Bikes

The EPO-Pocket Bike is for the Kid in All of Us

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Our good friend Christian Amendt has a project that he’s sharing with us this week. Taking a break from his EPO-Bike electric racing motorcycle that he’s campaigned in the FIM e-Power series, the German student has built something a bit smaller, but equally fun. Complete with a 7kW brushless DC motor and .9kWh of battery on-board, we’re dubbing this electric pocket bike the “EPO-Pocket Bike” until Christian comes up with a more suitable name for the pint-sized terror.

The EPO-Pocket Bike is good for about 15-20 minutes of ride time with its current configuration, and according to Amendt is a lot more fun, with less vibration, that its ICE counterparts. Amendt’s creation is geared to 40 mph, but power wheelies are possible all the way to 25 mph with a crack of full-throttle.

Why build such a machine you might ask (as if the fun in creating something wasn’t enough, right?)? According to Amendt, “If you compare the 2010 e-Power bikes with normal motorcycles they make no sence, they are big, heavy, have a short/small range, they are slow (acceleration and lap times), and very expensive.”

“The main point is the weight of the batteries,” he continued. “A real superbike with 20L of fuel has a stored energy of 180kWh. Most e-bikes have a capacity less then 12kWh. Of course e-Bikes have a higher efficiency but there is a big difference.”

“So we thought about the problem. Where can e-Bikes be competitive in performance and price? Of course all over where a minimum of energy (fuel) is used, e.g. dragster, speedway, pocketbike…So we decided to build a pocketbike.”

The total weight of the EPO-Pocket Bike is 23.4kg (52 lbs), and it charges is about an hour. From a cost/performance perspective, the electric pocket bike concept is competitive with internal combustion engine equivalents, Amendt hopes to sell complete bikes or kits by the end of May. If you’re looking for a summer toy for your kid (or the kid in you), this might be a fun thing to pick up.

In the meantime, Christian hopes to race at all the FIM e-Power races this season, and maybe pick up a couple TTXGP rounds along the way as well.

Source: EPO-Bike.de

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