One of the biggest problems with Electric Motorcycles is that after riding them you can't just poor some gasoline in the tank and keep going. You have to recharge the battery, and that's not easy when you are in a remote location or camping. Obviously a gas generator is the most affordable way to recharge your eMoto bike, BUT many of our customers hate hauling gas around and can't stand the noise that a generator makes. So, we're going to show you some new products on the market that solves this problem!
Portable Power Stations - What are they?
A portable power station is a massive Lithium Ion Battery (exactly what's inside your eMotorcycle) with a built in inverter to provide power through both AC and DC ports. Many of them, including all that we sell, can be recharged not only from your homes 120v outlet, but also by using portable solar panels making them incredibly convenient and efficient. Theoretically you could ride your motorcycle using 100% free and green solar energy.
Common Features
- Large LiFePO4 Internal Battery 1000+Wh
- High Power Outputs of 2000W or more
- Multiple 120v outlets, some have 240v and 30amp
- Multiple USB-C and USB-A outlets for your electronics
- Easily portable and encase in a rugged design
- Recharging by either 120v or Solar Input
Big Bikes, Big Batteries!
The grid below is an example of a what a moderately sized F2600 or large capacity F3800 is capable of producing for common eMotorcycles out there. Obviously the larger and more powerful the bike the larger the Power Station you will need to recharge it. If you look at a bike like the Stark Varg or Ultra Bee you can see that you need a large (and expensive) power station to recharge it multiple times. Remember the % calculated below is considering a 0% fully discharged battery. Since we almost never ride a bike to full discharge a rating of 80% is probably all you need to fully recharge your bike one time.
| Bike | Battery Capacity | F2600 | F3800 |
| Surron LBX | 2040 Wh | 125% | 188% |
| Rawrr Mantis | 2100 Wh | 122% | 183% |
| Talaria MX3 | 2280 Wh | 112% | 168% |
| Apollo RFN Beta | 2590 Wh | 99% | 148% |
| Talaria MX4 | 2700 Wh | 95% | 142% |
| E Ride Pro SS | 2880 Wh | 89% | 133% |
| Surron Ultra Bee | 4070 Wh | 63% | 94% |
| Stark Varg | 6048 Wh | 42% | 63% |
Can I recharge my bike more than once?
It depends! If you have a smaller bike like the Light Bee you could get multiple charges out of the F2600 or F3800 and might even be satisfied with a smaller F2000 power station. By using the chart above you can get an idea of how many charges you can get out of a power station...and remember you're not typically charging from 0%, more like 20-30%. The real key to recharging multiple times is by using Solar Panels to recharge your Power Station.
How can I recharge my Surron or Talaria off of Solar?
The beauty of power stations is their ability to plug into a portable solar panel and use the energy of the sun to recharge itself during the daytime so that you can keep your power station charged indefinitely and recharge your bike(s) over and over again for an entire weekend or longer.
But how do you know how large of a power station you need and how large of a solar panel to keep up with your power needs? Tough question, let's help you answer it. Let's take some assumptions, you have an F2600 Power Station with 2560Wh of capacity and a 400W solar panel plugged into it. You plan to use 140% of your bikes battery each day, which is the equivalent of two rides using 70% of the battery each time. How much solar do you need to keep riding multiple days?
| Bike | Wh Ridden Daily | Hours of Solar Needed |
| Surron LBX | 2856 |
7 Hours @400W 3.6 Hours @800W |
| Talaria MX4 | 3780 |
9.5 Hours @400W 4.7 Hours @800W |
| Ultra Bee | 5698 |
14 Hours @400W 7 Hours @800W |
You can see that you need a lot of solar production to keep up with these massive batteries. A single 400W panel can barely keep up with a Light Bee or MX4 that is ridden twice each day assuming you have clear sunny sky. With an Ultra Bee you need 800W or more to keep up with your riding, but it's certainly possible.
What's Charged Cycle Works Recommend?
#1 - Buy a Power Station with enough capacity to charge your bike one time. And if you have multiple bikes (family & friends) take that into consideration. You need to be able to charge each bike once off your power station. If you're not sure your battery size, the formula used is this: Amp Hours * Voltage = Watt Hours
#2 - If you need more than one charge or riding for consecutive days, add the appropriate amount of solar panels to keep up with the riding you plan to do. Remember, while you are out riding for hours, your power station is recharging and ready for you when you get back to camp. Calculate how much battery you are going to burn through by multiplying your bikes Watt Hours multiplied by the % of battery you plan to use each day. For example an MX4 battery is 2700Wh and 2 rides 70% each will use 140% of your battery which is 2700*1.4 = 3780Wh. Now that you know how much Wh you will use simply divide that by the size of the solar panel(s) 3780/800 = 4.7 Hours.
#3 - Your power station is an incredibly useful tool that can power almost anything! Think of all the other things you can use it for: Camping, power outage, job site, back yard, tailgaiting, a day at the beach or in the mountains, the way you can use them is nearly endless.
Hopefully this helps you understand how to size your power station and solar panels appropriately for your needs. Leave us a question below or ask us a question on our website chat if you need any help deciding what would work best for you.
You can see all of our power stations and solar products here
Charge The Trails!