Sol Power–BrammoBlog.com

Brammo Blog is going the distance, Brammo Blog is going for speed. Brammo Blog is all alone, all alone but I got no needs.

Brammoblog Ver 2.0. #7

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This will, like most of my blogs, be mostly a photo blog. Lots of photos and less of me. Trust me, it’s a good thing. There was a Classic Motorcycle show up in Santa Fe and a few of my friends were going, and a few of my friends actually had bikes in the show. So I hopped on the Empulse and headed to the Turquoise Trail. The trip would be about 65 miles and take an hour if I drove on Interstate 25. Or the trip would be 73 miles and take about an hour and a half if I took the Turquoise Trail. To me this was classified as a NO-Brainer.** I-25 is nice the first time you drive it. Fast and actually pretty for a highway. But it gets boring fast. On the other hand, I could ride the Turquoise Trail everyday and never get bored. **No-Brainer: Most would say just about everything about me could be classified that way.

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First short stop. Approx. 30 mins and about 6% added back to the bike.

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I was going to ride up with some of my friends, but most of them trailer-ed up their scooters to the show. The few that drove were on classic, older bikes and had a top speed of around 45 to 50. So I went ahead and stopped at Coffee at Dawn up in Cedar Crest for a snack and some charge. It was only 17 miles into the ride, but I knew the scooters would be another 30 minutes, so why not chill and charge?

Nice people, a tasty raspberry danish and a beautiful morning…I sat for a while till I heard the sound of two strokes riding up the road. I waved them on and went inside to pay my bill, thank the staff for the electrons and then hopped on Walter and took off.

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This bike ended up in the Classic show competition.

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Next hella short stop was in Madrid for this photo. I always have to stop in Madrid for some reason or another.

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Did you know that Madrid had the first Lit Baseball field west of the Mississippi?

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Here I am behind William and his beautiful Lambretta. He is looking for the train at this signal, or doing his Superman pose. Or both.

There was no train and we ended up going around the road blockers. Hooligan style all the way to Santa Fe.

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I got to the Classic Motorcycle show doing a large part of the ride at 65 mph and almost none of my riding at city speeds (7 miles in town, 1 mile though Madrid).

I drove 75 miles and got there at 13%. Showing off my mad math skillz: that’s 13% minus the 6% I recouped at Coffee at Dawn = I would have gotten to Santa Fe with about 7% of the battery. A bit close, but doable. Check out my charging amps, baby.

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Here I am getting some high power charge (24 amps). I looked ahead and found out that there is a clipper creek charger 2 blocks from the Motorcycle show at Go Solar.

I emailed the owner and he told me he would reserve the charger for me. Thanks PlugShare app….and….

Thank you Go Solar.

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Though the “CAR” Charger sign is discriminatory against electric motorcycles.

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Now that I knew I would have plenty of charge to get home, it was off to the show.

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Scooters, mopeds…Motorcycles

Some for sale…

Most not…

Blue bikes…

Dirt bikes….

Shiny bikes

Custom bikes

shiny custom bikes

Cannonball winning bikes

Panorama—click to embiggen—

and dang…look at what doing a panorama did to the gentleman in the middle. At least I hope that is a Panorama error. If not, I ain’t sleeping tonight

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Another Panorama, though not a scary one.

This panorama also includes the smartest person there. It was HOT and SUNNY

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So I decided that it wasn’t right for all these bikes to have fun and Walter was all alone. I went back and got him and figured I would charge later.

Now the parking at the show is only for Classic bikes, everybody else had to park out back. But when I drove up to the entrance the gentleman said, “Well that’s a Modern Classic. And the people will want to see it. So park up front in Special Vehicle parking.” And so I did…after I rode around the show once to give all the people a chance to do that double take they do…

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I parked next to this crazy little 3 wheeler.

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The Brammo and this car received about the same amount of attention.

Then the 3 wheeler left early

I stood around for a while answering lots and lots of questions. But I also wanted to walk around a bit.

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Some of my 2 stroke riding friends and their aptly named garage.

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Still I left Go Solar with only about 50% charge. That is the price you pay for wanting to show off your bike. Luckily at the Motorcycle show was a micro-brew…and I’ve never had a micro-brew tell me I couldn’t get some charge. Thank you Santa Fe Brewing for some charge and a beer while I waited.

 

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Well I only had a beer and then had to visit with people some more and wait some on the charging. Sadly the micro-brew only had 110 charging and I am an impatient man…so I ended up heading home with the bike only charged to 88%. I figured I got to Santa Fe with about 7% left (I didn’t plan to stop on the way back for charging), and I would be going from 7000 feet to 5000 feet at home. So if it took 93% to get to Santa Fe I should be able to get home on 88%. And I was correct. BARELY.

And yes, you can run a battery down to ZERO and be fine.

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I wasn’t overly worried as there are lots of places to get some charge on the way home. 110 outlets are like pimples in a middle school. Everywhere and more popping up each day. Still it was fun to come home on exactly zero.

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It was a fun day. Talked to lots of people. Put a fun and beautiful 150 miles on the Empulse. And got home with no problems. But dang it was a hot and unforgiving day. The clouds seem to stay on the horizon and never come overhead.

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till next time:

Gavin

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For more info on Brammo, please visit: www.brammo.com
For more images, photos, discussions and all around Brammo goodness: visit, lurk and maybe join: www.brammoforum.com

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I don’t really have a Bonus…except to say I will be at Miller Motor Sport Park in Utah for the Bonneville Vintage Grand Prix.

http://www.millermotorsportspark.com/events/bonneville-vintage-gp.html

People should go. You get to see some great bikes in a very intimate, low key setting. And you get to see some Electric Motorcycle racing. And you get some side car racing and stand and run to your bike racing. Basically some cool and crazy stuff.

Go here:

http://www.millermotorsportspark.com/events/bonneville-vintage-gp/photo-gallery.html

and video