forza exr

[electric.mike]

bike and battery weights are both coming down. people add second batteries,or carry a spare,would there be a market for say a forza exr (extra range), now in the old days of lead acid the argument against would have been all that extra weight will make the bike to heavy to handle, and the extra weight would eat up the extra range.
that cant be true now though, with a battery weight of 9.7lbs it would be like saying the bike will not perform any where near as well for you because you are 10lbs heavier than me.
the idea i have in mind would be designed to carry two batteries switchable so you know where you are, but integrated at the design stage instead of just an add on, with the claimed range of the standard forza this would surely push the range into the 40-50 mile area and even supplied with two chargers could be priced in the £1700-£1800 range.or off road a longer turbo range
if as i keep reading there is no miracle battery on the horizon, could we soon be looking at this, as the single battery bike was probably developed due to the weight and size restraints of lead acid.

mike

 

[Ian]

Interesting one Mike, I've just offered a spare battery up to my Torq and found it would neatly fit along the top of the down tube if the bottle cage wasn't there.
Food for thought? I'm not contemplating modifying the bike as its more practical to carry the spare in a pannier, but if it had been designed like that....

 

[flecc]

On gents bikes with a straight down tube like the Torq, this could easily be an after market add-on kit Mike. A bracketed battery mount clamped to the down tube with a switch integrated at the base, the wiring and connectors interposing at the exixting battery base connections.

Mounted like this the weight would be low and it's distribution would be evenly balanced.

A possible designed in place for slim batteries is in front of the seat tube with the crossbar in two parts, but with many batteries, the only other place would be for a pair to be behind the seat tube and the wheelbase longer.

I think carrier mounting is too high up and often limits pannier usage.
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[flecc]

Snap Ian, you just got in before me.
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[Ian]

Snap Ian, you just got in before me.
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You know what they say about great minds

 

[electric.mike]

flecc

On gents bikes with a straight down tube like the Torq, this could easily be an after market add-on kit Mike. A bracketed battery mount clamped to the down tube with a switch integrated at the base, the wiring and connectors interposing at the exixting battery base connections.

this is why i ask the question not everybody wants to get involved to this degree, there must be lots of people like me who want to buy a ready made item, and it would still look like a after market after thought.
the possibility for a stunning design is greater at the initial design stage.

mike

 

[Ian]

I would guess Mike, and it is only a guess, that the manufacturers see lighter, leaner looking bikes as what the consumer wants, they therefore take advantage of smaller batteries to achieve this rather than extend the range. After all, the few users who find the range inadequate can always buy another battery, so the manufacturer will still make money on that.

 

[flecc]

One manufacturer has done it now of course, Giant with the New Twist 1.0 and 2.0. We'll have to see how the sales of those go, but I think they'll suffer from the prices, £1400 for the Twist 1.0 (lithium) and £600 to replace the batteries at todays prices. I don't think the model 2.0 with NiMh will be much cheaper judging by Giant's present NiMh price for the old model battery at £250.
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