European Dirtbike Conversions

dforesi

10 mW
Joined
Mar 3, 2021
Messages
31
This is just a topic that I wanted to start out of curiosity.

It seems to me that the majority of the electric motocross/enduro bikes seem to coming from Europe, specifically Eastern Europe (as far as I can tell). Does anyone care to comment on why this is? Is there some type of obscure rules that prevent gasoline bikes from being used? I would love to understand what is different vs. North America.

Thoughts?
 
This is just wild guesses!

One reason could be that for example in Poland university is free for everyone with permanent residence and since there is a movement away from fossil fuel, a lot of students might chose to do such projects and then continue afterwords with own projects.

It could also be the work culture, in US you make a lot more money after your education but you're also expected to work long hours - no time to build but a lot of money to buy pre built. In Eastern Europe, the salaries are way lower, harder to find job with high payroll but you are not expected to work those long hours - more time to build stuff, no money to buy pre made.

As I said, just a guess.
 
Recycled EV cells seem more common in Europe, fuel is more expensive. Also their offroad riding is generally a lot tighter and more technical than in most of the USA which is better suited to the power system.
 
hugok said:
This is just wild guesses!

One reason could be that for example in Poland university is free for everyone with permanent residence and since there is a movement away from fossil fuel, a lot of students might chose to do such projects and then continue afterwords with own projects.

It could also be the work culture, in US you make a lot more money after your education but you're also expected to work long hours - no time to build but a lot of money to buy pre built. In Eastern Europe, the salaries are way lower, harder to find job with high payroll but you are not expected to work those long hours - more time to build stuff, no money to buy pre made.

As I said, just a guess.


Interesting comments everyone, I don't doubt that cultural differences play a large roll here.

What kind of weekly hours does the typical full time employee work?

Gasoline prices are cheaper but motorcycles use so little that I can't imagine it is a driving factor.

Certainly cost of new vs used makes sense. I recently moved to the US from Canada and still I was amazed at how much cheaper things were. My brand new YZ450 was $8700 with taxes included. That would have been probably $14,000 in Canada.
 
Some places in Western Europe don't allow filling Jerrycans at gas stations.

Compared to the US, less people haul shit around because of the capital and costs. Therefore I think most ride around their houses, benefiting from the silence and being able to recharge at home.

Also Europe gets cheaper goods from China, because less tariffs and trains get things quicker and cheaper than boat.
 
Well thats just crazy!
Then how are you to get gas when you run out of fuel.

VAT tax is not cheaper mate. But now that the United Kingdom exited the EU your prices will be going up in that country.


cheapcookie said:
Some places in Western Europe don't allow filling Jerrycans at gas stations.

Compared to the US, less people haul shit around because of the capital and costs. Therefore I think most ride around their houses, benefiting from the silence and being able to recharge at home.

Also Europe gets cheaper goods from China, because less tariffs and trains get things quicker and cheaper than boat.
 
cheapcookie said:
Some places in Western Europe don't allow filling Jerrycans at gas stations.

LOL
Sure.
Here in France, there are signs saying this (jerrycans not allowed) at every gas station.
But nobody cares.
I myself have been doing this dozens of times without any problem.

cheapcookie said:
Also Europe gets cheaper goods from China, because less tariffs and trains get things quicker and cheaper than boat.
My motor, controller and stuff came by air freight from China...
 
Sounds about right. Everything is illegal on paper but not in practice, this way the police can always have a justifiable reason for giving you a hassle lol.

Seriously though, that's crazy. In US and Can the only rule I know of is that you need to remove the jerrycan from your truck bed when filling, due to risk of static charge.
 
I think its everywhere. We all here know how much cheaper it is to do a conversion compared to buyng a new electric dirt bike (even a gasser dirt bike). About ten years ago, most manufacturers (KTM, Honda, Yamaha, etc) converted to a twin-spar upper frame, which makes finding a ten year old dirt bike cheap into an easy E-conversion. Zero FX and Sur-Ron Light Bee are hard to find in stock, all models selling very well.

Below is a pic of a 2009 on the right, and a 2010 on the left. From above, looking down

QS2.jpg

I just read about a guy who bought and old worn-out 2-wheeler for $750, and sold the engine/transmission for $550 to another guy who who had blown his engine. Swapped-in the electric parts ($2000?) and he had an electric off-roader for less than new. If you ride near your home, you don't have to buy gas (remote riders often have two batteries and run a gasoline generator)

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=110633

emotoHusky1-700x400.jpg
 
Price of gas in Slovakia is 1.58 EU per liter, so $1.86 in USD

3.78 liter per US gallon, so...$7.00 USD per gallon of gasoline.

Prices vary, but there's no place around there where its cheap. With eastern Europe being part of the former Soviet bloc, the people there are very resourceful and adaptive. When you don't have a lot of money, and the stores don't have much of anything on the shelves...you learn to figure things out...

https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/gasoline_prices/Europe/
 
I seriously doubt that chinese imported stuff is cheaper here than in USA.
Maybe things have went up in USA lately, but look at prizes on stuff in US vs EU on ebay for example.
From what I have seen it is usually pretty much cheaper in US.
Sure, much stuff is cheaper in eastern europe than it is in the west. And a lot af stuff is cheaper in England than here in Sweden as well (but the bastards left EU, so now it is expensive to buy from them :wink: )

When I import from china, lets say a motor for 200 euro and 150 euro shipping.
Then I get to pay 350, and 28,5% taxes. Then often some extra fee, so about 30% in total.
350 x 1,3= 455euro.
 
I found this online:

"The customs tax is depending on the goods value and shipping destination. Each country customs has different tax free good value regulation for goods imported from other countries. For example, USA 800 USD, Australia 1000 AUD, New Zealand 300 USD, Singapore 200 USD, west EU countries 22 EU, Canada 20 CAD etc."

So basically, whatever is purchased from china and shipped to the US should mostly fall under the tax free limit, where as in EU you'll be taxed for pretty well anything you purchase for a foreign supplier.
 
Here we have the opposite of tax free. If something is too cheap we get an extra fee.
Lets say I buy something from outside of the EU for $1 including shipping.

Then the tax is almost nothing, but I get a handling fee of about $10.

Exactly that actually happened about a week ago, a seller split up an order of maybe $50 and shipped one part with a value of maybe $3 separate.
So 2 handling fees of about $10 on that order, + the 30% taxes.
 
Sounds terrible. Not sure when these governments are going to learn that excessive tax will bring them less revenue.

When I used to live in Canada I noticed a lot of people and businesses would offer "special" cash prices. Later, after moving to the US, I read that Canada's "underground economy" is twice that of the US on a per capita basis. Not surprising.


OH WELL, back to dirtbikes.
 
Do you guys actually pay vat / taxes on full price? Normally sellers in China can write like 1/5 of the price on the declaration.
 
MikeSnow said:
Do you guys actually pay vat / taxes on full price? Normally sellers in China can write like 1/5 of the price on the declaration.

And the the customs know that, so on bigger orders they dont care what is written on the package.
You have to send a copy of what you payed. At least if they think it seems cheap.
 
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