get in that sort of accident. Whenever I drive at night, I see poorly marked bicycles, with no light or with a light that is going dead.

Dale Hodgins wrote:I'm pretty sure that it's because they didn't see them. Nobody wants to get in that sort of accident. Whenever I drive at night, I see poorly marked bicycles, with no light or with a light that is going dead.

Sometimes they don't see you , sometimes they just expect you to stop.

A couple years ago I was riding my recumbent in to town going down a slight hill so I was doing 25-30 mph.  A guy in a 1 ton pickup honked his horn as he passed me and then turned right in front of me.  I hit the brakes so hard I flipped the bike over, I had to roll into the drainage ditch to avoid going under the truck.  He just kept on driving.  Someone chased him down and told him they already called the cops about the accident so he came back.  When the cops showed up he said; "I honked to warn him I was turning, I thought he'd just stop."

Some people think that if you're on a bike you can stop instantly, no matter how fast your going.  The rules of physics apply equally to ALL vehicles.  It takes roughly the same distance to stop regardless of whether you're driving a car, a bike, or a semi truck.