Gas or Electric?

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rdudley
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Gas or Electric?

All,

First of all I accept that fact that I may get "heckled" by bringing up the idea of a gas scooter in this forum, but just bear with me for a moment.

I am trying to decide between to scooters that I believe meet my needs. One is a gas scooter and the other is an electric scooter.

I am a handicapped person that walks with a cane, so two wheeled scooters are pretty much out of the question since the need to hold them up with my legs. I therefore have researched "trikes" and have narrowed it down to two vehicles.

What I need is some comments/suggestions as to why I should buy the electric one (I am leaning that way, although the price difference is hard to ignore). Of course if you have other suggestions feel free to advise. So far these are the two that seem to have the styling that I like and would do the job.

I live 1 mile from my work and I need to use some local streets during the day to get lunch. The commute to work is all on residential streets (25MPH), but the local streets from work to lunch would be on 35MPH streets (cars routinely exceed the speed limit).

The two "trikes" are the EVT trike and a Gekgo trike (150cc 4 stroke).

EVT trike
max speed: 30mph (little worried about faster traffic)
range: 30 miles (advertised)
cost: $4000
this would be purchased at greenrides which is not far from my home.

Gekgo trike
max speed: 45mph (would need to get motorcycle license).
mpg: 100-155 (advertised)
cost: $2000
This would be purchased at a florida dealer (I live in Calif).

Either of these would be allowing an 18mpg van to sit idle.

By my calculations over the course of 5000 miles, the van would use ~278 gallons of gas, the Gekgo trike would use 50 gallons of gas and of course the EVT wouldn't use any gas at all. This means that the EVT would only save an additional 50 gallos of gas versus the Gekgo.

I really want to go "green", but how do I justify such a large price difference?

Any comments are greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Buckeroo Bob
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Re: Gas or Electric?

Did you check on the Tango trike (gas powered) Looks pretty cool for a gasser.
images_1.jpg

deronmoped
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Re: Gas or Electric?

If I was getting a trike, I would want to make sure I could keep up with traffic. The mopeds I have do less then thirty MPH, if I'm out in faster traffic I keep to the side like a bicycle, you would not be able to do that as easily with a trike.

Deron.

andrew
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Re: Gas or Electric?

rdudley,
did you check with electricmotorsport.com? They might be able to get you the trike. They may be able do a 60v upgrade to it, which would probably increase the top speed a bit.

The thing with gas scooters is that they are great for gas mileage, but not very good for pollution. If everyone who was using a car went over to driving a gas scooter, the pollution problems in cities may actually get quite a bit worse. Gassers are also noisy, and require expensive parts and labor for maintenance. An e-scooter may also be expensive to maintain at this point, but personally I prefer working on clean electronics than messing with a very complicated greasy mechanical device.

Some things to consider if you decide to go electric:

-Plan to install a battery balancing device like the BattEQ, or charge each 12v battery with a separate 12v charger. Seriously don't even buy it if you don't want to do that, as the batteries will cause headaches down the road.

-Expect the range to be about half what's listed

-Expect the batteries to last about half as long as listed

-Driving the electric will be more expensive per mile hence it won't ever "pay for itself" due to the cost of replacing batteries and time dealing with problems or paying someone else to fix them. Also, the electrical components will probably die sooner than expected and require repair or replacement all at expense. This is because for the chinese scooters, they put cheap stuff in to lower the cost. They also don't have the resources to do adequate research/development, and quality control of the product after manufacturing.

-That being said, EVT Tiawan (who makes the EVT trike, 4000e, and 168) has a pretty good reputation for quality.

All that considered, I would much rather be driving an electric vehicle for my personal needs. And I do now. It's not a matter of cost, and it may not even be so much about making a statement or advocating anything. To me, it's about the choices I make and the impact that they will have, and I just feel better about what I'm doing.

[url=/forum-topic/motorcycles-and-large-scooters/587-my-kz750-electric-motorcycle-project]KZ750 Motorcycle Conversion[/url]
[url=/forum-topic/motorcycles-and-large-scooters/588-fixing-my-chinese-scooter]900 watt scooter[/url]
Pic from http://www.electri

rdudley
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Re: Gas or Electric?

Andrew,

I did forget to mention that the Gekgo is a 4 stroke, so it's probably not as bad as a 2 stroke (not even allowed in Calif).

Rick

Buckeroo Bob
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Re: Gas or Electric?

Oops. Then forget about the Tango trike. I'm pretty sure it is 2 stroke. At least in the video it sounded like one

reikiman
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Re: Gas or Electric?

I yahoogle'd 'Gekgo Trike' and ended up at gekgo.com .. but it wasn't clear which of the trikes there you are referring to. They sell several varieties but none are in a $2000 range.

Bajaj trikes; These are common in India and the Autorickshaw version is the common taxi service all across India. They're noisy, they rattle, I think they're 2-stroke, and they're the butt of many jokes in India.

Tango: I've looked at one closely in person but not ridden it. Looking from the outside it looks solidly built. The maker is in Argentina (IIRC). There's a guy here in the SF Bay Area who's working on electrifying the Tango and he says he has exclusive rights to do so in the U.S. It looks attractive (to me) and would provide some cover from the weather but of course not complete cover.

Scoot Coupe: There used to be some available to rent in San Francisco for tourists to drive around town. I never read one but the fact that they could handle SF says something about their ability to climb hills. It looks nice.

Suntrike: ?? Never seen one.

rdudley
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Re: Gas or Electric?

The gas scooter I was referring to is at:

http://www.gekgo.com/gekgo_150cc-3-w.html

dogman
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Re: Gas or Electric?

my schwinn trike will easily do 30 mph with the we brushed hub running at 48 volts. but its really sketchy at that speed! the cost of it was 250 for the trike delivered to wallmart, and you can get a hub kit, 36 v for around 500. if that kind of bike can be ridden by you it might be a cheaper alternative for you. but i can't stress enough you will not even be able to avoid a broken bottle at 30 mph! i now totally understand why all the retail electric trikes only go 15 mph max. maybe if budget is there you could get street legal lights for a used golf cart and go nev ? also an old vw bug with 48 volts performs better than a golf cart and can sometimes be gotten for 5 or 6 thou from guys that convert cars they got for little cost. nothing wrong with gas, pollution wise on trips that short. you're allready downright un american not driving less than 50 miles a day.

Be the pack leader.
36 volt sla schwinn beach cruiser
36 volt lifepo4 mongoose mtb
24 volt sla + nicad EV Global

dogman
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Re: Gas or Electric?

i guess i meant that an american drives at least 50 miles a day. any chance you could leave the van at work just for the lunch run ? that leaves you safer and does cut van use in half.

Be the pack leader.
36 volt sla schwinn beach cruiser
36 volt lifepo4 mongoose mtb
24 volt sla + nicad EV Global

davew
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Re: Gas or Electric?

I need to use some local streets during the day to get lunch

You could eliminate this need, save money, and use less resources in general by bringing your lunch to work.

"we must be the change we wish to see in the world"

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