Mission Motorcycles

[strider]

I recently had the pleasure of having Mark on one of my flights. Spent ~45 mins talking with him about MM and other topics. Great guy with incredible visions/goals/projects. He was kind enough to bring the techno-speak of many topics down to a level a pilot could understand . After talking with him I gathered MM is very humble when it comes to the capabilities of their motorcycles.

Cool! How did that come up? Did you recognize him and start talking to him?

 

[TonyWilliams]

I think the better plan is to support either CHAdeMO or J1772 Combo (or both) .. Nissan is rolling out a charger network now that would work well for the Mission bikes.

I'm looking at the Mission R as well, primarily because of its DC charging support.

Well, if you actually want to find non-Tesla places to charge, CHAdeMO is the logical choice by an overwhelming margin. Zero Motorcycle offer CHAdeMO on their bikes (10kW, 100 volts * 100 amps).

CHAdeMO claims that 800 more charge station will be added during 2014 in Europe alone.


The number of CHAdeMO DC Quick chargers installed up to today is 3533.

Japan
1,967 CHAdeMO
0 Frankenplug

Europe
1000 CHAdeMO
20? Frankenplug that are incompatible with USA

USA
554 CHAdeMO
6 Frankenplug that are incompatible with Europe (and many / most are reported to not even work)

Others
12 CHAdeMO
0 Frankenplug

- - - Updated - - -

Al,
I've grown fond of my Zero DS. I spent the last twenty years on liter class sport bikes and the Zero was my first exposure to electric. In fact, it was the thing that made me realize range anxiety was not real and that made the MS a real possibility (and, of course, led to purchasing them). Anyway, I kinda like the enduro feel of the Zero DS and will likely keep it when the Mission shows up. I guess I'm getting older.

I just got rid of the last of my oil burner bikes, and I think I'll get a Zero DS.

My oldest son, not me!!!

Still have this one, for sale, KLX-110

 

[lolachampcar]

Tony,

I would not try that with my DS for fear of the pile of trash I would have on landing. The battery, motor and the like are well done but the remainder of the bike is some of the cheapest crap I have seen shipped. It's a lot like one of those scooters you get from China at the local auto parts store. I'd kill for one of you DB guys to find a fitment to swap some reasonable super motard suspension onto the DS and get rid of that FastAce stuff.

The Mission R looks like a "Proper Villain" with some very nice running gear.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Tony,

I would not try that with my DS for fear of the pile of trash I would have on landing. The battery, motor and the like are well done but the remainder of the bike is some of the cheapest crap I have seen shipped. It's a lot like one of those scooters you get from China at the local auto parts store. I'd kill for one of you DB guys to find a fitment to swap some reasonable super motard suspension onto the DS and get rid of that FastAce stuff.

The Mission R looks like a "Proper Villain" with some very nice running gear.

Hopefully, Mission will join their motorcycle competition during the BC2BC-2014 rally and I'll get a chance to look at it real close. So far, everything looks "top shelf", but I don't like a 1000cc race bike chassis on the street. I have a brother who can wheelie an R1 for miles at a time, usually at three digit speeds. Too crazy for me on public roads.

Yes, I already determined that I'd have to swap an entire suspension (I think I can find some good stuff in my garage). I'll probably have to have some triple clamps custom made, and then I might have to either beef up, or change the frame. I've seen the steering head break off a factory race bike before... ugly.

I think I want some saddlebags with extra batteries, too, like Terry Hershner did on his globe trotting Zero. There's not much I'll probably use from the original bike besides the running gear / battery.

 

[lolachampcar]

Tony,

Two observations.
First, if you do a suspension conversion, please keep me in mind as I would like to duplicate your work. I'm sure there is a reasonable solution out there (excepting the direct link rear shock perhaps) but I am not close enough to that world to know what it would be.

Second, if you are going to scrap most of the bike, Zero sells motors and batteries while Harlan at Hollywood Electrics has you covered for speed controllers.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Tony,

Two observations.
First, if you do a suspension conversion, please keep me in mind as I would like to duplicate your work. I'm sure there is a reasonable solution out there (excepting the direct link rear shock perhaps) but I am not close enough to that world to know what it would be.

Second, if you are going to scrap most of the bike, Zero sells motors and batteries while Harlan at Hollywood Electrics has you covered for speed controllers.

Did not know that. Then, I might just use a Yamaha YZ-450F.

 

[Captain Ducman]

Cool! How did that come up? Did you recognize him and start talking to him?

Unfortunately, we don't get as much time or freedom to greet the customers as we used to. However, a little ways into a ~12-13hr flight he noticed something that needed to be brought to our attention. He handed a sheet of paper with his finding as well as a few of his accomplishments (certainly proving he knew what he was talking about) on it to a flight attendant, and let's just say after seeing Mission-Motorcycles on the list it was all I could do to not jump out of the pit to go back and talk EVs and E-motorcycles and of course the issue at hand.


I always try to avoid extra attention to high profile pax as they normally want to just relax, rest and be left alone. Mark Seeger was an extremely nice, low key and uber smart guy. Topics ranged from bikes, boats, cars and dogs, It was as if I was talking to my neighbor over beers. I'm looking forward to flying out to CA and seeing M-M first hand.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Interesting profile on Mark Seeger (no, he doesn't have Tesla in his pedigree):

InsideHook | Mark Seeger Man of the Month

 

[Al Sherman]

Brutus V9 Electric Motorcycle No idea how capable of actually delivering this company is

This is more like it. Can I buy this now? How would I service it?

Al,
I've grown fond of my Zero DS. QUOTE]

I can see how this would be a LOT of fun. But, not what I'm looking for in the electric bike category.

 

[mnx]

As far as Zero goes, you'd want to check out the Zero SR... 67hp, 106ftlbs torque... 0-60 in 3.3s Starts at $17,845 CAD though...

@lola,

I'm currently riding a 2011 Kawa ZX-10R. Does the Zero DS offer the same kind of performance? If not, I'm thinking the Mission R definitely will...

 

[domenick]

Mission Motorcycles was just featured in the Translogic video series, which has just been incorporated into Autoblog. Interestingly, in the comments, someone claims to have taken delivery of one already.

Is that someone here?

 

[Hodginator]

Mission Motorcycles was just featured in the Translogic video series, which has just been incorporated into Autoblog. Interestingly, in the comments, someone claims to have taken delivery of one already.

Is that someone here?

Wish it was me!

 

[lolachampcar]

Not me either.

That was a quick glimpse of the new dash and another mention of DC charging. I wonder where they are going to find a nationwide network of DC charging stations? I hope they did not go chademo.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Not me either.

That was a quick glimpse of the new dash and another mention of DC charging. I wonder where they are going to find a nationwide network of DC charging stations? I hope they did not go chademo.

Why? Do you think Tesla would offer them a deal on Superchargers?

Those are the only two DC quick chargers widely deployed in the USA.

 

[dsm363]

CHAdeMO would be better than nothing but wouldn't really allow for cross country travel.

 

[lolachampcar]

Mark drives a MS so my money is on SCs.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Mark drives a MS so my money is on SCs.

Will Tesla allow that? Or, will they acquire Mission at some point, I wonder?!

 

[strider]

Only a stark-raving lunatic would drive cross-country on a Mission R :scared: My bet is on Chademo as that is the only DC charger that can be purchased today. So race tracks could buy them and make them available while they cannot do that w/ Tesla SC's. Besides, 50kW is plenty to recharge a 12-17kWh battery in the time it takes to pee and grab a drink if traveling or in between sessions at a track day.

I'm thinking even the 10kW on-bord would be enough to do a track day. One of the tracks I frequent out here (Thunderhill) has RV hookups in the paddock so there are lots of 14-50's there. Laguna Seca has a 14-50 and some kind of twist-lock 50A plug in the paddock and 10-30's in the garages. Sears Pt has a 6-50 in Garage 1. So there are plugs around but they are scarce at 2 of the 3 tracks I frequent.

I've been meaning to ask that person in the comments how they came to acquire an R when they aren't even shipping RS's yet.

 

[domenick]

Will Tesla allow that? Or, will they acquire Mission at some point, I wonder?!

Tesla would allow that, but Mission Motorcycles would have to pay for the privilege and its bikes would have to be capable of dealing with a 135 kW power source.

If I were Mission, I would do everything I could to make this happen, since it would not only be of huge advantage to its customers to have a true fast-charging network in North America, Europe and China, but also give the company a certain level of prestige and a huge (huge!, I say) amount of press.

I expect he was speaking of ChaDemo

 

[WarpedOne]

Tesla would allow that, but Mission Motorcycles would have to pay for the privilege and its bikes would have to be capable of dealing with a 135 kW power source.

Power is not a problem.
Problem could be minimal voltage the superchargers can 'generate'. This must be 'appropriate' for charging a depleted battery.

There are Voltage/Current charts of MS60 and MS85 charging at SC stations showing that at the start voltage rises from 0 V up to ~320V for 60kWh packs and up to ~360V for empty 85kWh packs. So SC are obviously capable of supplying current at any voltage between 0 and 400V. They only need to know what kind of battery is connected so they don't up the voltage too quickly and 'fry' the battery with too much current.