From your own graph, a petrol motorcycle is the most efficient ICE excluding a bus and even more efficient than an electric kick scooter. That impressive to me, should be encouraged in built up areas
All the governments through the decades have failed to provide proper infrastructure, there's no reason we couldn't have electrified our rail network by now and have a much faster network, new routes, new lines.
Naas has no rail link ffs in 2024.
Irish Trains are slow, I was on the 400 Km/h fast train in Germany around 8 years ago, very comfortable, wouldn't know you were moving and I think it got to around 417 km/hr at one stage, a completely different way of travelling, it would be an amazing way to commute but then you get to your destination and have no way to get to the industrial estates.
We are so far behind with transport infrastructure and to think the Government want to continue to inflict higher and higher tax because ryan is anti car in general and the more people he can force off the road through higher taxes the better in his mind, well, it's not the answer.
100 km range at 80 Kph ? keep dreaming.
All current bikes have to comply to the latest emissions regulations just like cars and remember bikes are much more efficient. A car that might average 7 L/100 km in city driving will emit far more emissions than a 2.0 - 3 l/100km 125/300 cc modern bike.
The reason there's no one promoting petrol motorbikes is they aren't very clean. And all of the emissions would be in congested urban areas, having been in many Asian cities full of motorbikes I don't think the air pollution there is what we should be aiming for.
There's nobody going to complain about the running costs of a modern 125 or 300 cc petrol scooter that can ride anywhere and fill up in seconds and can whiz past traffic stuck in long traffic jams.
I think bikes offer a real advantaged against congestion and when the majority of cars are carrying only 1 person it seems mad the Government aren't trying to promote bikes as a viable single mode of transport, electric cars can't solve this and cars are getting bigger, they're much bigger than they were 30 years ago and much heavier.
I think it's probably better to say that if a lot of the scooter friendly cities suddenly turned to cars then they'd have huge urban sprawl like many cities in the USA
It's definitely a lot better to have city traffic on bikes or scooters or, dare I say it, on a bus than in cars
However the reality of Ireland is that we have a very spread out population relative to many of our peers (thanks property price growth).
So we end up with a lot of long distance commuting, which is generally suited more to a car
Ideally we'd have high speed rail lines, so you could take your scooter to the train station in Cork, bring it on the train, get to the big smoke in 45 mins because a 400km/h train will do that, and then take your scooter to work
However apparently we don't build any rail lines in this country
Most EVs on night rate electricity probably cost less on fuel than an ice scooter. the main advantage of a scooter is congestion, many countries where there are millions of them in cities could not sustain large numbers of cars.
That person cycling past on the bike with two kids and a full shop on the rear carrier was me 😉😂
Electric cargo bike ftw 😁
You're making a great case for an electric scooter. Four to five hour complete charge time, ranges up to 100km which is way more than adequate for popping around town and top speeds up to 80kph. And the batteries are easily removable for recharging without the need for expensive charging points.
The appeal is that petrol scooters can get up to 125 imp mpg which is a lot more than any other ICE car can get in town, a 125 forza or 300cc forza or XMAX for example is a very practical single person mode of transport with decent storage compared to your expensive battery powered petrol "equivalent" Even a SH125i or 300i are brilliant little things for getting about very efficiently. Most of these bikes can carry 2 people.
The petrol scooter can go much further and faster and is cheaper and can ride around all day with petrol rather than needing hrs to recharge for limited to very limited range and if that suits the person then that's fine but the point being we should really be moving from cars that are getting larger and larger from our Towns and cities clogging up the streets, you could fit a lot more scooters/motorbikes in or even have 2 lanes for scooters where you can only have 1 car lane etc.
The larger scooters have a good bit of storage too and could take some shopping.
How many cars do we see with only 1 driver ? and the odd biker filtering through laughing his head off at the rest of us stuck in traffic ?
Electric cars are not going to solve the problem with traffic congesting only our attitude towards how we move people around and big vehicles that are getting even larger, for one person isn't the answer in my opinion.
Do I believe in a congestion charge ? no, because Dublin public transport isn't fit for purpose, if it had a good underground system and a dart like system for the West instead of a crap slow tram then I'd say maybe. But in the meantime there is a lot we could do to remove big cars with one person from our towns and cities with just a simple change in attitude.
Or electric scooters? Really don't see the appeal of driving a petrol scooter in the city. Even worse than driving a car
It's worth noting that in cities where scooters are popular, electric scooters with swappable batteries are taking off big time
Look at the like of Gogoro for example
We're talking cities that are much larger and more spread out than Dublin
see this is where the Government need to promote 2 wheel petrol scooters/motorbikes for city riding, most people in cars are only 1 person, why not encourage 1 person transport such as petrol bikes/scooters, most cars have only 1 driver and we'd free up an awful amount of space if many people would consider 2 wheels.
Like for like, Same power and torque, will still be some lag in the ice. I notice it in the Outlander too, manual, 150 Hp vs 205 Hp id3 but the id3 is a lot heavier and also no gears.
Petrol 500 CC Yamaha Tmax 500 feels way faster than the id3 lol. Mad yoke, I suppose being Auto helps a lot too. It pulls hard, never thought for 500cc that it would have such power but can't imagine th elads on 1300 CC bikes nust be insane altogether, definitely not my thing.
one way to heat up the battery (or burn the place down) I suppose 😳
Hope there is no rain forecast, follow cable.
Going off ev topic...I've cycled to work for 10+ years and never had a bike nicked. But always locked to a metal frame within a bike shed or carpark - won't leave it on the street.
I'd recommend getting one on bike to work scheme. I find it's brill to burn off stress and force me to exercise. I don't cycle every work day
Couldnt be any worse than a petrol Fiat 500L we've got as a rental. Wouldn't be surprised if it did actually have a 500cc engine. I have to apply in writing if I want to increase speed.
Drove ICE car for first time in 2 months, not a great experience. 1.6 diesel focus just about 20 KMs drive dropping it to my brother.
The effort to get it moving was a shock to the system! I'm not sure what power was in it, 110bhp maybe.
Don't think I would ride one in Dublin either
funny enough, I also felt safer driving bikes in Cyprus over Ireland. Glad you had a safe trip!
I am just back from 5 weeks on one in hectic south east asia. And no scares, mainly because everyone is considerate to others, little fast moving larger vehicles and very few rules of the road. Just don't make any sudden moves and it seemed remarkably safe..
"I see the Dutch have a mini rolling road which they test the power of scooters and confiscate ones that are overpowered" haha really ? that's mad.
Yeah I just don't get the mentality of some people on this Island doing what they like and not caring about the consequences.
I really do feel if a lot more people were on petrol scooters we would have a lot less cars clogging up the roads after all, most cars have only 1 person in them most of the time. There are some really great bikes that could work great in the city and beyond while providing 120 Mpg or more, Honda PCX 125, Honda SH 300, Yamaha XMAX 125/300 etc, I think the city and towns would benefit hugely if there wasn't such an emphasis on 4 wheel transport and why don't they promote proper 2 wheel transport be it BEV or petrol ? even the petrol ones are vastly more efficient than a car.
proper battery scooters are very expensive and the range is not good but it could work for a lot more people, the petrol ones can ride in the city and pretty much anywhere else.
Motorbikes would be ok if it wasn't for the mentality of so many motorcyclists. So many see them as get where you're going as quickly as you can as erratically as you can and using cars as an obstacle course. Very rarely see one just going along with traffic no matter how well it's moving, have to get ahead of everyone.
Yeah theft is a problem if you have to leave it on the street, I never understand this in Ireland, in other countries people leave their bikes/scooters unlocked and no one would touch them, why is this an issue in Ireland, not just of course but it is a big issue here and fly tipping in the countryside. Really bugs me that but something I've never seen anywhere in Germany.
Yeah true, although I will say it would be nice if my cargo bike could legally have a bit more than 250W. It gets a tad heavy going uphill with the kids loaded on the carrier
I see the Dutch have a mini rolling road which they test the power of scooters and confiscate ones that are overpowered
I'm guessing they don't have the same class of criminals in the Netherlands because I'm confident something like that would be set on fire here within an hour
I suspect that's partly behind the move to E-scooters because you can use the cycle lanes
I know you aren't supposed to use the cycle lanes but I also don't see the guards stopping anyone doing it
Harder to get away with it on a petrol bike (not to say I haven't seen it done)
So you're safer in that you're separated from the cars
Theft is also a major problem, I still haven't braved cycling into the city for work because I'm worried some scrotes will just rob the bike from under me
Those cheapo battery powered angle grinders from Lidl really made bike ownership a lot harder
Yeah but small battery scooters are not practical for more than a few kms each way, they are slow by comparison, anyway just another mode of transport that I think is quite useful compared to 4 wheels.
A lot of these scooters are running well above legal power speed limits and no form of license, not good.
Dunno about that, the folks I see on E-scooters don't seem to be driving to conserve battery
Scooters are basically designed for short hops, not sure anyone would be too happy driving one from Dublin to Galway
Ah, I just think attitudes in general are different here when it comes to petrol 2 wheels.
battery scooters have their place but petrol scooters/bikes are far more practical for anything other than a couple of miles very slow moving.
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