Office Charging Stations: Breaking Ground
I've mentioned before that the facilities manager at my office is a true-blue believer in EVs. He's had a long career working with industrial electric motors, and understands them to their very core. He's really supported me and the Enertia from day one. He even putting up with its charging fans blowing right outside of his office inside of our shipping and receiving area. He's dead set on getting a Nissan Leaf too, because its got the range to suit his commuting needs.
They're Here
He's been giving me progress reports on the company's initiative to install Coulomb Charging Stations at work. There have been some delays with the contractors, but I'm happy to say that they've broken ground this week. From the looks of it, we should have five posts serving ten spots with Level 1 and Level 2 charging.
Progress for Day 1
They made a little more progress on day two. There are trenches behind the ledges and some electrical utility boxes installed.The boxes are kind of ugly, so I hope they do something to disguise them. The last thing that I want to hear is people condemning them because they're ugly. As it is, the location is already taking up exterior spaces where the car worshiping d-bags double park their cars like it's some sort of Grease era car show.
Progress from day 2
I can't wait to see them operation. From what I've been told, they'll be open to the public too. So anyone with a ChargePass Card (like me) can use them. I'm not sure if that policy will be permanent, but I can't imagine that there will be too many non-employees using them. When they go online, hopefully they'll show up on Coulomb's Awesome Webapp.
Of course, when they do go online, it means the end of my indoor parking. Oh well. 
First 2500+ Miles on the Enertia
Finally turned 2500 miles on the Enertia.
I haven't posted about my Enertia for a while. At first, I feared that the novelty had worn off. I really haven't been riding it much...until this last weekend. And with that fresh seat time, my enthusiasm for the Enertia picked right back up where it left off. Coincidently, I passed the 2500 mile mark too.
Extra Leg on the Commute
A few changes in my circumstances have led to my lessened use of the Enertia. Firstly, I'm commuting from the office to school two days a week. Parking on campus is a nightmare. You basically have to park in a commuter lot and hop a bus in.
However...when I ride a motorcycle in, I can park right next to my building. This is exactly the time savings I was looking for to reduce my time away from the office, so I've been happily riding a motorcycle on those days. Unfortunately I haven't found a place to charge the Enertia on campus. Furthermore, in the spirit of saving time, I take the interstate. All of this means that I ride my V-Strom gasser instead of the Enertia. 
Weekend Passenger
I've reduced my Enertia riding on the weekend too, which is a shame, because the Enertia is perfect for running errands around home. I've got a roommate now, and we do a lot of things together. Unfortunately there's no room on the Enertia for a passenger.
Empulse?
My changed circumstances have highlighted the Enertia's range and capacity issues and affected the utility of the Enertia somewhat. At the same time though, riding my bulky, stinky, and loud V-Strom have made me appreciate the Enertia even more. It's a bit of a conundrum.
Enter the Empulse. This bike could will directly solve two of my three problems. I should easily be able to commute on this, even on days when I'm on campus too. Even though I can't easily charge on campus, the extended range will mean that I likely won't need to. Furthermore the liquid cooled motor means that I'll be able to sustain highway speeds on the Interstate and avoid taking a circuitous route at lower speeds. This will prove to be a huge time saver.
Unfortunately, there still isn't room for a passenger. But riding two-up is for old folks anyway...except for the time I took too laps at Jennings GP with Jason Pridmore. We definitely didn't lap like old folks. Although I nearly lost control of my bowels like a grandpa.
First 1500+ Miles on the Enertia
1500+ Miles on the Odometer
Mother Nature has been working against me somewhat lately. Summer's here, and it's been raining quite a bit. That means two things: I've been riding the Enertia a little less, and I've been caught in the rain a few times.
More on the Gulf Spill
I think it's remarkable that the Gulf Oil Spill was the subject of my last 500 mile installment nearly three weeks ago, and that they've just stopped the leak a few days ago it's still flowing countless barrels of oil. Everyone talks barrels of oil lately, but how does that translate to something more tangible. Media outlets are using square footage comparisons like US states and volume comparisons like gynasiums. Personally, I have a hard time understanding exactly what a barrel of oil means to me. Like any scientifically minded geek, I started researching a crunching some numbers.
So here's how much diesel I've saved by commuting on my Enertia.
1510.7 miles / 14.5 mpg = 101.9 Gallons of Diesel
Now what exactly is a barrel? Hint: it's not 55 gallons.
1 barrel = 42 US gallons
I originally thought that you could turn crude oil into any type of fuel to suit your needs. But upon reading up more on Oil Refining at HowStuffWorks.com, I discovered that refining oil isn't as much of a process of transforming crude to a particular fuel as much as it a process of separating the various hydrocarbons and using groups of those different hydrocarbons to make the fuel. Diesel is made primarily of alkanes with 12 or more carbon atoms.
Of the 42 gallons of crude in a barrel, an average of 9.21 gallons of diesel is refined. So here's the number of barrels of oil that haven't gone to diesel production for my truck because of my 1500+ miles on the Enertia.
101.9 g diesel * 1 barrel / 9.21 g diesel = 11.06 barrels of oil
This clears up a lot of my misunderstanding of the wildly fluctuating diesel prices. It's cheaper to refine diesel, but you only get so much of it per barrel of oil. Then when you account for the dramatic increase in demand (partly from the military campaigns in the Middle East), you start to understand why the price would go up more than the price of gasoline.
Barrels of Chain Lube
The next thing to figure out is how many barrels of oil have gone into lube for my chain. OK, that's mostly a joke, but I am having problems finding a light-weight chain lube that will still last and not sling off. I've been getting a lot of chain noise as well as physical knocking. This, of course, is exaggerated by the fact that the Enertia is quiet, low on vibration, and doesn't have cush drive or rubber mounts on the motor. I can actually feel when the master link goes around the super small front sprocket. I can alleviate this with a heavy application of lube, but it only lasts 1.5 days.
Brammo has been more than accommodating to my compulsion to fix this irritant, and has emailed me advice on proper adjustment and lube. They even sent me a new chain. I should have time to swap it out this weekend, so I'll comment on this thread if it makes a difference.
ChargePoint Charging Station Demonstration
I got a little caught up while filming some video on the Enertia this weekend, and I let the battery run down a little further than I planned. Luckily, I knew the perfect place to top off. A nearby McDonald's has a pair of ChargePoint EV charging stations...AKA Prius Parking Spots. I figured that I would swing by and be forced to squeeze my Enertia between a Prius and the ChargePoint, but when I got there, I had it all to myself.
Here's the edited footage from the demonstration. The audio was junky, so I just threw in some explanatory text and put a soundtrack on it. Feel free to drop a comment if you have any questions.
First 1000+ Miles on the Enertia
1000 miles on the odometer
I logged another 500+ miles on my Enertia. I'm amazed at how motivated I am to commute on this thing. As I've mentioned before, I've owned road-going motorcycles for most of my adult life, and I've never felt compelled to commute on one more than once every month or two. This bike is such a pleasure to commute on. After 4+ weeks, I don't know what I look forward to more in the morning, My cup of home roasted coffee or my commute into work.
Today's mpkWh
My Enertia and I are definitely getting much more efficient. I set a personal record on my commute home today.
20.2 miles / 2.14 kWh = 9.44 mpkWh
I thought about putting up some more calculations about how much money I'm saving, but instead I'd like to leave the calculations out and simple state the following:
1000 miles / 14.5 mpg = 69.0 Gallons of Diesel
And that's obviously diesel fuel that I didn't burn. That doesn't sound like much, but I'm just one person. As EV adoption grows, this will become significant.
A Truly Inspiring Ride
During this first month with the Enertia, Earth Week has come and gone. I'm not sure if it was Earth Week or the dozens of green conversations that I've had since owning the Enertia, but the environment has been on my mind a lot. Everyone seems to be interested in doing their part, but the overwhelming sentiment is that it costs too much to make any significant difference. The beauty about the Enertia is that it doesn't take much to make a difference whether you measure in carbon, gallons, or dollars.
For the first 500 miles I showed a simple illustration of how much money I'm saving with the Enertia compared to driving my diesel pickup. I'll definitely admit that I went from one heck of a guzzler to something much more efficient, and so my results are going to be much more significant that most. I could have seen a significant improvement by going to a modest ICE motorcycle or even a modest improvement with a small sedan. But this whole question of "improvement" depends on the criteria by which you're judging. Counting carbon is a bit controversial with some, especially global warming doubters. But no one (save for oil barons) can argue the numerous negatives of oil.
Gulf Oil Spill
Well it's true that I went from doing all of my commuting and errands in my diesel pickup to doing those same trips on a motorcycle, but I think it's tremendously important that I did that trip without the use of fuel derived from oil. Sure I might get my energy from fossil fuels, but it sure wasn't from oil pumped out of [and into] the Gulf of Mexico.
I'm from that neck of the woods. I grew up in the Florida Panhandle. We've got the worlds most beautiful beaches. The sugar-fine sand is as white as the driven snow and piles up in sand dunes almost overnight. Well what do you think that sand is going to look like mixed with crude oil? I'm thinking something along the lines of a Ben and Jerry's flavor...with dead seafood mixed in. Gives a whole new meaning to Phish Food, huh?
Joking and tourism aside, let's just take a second to imagine what's going to happen to the massively large and delicate wetland ecosystems in the Mississippi Delta. I spent a day diving among the mangroves in Bonaire a few years back, and I learned a lot about these sheltered brackish ecosystems along the shore. They are basically estuaries where the oceans fish are hatched, sheltered, and raised until they can fend for themselves out at sea. These are the same fish that are caught commercially and fed to you and I...well maybe you.
Well not all people care about the ocean as much as I do, but I think everyone agrees that we can find some important reason to us to get off of oil. Loosing countless lives of the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, America, and the various allies is a strong reason to me as well. Global warming, the bleaching of the worlds ocean reefs, and the loss of island nations are a few others. I don't care how much of a global warming denier you are...burning oil to get our lazy selves to the nearest fast food drive through has got to end in our lifetime.
First 500 Miles on the Enertia
500 miles on the odometer
I hit a milestone this morning of 500 miles on my Enertia. At this point I consider the batteries to be sufficiently conditioned and working optimally...not that I have any data to back it up. I did do some mileage calculations today. I charged up at work earlier, so it was full before I left on my 31.0 mile trip home (I had to run an errand). Once I got home, I plugged it up to charge, except I plugged it into a Kill A Watt instead of plugging it directly into a socket. These things are so cheap. I highly recommend getting one if you're ever curious about how much power you're using. You can use it as a meter to check voltage, frequency, and current. Most of the time, you'll just set it to measure kilowatt hours consumed over a period. In my case, I was measure how much it consumed while charging.
Today's mpkWh
31 miles / 3.63 kW h = 8.54 mpkWh
I think I can do better, because that trip was on roads that I'm not familiar with. I'm much more efficient on my typical commute. Maybe I'll try to calculate this again tomorrow, but on a normal commute. I smell a spreadsheet coming along sooner or later. For now, here are some calculations on my first 500 miles.
Money Not Spent on Diesel
500.1 miles / 14.5 mpg * $2.999 = $103.43
I'm averaging 14.5 mpg in my truck right now, and diesel has been at $2.999 lately.
Money (I've) Spent on Electricity
500.1 miles / 8.54 mpkWh * $102.5 pKWH1000 / 1000 / 2 = $3.00
I used my mpkWh calculation above and then used a figure for the average price of 1000 kW h in my area. I'm going to double check that against my actual statement. And then you'll notice the little extra division by two. Well that's because I charge at home, and at work equally during the work week. Since I run must of my weekend errands on the Enertia, this is inaccurate too.
My $avings
Now my goal with the Enertia has never been to save money, so this is quite surprising to me. In two weeks, I've saved $100. My next step it to find out the carbon that I've saved. It should be easy to find out what my truck's emissions are, but I'm much more unsure of how my electricity is generated. I know there's a nearby nuclear power plant, but since the grid is so expansive and connected, who knows where it's coming from. Maybe I'll call up the power company tomorrow.
Hmmm... so at this rate, my Enertia ($7200) will be paid off in 3 years. That's if my chain and tires hold up. Oh yeah and I've got to pay a yearly highway use tax, and a yearly inspection. And I had to pay to have it delivered. Then there was the Best Buy prep fee. Yeah, definitely going to need a spreadsheet.
Personal Observations on the Enertia’s Design
The Brammo Enertia is a motorcycle of striking design. So much so, that I really didn't like it when it first starting making appearances on the Internet. It has some wonderful design influences, but for some reason, I just didn't appreciate them in a modern motorcycle form. For one, it was really tall. I was more accustomed to sportbikes with a low, sleek look and clip-on handlebars.
The Enertia's tall posture.
Some months later, I picked up a 1996 Ducati Monster. The monster is so wide and low in the rear, that I never realized that it's actually pretty tall in the front too.
Ducati Monster from Motorcyclist Magazine.
Retro-Anime?
Immediately, the Enertia struck me as having a retro design. At first, the wide, low-rise, low-swept handlebars reminded me of a flat track bike. Looking a little deeper though, I thought it picked up more subtle design cues from old board track racers: narrow chassis, nearly same-sized front and rear wheels, small tank, footpegs resembling pedals. Heck, the thing could have rocked spoked wheels if they weren't so heavy.
Indian Board Track Racer.
Harley XR-750 Flat Track Racer.
The profile didn't fit, though. From the side, the Enertia looks much larger with its tank and lower bodywork forming a full, round shape bisected by the twin-spar frame. Then there's the modern chopped tail with its plate holder extending way back like a Japanese sportbike. Perhaps I've just been playing too much Final Fantasy XIII and watching too much anime, but the Enertia started to look very Japanese too me. I don't mean contemporary Japanese, I mean fantasy Japanese. In a weird way, the Enertia sort of resembles the following concept from Suzuki with their massive, oversized front ends and tiny, chopped tails.
Suzuki's Anime insprired Biplane Concept
The Enertia's profile is rather large compared to it's svelte figure.
Definitely Freeride MTB Inspired
I was obviously struggling to find out what it is about the Enertia's style that was captivating me. There was something very familiar and sexy about it. I was obviously getting desperate to explain it, so I kind of gave up on the idea and just rode the damned thing.
After riding it for a few days, I really started getting comfortable with its riding position, light handling, and wide bars. One day, I was headed into a low speed corner that was filled with gravel, so I couldn't lean the bike in the typical sportbike-style. In a very natural move, I stuck my foot out instead. It wasn't quite supermoto style though, as I didn't have the bike leaned way under me. No, it actually felt more like downhill mountain biking. I thought to myself, "Wow, this thing is as much fun as mountain biking."
That night I was editing some photos that I took while uncrating the Enertia. I realized that I had my freeride mountain bike leaning against the frame of the garage door in one of them...and it hit me like a ton of bricks. The Enertia is built just like a freeride bike, with its forward cage footpegs, low seat, high/steep-ish frontend, and wide bars.
My Transition Preston FR MTB.
Looks a lot like a Freeride MTB to me.
So maybe I was full of it with regards to my board-tracking, anime machine theory, but I think I'm right on with the freeride MTB idea. The similarities are startling.
- Cage pedals
- Beefy front end
- Coil-over shock with piggy-back resevoir
- Ultra-wide, low-rise, low-sweep handlebars
- Short, stubby stem with raked dropouts on the forks
- Single front disc brake on the left side
- Large round motor cover that looks like a bicycle chainring guard
About the only difference is that he seat on my FR bike is high in that photo...whereas normally it's slammed. Otherwise these bikes are IDENTICAL! Even the angle of the downtube on the FR bike is strikingly similar to the twin-spar frame on the Enertia.
Maybe I'm just seeing the things that I love in the design of the Enertia, but please first consider this. The guys at Brammo live in Oregon, a land of great mountain biking. Oregon's next door to Washington, which is the home of the Transition Bicycle Company who the Preston FR bike show above. The designer at Brammo lists mountain biking as one of his hobbies on ElMoto.net. And the lead engineer is a downhill mountain bike racer. These guys know their motorcycles and their mountain bikes.
Non-Slip Beer Seat
And that's not all. I conjecture that they also appreciate their microbrews as illustrated by this incredibly subtle feature that I found on the Enertia. It has a cleverly disguised, non-slip six pack seat. You can't deny me this one. That little extension on the front of the seat is the perfect place to rest a six pack without having to keep a hand on it. Although it's not like your left hand is doing much on an Enertia without a clutch to operate.
Food Beer for thought...
Un-Crating an Enertia
My Brammo Enertia was delivered today. Woot! I've seen pictures of it crated before, but it was pretty interesting to see it up close. 
The crate has a very sturdy steel tray section that acts as a pallet. The bike is tied down to that...entirely too tight for my taste, as the forks were nearly bottomed out. For my street bikes, I like to leave a little bit of travel to help protect their seals. Anyhow, it was to no ill effect, because as I'll explain in a future post, the suspension is choice.
I'm getting ahead of myself. I must have been one of the last stops on the deliveryman's route. 
The Enertia was all the way at the front of a nearly empty truck. He couldn't back down the driveway, so he just parked on the street. As you can see, the crate nearly filled the width of the truck. Amazingly enough, he was able to pop it up on a pallet jack and spin it around 180 degrees. Then he pushed it out of the truck and onto the liftgate. He was parked on a hill, and all I could imagine was that crate rolling off of the back of the truck.
He lowered it on the liftgate and we rolled it down the driveway and left it horizontally in my one-car driveway in front of the garage. Right after he left, I realized that I didn't have any room to roll the bike off of the base, but it wasn't a problem. It slid on my driveway pretty well, so I just spun it 45 degrees after I got the cardboard off.
The cardboard had taken a little bit of a beating, and it was falling off a little. The cardboard was secured to the upper framework with self-tapping sheet metal screws. Once I removed some of it, I could see that the Enertia was in great shape...and quite a looker too. The paperwork and keys were hanging off the bars, and everything was in order.
I took the rest of the cardboard off, and disassembled the framework. It was constructed of thin-gauge steel box beams. It basically just acts as a frame to protect the crate in case something falls on it during transit. It was bolted together, and the nuts were conveniently welded, so all it took was a single ratchet. Once the framework was down, I removed the ratcheting tie-downs from the front end. The Enertia is extremely light and was really easy to roll off of the back of the base.
That's it in a nutshell...err steel and cardboard crate. I've transported tons of bikes before, but I've never had one crated. I'm not sure how typical this crate-job was, but it was really solid. Certainly better than having a bike bouncing around in the back of a trailer with a bunch of tools, gear, and ez-ups like what I'm used too.
Buying an Enertia
Brammo Motorsports did something rather dramatic. As the story goes, they were looking at an open prototype of an Enertia and commenting how it looked more like a piece of consumer electronics than a motorcycle due to its massive amount of electronics. So why not sell it at a consumer electronics store?
Brammo and Best Buy go racing at the TTXGP
They did just that. The next thing you know, Best Buy is making a serious investment in Brammo and Enertias are being sold in select Best Buy locations alongside their other EV scooters and bicycles. I feel a little torn about this idea. As a geek, I think it's terrific. Best Buy has plenty of locations that can offer the Enertia in the future. They've got easy financing. They unfortunately have the Geek Squad, but I'm sure a Geek Squad member with EV certification will be of a somewhat higher caliber. The motorcyclist in me feels bad for the genuinely good mom and pop dealerships out there that are missing out on the chance to get in on one of the first commercially viable EV motorcycles. As for the mega-slimeball-dealerships, I say screw them! Let them peddle their fuel guzzling Harley's and PWCs.
How to Buy an Enertia
When I finally went to pull the trigger, I was a little confused by Brammo's site. It appears that they have direct sales. And personally, I'd prefer to buy direct than buy from Best Buy unless they could offer me some sort of reduced shipping or something.
My Enertia being prepped at Best Buy.
Well come to find out, Best Buy is the only way to get one right now, AND they provide some nice incentives. When I attempted to order through Brammo's site, it said that direct sales are not available and to send inquiries to directsales@brammo.com. I quickly got a response to my inquiry indicating that all sales are going through Best Buy, so I contacted them.
So here are some easy steps to buying your Enertia.
- If you live on the West Coast, chances are you'll have a Best Buy within a few hours that carries Enertias.
- If you live anywhere else, then visit the site for Best Buy's Portland, Oregon store that sell's Enertias.
- On the main page, you'll see contact information for the store and the two employees that handle Enertia sales. I dealt with Chris Hertz, and have been hugely satisfied. You may want to contact both employees in the event that you catch one of them on a day off.
There are some real advantages with going through Best Buy.
- Best Buy Rewards Zone Card - At first I thought this was a credit card, but it's not. It's a free program that earns you $5 on every $250 purchase. You'll be getting back $160 on the purchase price alone in addition to about $10 back from the shipping and dealer prep fee (fee for doing some final assembly on the bike, changing color panels, updating firmware, testing, and recrating).
- Paperwork - Best Buy does a solid job of getting you a MCO (manufacturer's certificate of origin) and a purchase agreement that serves as a bill of sale. My DMV required another document that I emailed to Chris and he happily filled out for me.
- Shipping - Their shipping rates are quite fair, and came to less than $500 for me from Portland to my door step on the East coast.
- No Sales Tax in Oregon - If you end up ordering through the Oregon store, then you won't have to pay sales tax. This can save you a huge hassle if you live in a state that collects a sales tax or highway use tax when you register the vehicle in the DMV.
- Financing - I've read that Best Buy offers a credit card, and it MAY still have a zero percent interest period.
- Servicing (future) - As Best Buy expands their locations, you'll have more options for servicing. As it stands now, I have a factory warranty, however Brammo might have to fly a technician out of I have any problems. I kind of took a leap of faith in this regard. I'm thinking I could probably fix most any problem I run into with email / phone support and parts from Brammo. I'm not sure if Brammo's comfortable with that liability though.
My Enertia is on the Truck
My Enertia is en route from Portland as I type. I'll post up some photos of the un-crating along with some review comments. I plan on spending a week conditioning the batteries, which involves taking them down to less than 50% and as close to 0% as possible before fully charging them back up and providing extra time on the charger for the cell balancing algorithm to do its job. Then I'll be commuting on it. I hope to track my mileage on a spreadsheet...or maybe on my Nexus One.
Going Electric: Brammo Motorsports Enertia
Brammo Motorsports's Enertia Powercycle
My EV650 Concept
The Tesla Roadster is out of my price range, and quite frankly I'd rather ride Pee Wee Herman's Bicycle into work than an electric scooter. Luckily I stumbled upon ground zero for EV motorcycle conversions, ElMoto.net. I had the idea that I'd try to find a salvage 2002 Suzuki SV650. I could build the motor as a spare for my racebike, and use the rest for my EV commuter. I even went so far as to mock it up using a model that someone did for Google SketchUp.
My EV650 Concept vs. Suzuki's SV650
I spec'd out the motor, motor controller, and batteries that I'd use. When I added that to the other small spare parts, I had an estimate of over $10,000. I realized that this was going to require some saving before I attempted it. Next thing you know I'm getting laid off and two years go by while I settled into a new job and new town...oh yeah, and recovered from a broken back.
Brammo Motorsports Enertia Powercycle
I had been following the EV motorcycle news and knew that the most promising model out there was Brammo Motorsports' Enertia Powercycle. Brammo took high-quality, off-the-shelf EV components and mated them with a custom frame/subframe/swing-arm and quality street motorcycle components to make an EV motorcycle beyond anything that I could have done. The only thing I had going for my EV650 was price. They came in understandably higher. All that changed when Brammo revealed a massive price drop to $7995 at the end of 2009. I knew right then and there that I was scrapping my EV650 and getting an Enertia in the Spring.
I started reading the Brammo forum on ElMoto.net, and saw that Brian Wismann, the Director of Product Development for Brammo, was a regular poster. Pretty much every question that you have is already answered in that forum, and usually by him. It certainly gave me a lot of confidence that they would be an easy company to get in touch with.
Stay tuned to read about Buying an Enertia.