For a few years now, hybrids have been all the rage in the consumer car market. The Prius has been elevated to the status of an icon and Honda is now trying to catch up with its revived Honda Insight. But what about motorcycles, where Honda has been the unquestioned world leader for years?

The added weight and complexity has previously kept the word “hybrid” from squeezing in front of the word “motorcycle,” but now Honda thinks they’ve found a way to build and market hybrid motorcycles. According to the Mainichi Shinbun, Honda will begin releasing the hybrid motorcycles in the 2010s, which will be followed up by electric motorcycles in 2011.

Honda will be adapting the hybrid system it uses on its current cars to work with motorcycles of engine displacement between 200 and 1000cc. It would probably be too cumbersome to use on smaller bikes, but Honda hopes to increase fuel efficiency by about 50% with the hybrid bikes.

Now, the real question for all you bikers out there is this: would you ride one?

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Image: Audin

Okay, they won’t be your grandpa’s old 50cc Super Cub like you see in the picture, but Honda and Yamaha are both planning battery electric motorcycles that will have the performance of their current 50cc bikes without using a drop of gasoline.

Yamaha plans to release their bike in 2010, which seems to be the year of the electric car already. Details are scarce, but the bike should have an impressive 62 mile range, and will probably cost a pretty penny compared to its gasoline-powered counterparts.

Honda, on the other hand, will be releasing their bike in 2011 with a target range on 31 miles. They are hoping that the Japanese post office and other fleets that do deliveries will take to the electric bikes in order to reduce costs and pollution associated with shipping.

Details are scarce, but we’ll keep you updated. Would you buy one?

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A lot of well-intentioned people have hopped on to motorcycles and scooters recently in an effort to do their part to help out the environment. Sadly, they’re actually polluting a lot more on even the smallest of scooters than they would be driving a car. It seems counter-intuitive because there are so many reasons why two wheels should be better than four:

• Scooters and motorcycles get better gas mileage
• They’re smaller, so they use less materials to produce and ship
• They’re extremely popular in European countries and Japan, which are more eco-friendly than the US

While these things are true and often advertised, they don’t quite paint the whole picture when it comes to the environmental impact of 2-wheeled, motorized transportation.

Scooters and motorcycles can pollute 90 times as much as SUVs

Yes, you read correctly. It doesn’t seem to make sense because of the wildly different sizes and fuel consumption of the two vehicles. In fact, it was the EPA that tested a Yamaha YZR R6 and found that it emitted 90 times more hydrocarbons than a Dodge Durango SUV. Hydrocarbons are the pollutants responsible for forming ozone and smog, which is both a serious health risk as well as an extreme eyesore.

The reason why scooters and motorcycles pollute so much more is because there is much less regulation when it comes to these vehicles. Technical and market restrictions have made it difficult to pass legislation cleaning up motorcycle tailpipes for years. For example, because most motorcycles and scooters are smaller and cheaper than cars, adding modern catalytic converters and emissions systems would add a tremendous amount of weight and cost to most 2-wheeled vehicles. This means that, unlike cars’, motorcycle and scooter exhaust is heavily polluted.

Another consideration is the large amount of two-strokes that are still used and sold. Many manufacturers, like Honda, have made plans to completely phase out the use of two-strokes, but because they are cheaper they will continue to be sold in quantity until legislation can be passed banning them from use. Two-strokes pollute so much more because they run on a gas/oil mix, meaning that every combustion cycle is burning motor oil as well as gasoline. Similarly, the engine’s design allows unburnt fuel to escape through the exhaust and into the air.

Many wealthier nations are starting to place tighter restrictions on motorcycles and scooters as the technology becomes cheaper and their emissions make up a greater percent of total vehicle emissions. However, in countries like Canada new 2-wheeled vehicles can still pollute up to 14 times as much as automobiles, so there still is no perfect solution.

To scoot or not to scoot: a balancing act

If you’re a diehard environmentalist you’re going to want to stay away from scooters. I know from my time as a Honda Metropolitan owner that most riders would get between 90-110 mpg, but I also know that they exhaust was pretty smelly, even though it was a four-stroke Honda.

On the other hand, however, you’d be getting 2-4 times the fuel economy and emitting fewer green house gases. However, the magnitude that these are reduced is tremendously outweighed by the magnitude that smog-forming pollutants are increased. Nevertheless, you will save money on gas, but riding a scooter isn’t quite as safe or air-conditioned as a car.

Personally, I ditched the scooter in favor of my bike for shorter trips and a car with good fuel economy for longer ones. You’ll have to make your own choice, but make no mistake, scooters and motorcycles are not the most environmentally sound transportation choice.

For more on the issue, check out this LATimes article.

EDIT: Thanks for the heads up from a commenter, because I obviously didn’t make my intention clear enough. As the commenter points out, there are clearly more ecofriendly scooters out there than others, just as there is a huge variety in cars. Hell, you can even get electric scooters (just as you can get electric cars), so it’s not that 2-wheels is evil.

Rather, I wanted to point out that emissions regulations are clearly lagging and that, in studies, 2-wheeled transport contributes more smog-forming pollution than it’s share of actual vehicle miles traveled because the average motorcycle/scoot has worse emissions than the average car.

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A year ago, EcoModder forum member Ben Nelson got an old, non-running motorcycle and converted it to electric drive. He’d never had a motorcycle before and wasn’t an expert with electric vehicles, but in true DIY nature, he learned as he went along.

The bike was never designed to be a fast, flashy race bike, but rather a cheap and effective way to get around town in style. Ben is currently building an electric car, but by all accounts a motorcycle is a great (and slightly less expensive) step down the road to electric vehicles. In the end Ben had built himself a motorcycle with speed up to 40 mph and a range of around 15 miles, all for less than $2000. The best thing about the conversion is that, unlike many, it is completely street legal, with full registration and insurance.

Here’s what Ben has to say about the costs of this project:

$100 for original cycle
$500ish for motor (used on Ebay)
$300ish for New Alltrax AXE 48v 300 amp programmable controller
$160 EACH for 4 Optima yellow top 55AH batteries.

I am also including in this total cost, a motorcycle safety class, new helmet, a year of insurance, lots of little trips to the hardware store, etc.

So, the total cost for the bike was really only about$1500, with a few new parts (like the controller) that could’ve been found used if you’re running on a tighter budget. Currently, the bike is only using three of those four batteries, as Ben is trying to find out how to mount the 4th battery and up the bike to 48 volts.

Comparing the energy content of gasoline to that used by the motorcycle, Ben’s determined that on average, his bike gets the equivalent of 300 mpg:

This shows that not only is the electric version more efficient, but if you crunch the numbers comparing the current price of gas to the price of grid energy, you’ll see that this motorcycle is not only cool and environmentally friendly, but has the potential to save a bit of money. For more info on eMPG, check out this thread.

However, Ben’s story isn’t all gumdrops and happy endings. One day, while out riding the motorcycle he managed to blow up the controller. He and the bike are fine and he’s got it going again, but when attempting a DIY project like this, especially because it involves a vehicle responsible for your safety, it’s always good to go in with open eyes and be ready for the unexpected. That said, it wasn’t as dramatic as it sounds.

Besides being a great ecomodder, Ben is also pretty good with video. Check out these two that he put together, the first one is his neighbor’s reaction to the electric bike and the second is Ben talking about the project:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eUqNp70Gpk

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujydj6SBfxM

For more depth about the building and the tech specs behind this bike, check out Ben’s site and his build thread. More inspiration for EV motorcycles can be found at the motorcycle section of the Austin EV album. You can even find Ben’s bike on there.

UPDATE: I talked to Ben and he told me that he had in fact added the forth battery, and that with that and the system running 48v his top speed has been increased to 45 mph and the range to 20 miles. Sorry for the error!

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It may seem a little silly, but in this coming age of expensive gasoline, every trip we make to buy something is going to have to be a decision about whether or not it’s really worth it. That $10 book at the book store could easy become $15 if your car isn’t very efficient and the drive is longer than a few miles. The same can be said of going out to get coffee, groceries, or even Take ‘n’ Bake pizza.

EcoModder forum member Ben Nelson recently posted about his inventive approach to getting pizza without using any gas. He took his DIY electric motorcycle, which is already pretty sweet, and attached a little delivery tray to the back, the likes of which I haven’t seen since the last time I was in Japan (where almost all deliveries are done on Honda Super Cubs):

There’s no arguing that the bike itself isn’t a sweet ride, but it gets even better when you see that not only can you carry a pizza, but that you have room for an extra-large:

Of course, the bike has to get its electricity from somewhere, but since it’s much more efficient than an internal combustion engine it uses less and can get power from renewable sources like green energy providers or your home’s own solar panels.

So, I applaud Ben for his creative methods of reducing gas use, and hope that others will follow in his footsteps. Especially with gas prices hitting all-time highs in the US, the case against gasoline is getting incredibly strong.

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