29 October, 2010

Charge on the run

Range anxiety.  We all suffer from it at one time or another.  I'll be picking up the bike from Newcastle and it's 300 km to home.  More than the range on the DS (unless I ride at 40 km/h).

My partner is convinced that I'm either going to be pushing or someone is going to charge me hundreds for a recharge.  She suggested that I should call ahead and arrange charging.  Not a bad idea.  My favourite stop on the highway is a place called Myalla Magic in Buladelah.  Good food and coffee, but they don't know me at all.  So I rang them just now and spoke to Shelley.

Hi!, I'm Jason, I'm going to be riding an electric motorcycle up the Pacific Highway in a couple of weeks and I'm looking for somewhere to recharge while I have lunch."

"No problem, what do you need?"

"Just a 240 volt powerpoint where I can plug in an extention cord."

"No, we've got a shed out the back where your bike will be safe and there's a power point in there, just ask for Shelley when you arrive or if it's Sunday, call ahead and I'll leave a note for the weekend staff"

My god! How easy is that!

Problem solved, anxiety over.  This electric vehicle thing might be easier than I thought.

28 October, 2010

Heard from Phil and from Jeff

Seems that Zero is a first names sort of a place.  That suits me.

I sent a query to Zero via their website saying I've bought a DS and asking what sort of generator I needed to charge the it with.  Very quickly I got a reply from Jeff advising me that they're arranging demo rides in my area...  Hmmmm  I emailed him back saying "hey, I already bought one, but I had a tech enq".  So he asked me what the enqiry was.  So I emailed him back, and asked (again) do I need a pure sine wave inverter generator or a normal one, and how big it needs to be?  Also would it be ok to leave it connected to Off Peak electricity that comes on for 8 hours every night? Silence... 

On the plus side I got a phone call from Phil just to let me know that the ship with my bike on it docks tomorrow.  (Saturday) but there will be no movement for four days as Monday and Tuesday are both public holidays.

Still it's all running according to plan and if nothing goes wrong with ADR compliance then I should be taking delivery in 3 weeks. 

I'm beside myself!