Daily motorbike news, views & reviews
Harley-Davidson boss Matt Levatich (above) has called on motorcycle journalists to help the industry’s future by not just explaining the product but telling readers what it’s like to ride. Harley and the motorcycle industry are facing a slump through trade wars, ageing riders, tough finance, impending recession and a lack of interest among millennials. The …
In a major advance for electric vehicles, in particular motorcycles, a Texas company has produced the Hunstable Electric Turbine (HET) motor that is quieter, cooler, cheaper, smaller yet has double the torque output. HET claims Linear Labs’ HET motor is named after founders CEO Brad Hunstable and his father and CTO Fred. The Hunstables claim their …
Curtiss Motorcycles is now taking orders for the wild Zeus electric motorcycle with radial “V8” batteries and has released plans for the even wilder Hades with a bullet-shaped battery and motor. They say both will go into production next year and cost $US75,000 (about $A106,000). They are now taking “reservations of interest”. That’s much cheaper than …
Some bright spark at Yamaha has filed patent designs that seem to indicate they are planning an electric sports bike that looks a lot like the R1. So far Yamaha has only released the PES1 (Passion Electric Street) road bike and PED1 (Passion Electric Dirt) off-roader for limited sale, mainly in Europe. However, the new design …
Australia’s first electric motorcycle company, Savic Motorcycles, will launch their electric Cafe Racer prototype at the Melbourne Moto Expo on Friday (November 23, 2018). Melbourne rider Dennis Savic, 26, spent more than 650 hours designing and building the prototype. The three Cafe Racer production versions will be made in Melbourne and Taiwan. They will be available …
Electric motorcycles are accelerating into our future with innovative motorcycle designer Erik Buell joining a new electric motorcycle company and Monday Motorbikes increasing production in a new partnership. Erik last year finally sold off all EBR assets last year, but the innovative former Harley-Davidson engineer has now joined forces with F-X Terny of Vanguard Motorcycles …
Zero Motorcycles continues to improve the range of its electric bikes, now claiming a maximum of 360km, up 40km from the previous models. However, Aussies can no longer buy the bikes after Zero Motorcycles pulled the plug on imports to Australia and Asia in June, citing unfavourable exchange rates and taxes. The world’s biggest electric motorcycle …
Since batteries and electric motors can take just about any shape, designers are free to create all sorts of strange vehicles, even this board tracker from European company Avionics. They have unveiled their electric board-tracker-style moped made of wood and steel with orders from September, but no prices announced yet. It’s not the first old-style …
The biggest electric motorcycle company, Zero of California, has pulled out of Australia and Asia, citing unfavourable exchange rates and taxes. However, they promise to continue owner support through distributor GBT Imports who took over in 2013 after the first importer pulled out in 2010. Current (‘scuse the pun) Australian Zero dealers are: Euro Bikes, Noosaville, …
Zero Motorcycles has announced their 2017 models will have increased range up to 200 miles (320km), seemingly kicking down one of the barriers for buyers. However, the extended range only comes with the purchase of an optional $4790 ($US2700) Power Tank. Interestingly, only one power tank has been sold in Australia over the past few years. Over the past …