An adventure is when you don't know how things will turn out.
I just had an adventure with the sleek and cool Ryvid Anthem electric motorcycle. Ryvid is a company founded by designer Dong Tran. The company builds electric motorcycles right here in Southern California. Their website shows urban hipsters commuting to work at tech startups, disconnecting the bike's 4.3 kWh battery and carrying it into their cubicles to charge all day. Damn these hipsters!
It was the website's claim of “up to 75 miles of range” that started my adventure. If I had scrolled a little further, I would have seen the size of the battery and realized that to travel 75 miles using just 4.3 kWh, you would have to travel over 17 miles on each kWh, which is in made possible, and I did it later, but on flat ground in city traffic.
Of course, I hadn't really thought about it until I decided to take the Ryvid for a 35 mile ride. climb in the San Gabriel Mountains for the Good Vibrations Breakfast Club. GVBC takes place every Friday at the long-closed Newcomb's Ranch, 5,340 feet above sea level in the San Gabriels on Angeles Crest Highway. A vertical mile affects the range of the BEV.
Desperately optimistic, I set off, wrapped in the best Dainese Gore-Tex riding gear I owned, one eye on the amp gauge, one on the road ahead looking for squirrels, and a third eye in the tiny mirrors, ready to dodge the Porsches. It was going to explode soon.
The gauge kept dropping, from 100% after recharging it at the foot of the highway, to 75, 50, 25… I was doomed. I finally gave up at a point perhaps five miles from Newcomb's, with a gauge reading 17%.
I knew there was an electrical outlet at the ranch, but the power had gone out there because it closed shortly after COVID hit. There was a visitor center up there, but it wasn't always open. All I could do was roll down the hill and pray to the regenerative braking gods.
The problem was that it wasn't all downhill. There were climbs of several kilometers, which the battery charge gauge didn't like. At about 12% load, I was back at the gate where ACH was closed for landslide repairs. Like everyone else, I had had to take a bypass route that added 20 miles to the trip, going up Upper Big Tujunga Canyon and back to ACH. If I could just take the shorter, closed part of the ACH, I might be able to get to the old Red Box ranger station. This one was also closed, but there might have still been an electrical outlet there somewhere.
That's when I met Sam from CalTrans. The road maintenance worker had jumped out of his truck and was opening the shortcut gate just as I arrived. I explained my predicament: an electric scooter, the battery almost empty, hoping to get to Red Box and help a brother. Sam let me go. “Just be careful around construction,” he warned.
If I went 5 mph or less, I could draw less than 5 amps, it appeared, and maybe I'd get there. I sputtered, cursing my poor planning.
Then I saw Sam again: he was waving at me. Next to him was a diesel mechanic named Jason who was monitoring two of the largest portable electric chargers I've ever seen. SunBelt Rentals is written on the sides.
“What kind of grip do you have?” » asked Jason.
“120,” I told him. There, hanging from the side of the number 1 Cummins diesel generator, was a 120 volt power cable! It was a Christmas miracle! I even brought the little 120 volt charging cable. I plugged it in. It fits ! Saved by the bolt.
Sam is gone. Jason had nothing to do but make sure both generators kept running, so he was happy for the company. We talked for an hour about everything: our favorite helicopters, the likelihood of V22 Ospreys ever falling into private hands, our favorite jets, the efficiency of diesel engines, the power grid in the mountains that powered both generators while SoCal Edison worked on them. the power lines in the valley – everything.
After an hour I checked the charge status: 59%! I was saved! I thanked Jason, jumped on my reborn Ryvid, and rolled down the hill, faith in humanity, diesel power, and SunBelt Rentals fully restored. My fear of being the next Otzi Man – spat out at the bottom of a glacier 5,000 years after running out of juice – was gone.
What did all this mean? Plan ahead. Simple. Electric vehicles, even scooters, can work if you plan ahead. Also, don't bring a knife to a shooting. And God bless CalTrans. And go rent something from SunBelt Rentals.
Mark Vaughn grew up in a Ford family and spent many hours holding the light on a straight-six miraculously powered by a single-barrel carburetor while his father cursed Ford, all its products, and everyone who worked there. It was his introduction to objective automotive criticism. He began writing for City News Service in Los Angeles, then moved to Europe and became editor of a car magazine called, creatively, Auto. He decided that Auto should cover Formula 1, sports prototypes and touring cars: no one stopped him! From there, he interviewed Autoweek at the 1989 Frankfurt Motor Show and has been with us ever since.