I can't consider it much of an emergency when it is discovered before the trip, and can always pedal or push through, but Sudden Range Anxiety is a problem.
I have heard about those big new powerful 600W Meanwell LED supplies. My present at-work Kilowatt charging setup uses three of the 320W units, one for each 25V 6S section. Three of the 600W units would work great but they'd likely trip a breaker.
Actually three of them, each with separate 15A power cord could be connected to one 20A 120V circuit and stay within the 80% rule on continuous loads, but there better not be much else on that circuit - or you'll get to know the breaker on a first name basis...
There isn't a lot of room for an onboard charger on the Borg with the battery/controller setup I have. Just for fun I recently reviewed the Meanwell LED supplies that have constant voltage and current limit from 150W to 600W for volumetric power capacity. The winner is the 240 watt model at 6 watts per cubic inch, the rest are more than 10% lower power density. Three of the 240W units (for 18S) would be about 10x5x3 inches, still tough to find space for onboard. These supplies are also not light, being potted for wet environments and continuous duty. They are excellent chargers with easily accessible adjustments for voltage and current, and they have been very reliable from my experience. They don't have a cutoff feature, so one does have to either add that externally, or disconnect them after the charging current has dropped off.
The 240 watt models are also at a good price point, lower than the 320W units (per unit power), but the 600W units are, per-watt a little cheaper yet. Still, three of the 240 watt units would produce about 75 volts at 10 amps for my 18S system, though I might set them for 8-9 amps for a bit more margin. I run the 320's at 12 amps instead of the 13.33 they are rated. After the home run the 240's would charge the CroBorg in about an hour, at least most of the way. I would probably either put a timer on them or build an auto-shutoff to avoid having it sit cooking too long. Limit to 3 hours or below 100mA whichever occurs first, and monitor the voltage, tripping right away if it ever exceeds 25.2V per 6S group (I charge to 25.0V which is 4.167/cell).
So it depends how fast you want to charge, how much space and weight you can tolerate, and how much power you have versus how much you want to spend. If you have 220V to power it from the 600W units would not be hard to power three of. Of course if your system voltage is lower one might get by with a single supply. Another option is to use 36V supplies for 18S, then only two are required. Two of the 600W 36V supplies would make a very nice 1200W charger for 18S! However I like the charger per 6S approach, it allows me to handle 12S and 18S packs with the same setup, just using 2 of the 3 supplies for the 12S systems. Each supply handles one 6S bank.
A heavier bike, with full suspension, heavier tires and rims, etc will take more energy to move. The Borg weighs a bit over 100 pounds (rear wheel, motor, rim, spokes and tube/tire are 35 pounds, batteries are 24 pounds, it adds up). I'm almost 200 so that doesn't help. My wearable gear (helmet, jacket, clothing, boots) probably weighs another 20 or so. I try to keep the gear in the cantilevered trunk on the light side, they are known to fail before their load ratings, so under 10 pounds including my lunch, the trunk and mount. Quite a lot of copper under the hood, the fairly heavy sinewave controller, plus front forks, brakes, tire, rim, and a few lights and the bike bell and lightweight air horn.
The frame is pretty light, as are the side covers. The two speed crank is heavier than usual but not that significant. The GoPro is a few ounces, the chain a bunch more.
Whatever the weight, it IS WORTH it. After riding the hard tail mountain bike one feels a bit beat up on these roads, but the Borg soaks them up, raises the comfortable speed, and doesn't care if a pedal touches down occasionally, or a pothole tries to grab the tire (or some gravel sneaks underwheel). It just glides along and powers right through.
Some other comparisons:
A quick search for Zero Motorcycle energy consumption, grabbed one quote, just for a comparison:
From http://electricmotorcycleforum.com/boards/index.php?topic=3106.0 :
Phone App says average watt hours per mile is 125 over 2900 miles on a 2013 11.4 S.
Paved, fairly flat, 200# rider with a commute that averages 42mph.
So that is about double the energy consumption at less than double the speed (compared to 60WH/mi at 27). That's with a heavier machine, etc. I see numbers from 80-150 WH/mi on that discussion, depending primarily on speed.
The Tesla takes about 333 watt-hours per mile according to this yearlong 15k mile data: http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1090685_life-with-tesla-model-s-one-year-and-15000-miles-later
From an investment point of view the Borg is a winner, at about 1/3 the cost of most electric motorcycles it is an excellent performer, programmable for motorcycle like performance, stability and comfort at the lower to mid speeds. Of course if you want a dirt bike or freeway speeds the Zero is the type of solution you need, but if you want to ebike to work the CroBorgSVN (Cromotor GreyBorg Warp Sabvoton combo) is a very reliable and comfortable commuter ticket.
