Paul's Ride Guide: Yet Another Step Toward Electric!

Monday, 17 August 2015

Yet Another Step Toward Electric!

I've had several previous posts on the development and advancement of electric motorcycles, including a recent discussion on the Harley Davidson LiveWire. I test rode that peppy little beast about a month ago and was impressed enough with the look, feel and ride. Many of the other test pilots talked about the potential to see this bike in production and what it might cost, plus other details.
One thing that was mentioned at that time was the purchase of Brammo Electric Motorcycle by Polaris, who are also the manufacturer of Indian and Victory motorcycles. In fact, Victory is the official name attached to what is now the Polaris electric bike, the 'Empulse', as well as the prototype race bikes mostly recently seen at The Isle OF Man TT races. The latter were averaging over 161 kmph laps, so nothing to scoff at there.
As for the Empulse, this is a production bike that has a top speed of 161 kmph and, depending on your riding style and aggression on the throttle, has a range of anywhere from 90- 160 km.. Interestingly, this bike has a clutch with 6 speed transmission, unlike the gearless LiveWire, however the shifting clutching is not required when stopping or starting and isn't actually necessary at all. One could simply cruise in 3rd gear so perhaps the idea of a transmission is to enhance control and/or the riding experience. With a 54 h.p engine that delivers 61 ft lbs of torque, this bike has similar enough specs to compare well with the LiveWire as well, which seems to be the intention.
With a $20,00.00 U.S. price tag and the ability to plug the 10.4 kw/hour battery into the average 240 volt charger that is available at most car charging stations, this bike likely will be as serious of competition as the Victory bikes are to the Harley brand.