The overall result of the Will you sacrifice power for a quieter bike poll is that 65% of people will NOT sacrifice power for quietness.
This is a major issue with our sport, as noise is the second major way that people are aware of us. The other way is that whoops and berms tend to form on common tracks, but we can stop them unless we all go slower (yeah right).
But imagine if you will a future where we all ride battery powered torque monsters that make no noise. All of the tracks that are currently limited to use by Mountain bikes could be used by dirtbikes!
A Pipe dream you say? Never happen. It can, and already IS! Read on if you dare.
Bah you scoff, thats years away. But I beg to differ, already these sort of machines are making their way onto the market. In particular, Electricmoto's Blade, which is actually comparable to an XR250 in lots of ways. There is also a forum on Electricmoto for the blade
There are lots of advantages with an electric bike, some of which you only become aware of as you read their site. For example, you can adjust the complete power characteristics of the bike!
With lots of other possibilities.
Some other contenders/websites of interest:
Electric Motorcycles
Nycewheels
Designing and Building an Electric Drive System for a Honda 250 XL Dirtbike
Too tiny not to mention ;-)
And another tiny one!
Yamaha gets in on the act
Yamaha Fuel Cell powered Scooter
Aprilia too
Aprilia also have a fuel cell bike.
Time Magazine Invention of the year
Voloci
Another one, although not as sexy as the blade.
From Electricmoto-On Noise
I run the show here at electricmoto.com and it's amazing to me how the M/C industry has ignored the noise issue. Sure, electric dirt bikes, whatever. But the fact that they are making 4-strokes that are louder then 2-strokes is very weird. A good muffler doesn't have to be heavy, it just needs a lot of volume (bulky).And it does not rob any horsepower. When the AMA dirttrack decible rule was inacted, about 15 years ago, they started doing a lot of dyno testing and in the process, got an XR 750 to nearly 100 hp...and cut the noise of a 750 twin double thumper....
I personally love the sound of 4-stroke singles. But the problem is like the jet ski problem. It's only fun when YOU are making the noise. Tolerating other peoples noise doesn't happen too often.
Ely
da blade
EAT MY SHORTS!!!