Excerpt from: Happenings
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| February 28, 2007 | | Matt Hotch Lithium Ion Saves Weight and Space | Discovery Channel's featured motorcycle designer Matt Hotch has a video you can find through TekBattery that demonstrates a Lithium Ion design which appears to be a major improvement in motorcycle batteries.
Similar to the technology in your cell phone, the batteries are said to be free of memory problems, and pack a big punch for the size. Also similar to your cell phone battery, they cost a lot more than similar sized but less powerful traditional batteries.
Of course, size is a major advantage when you are building an updated Vincent show bike, or a custom chopper. A big old battery is unsightly, and the bigger it is, the more difficult to hide it.
On some road bikes, hiding the battery results in an inaccessible and expensive to get at power source.
Weight is also critical. Batteries usually ride high on the motorcycle, so the weight really affects handling. In my opinion, that high weight really degrades the feel of a motorcycle as well. Hence the centralized mass designs of the last few years.
Matt has a video of this battery cranking and cranking and cranking. It is pretty impressive.
This is, of course, similar to the choice of Lithium Ion batteries for the Tesla electric high performance roadster (automobile).
Unknown is how long the battery will last, and how many charging cycles it will take. This remains to be seen. Additionally, it will be some time before a production version gives us a sense of the cost premium.
All in all, a good thing in our future.
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