Interesting Electric Motorcycle...but not cheap!

[exgman]

I encountered a news story with lots of information about "The Verge" motorcycle. Their most expensive model ($45K) has a a lot of power and a lot of technical sophistication. Here's the URL for the story: https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/7/24028300/verge-electric-motorcylce-ts-ultra-price-photo-ces There are three models from the company. The cheapest is $27K I think.

Here's a photo of the bike:

 

[collingsbob]

Hmmmm, some talk about the safety features…while rider pictured is in a T-shirt..

 

[akbeemer]

Hmmmm, some talk about the safety features…while rider pictured is in a T-shirt..

He had to wear it to go with his sneakers. Probably all he could afford after paying $45k for the bike. I’ll bet that is a very quick bike.

 

[stevenrankin]

Almost

Riding in a T shirt flaunting safety gizmos on this bike is almost as bad as the BMW concept bike rider with no helmet a bunch of years back.

I skimmed the article but I am wondering what happens if one of the six cameras gets a bug splat on it? I find it very humorous testing of self driving cars is being done as far as I know in sunny dry locations. I wonder how said after lidar, radar, cameras will work in a Rochester NY winter? It's bad enough trying to keep a windshield clear while driving on a salt slush road. Oh, maybe as a safety item, self driving cars will "ground" themselves in bad weather?

Sorry about the dig at self driving cars I know this is a motorcycle site. But, six cameras, lol. St.

 

[collingsbob]

We have a Toyota Rav 4 with lane departure technology..it doesnt work on the mostly snow & ice covered roads of Manitoba. The car also has a backup camera which gets covered in snow and ice, rendering it blind.
The car has proximity sensors - to let the driver know how close he is to objects when parking..they get covered in snow & ice..and the alarm then runs non-stop.
All of this technology…only good on a clean car, on clean roads….

 

[oldcamper]

Hubless designs are usually not very practical because wheel bearing speeds are high when they are mounted close to the outer circumference of the wheel. Also, putting the electric motor in the rear wheel adds unsprung weight, also not the best engineering solution.

Cost is another consideration. Lithium-ion battery packs (BEV) currently should cost less than $150 per kilowatt hour, but many product manufacturers with their proprietary battery re-packaging designs price it at many times that. Yes, they have to make a profit, but competition and economies of scale will eventually drive e-bike prices down to a more reasonable level. I can wait.

 

[slowpokepete]

That rider position looks off.

SPP

 

[mjfink420]

201 horsepower and 885 pound-feet of torque

In a car, the HP/torque figures from an EV are kind of neat; most cars have tires that FAR outmatch the engine. Or, put another way, the limiting factor in how fast you go 0-60 is the engine, not the tires.

On a motorcycle though, I'm really not sure what one does with 885 ft/lbs of torque. Having ridden a few motorcycles in the 200HP+ club, I'm equally sure that there's nearly no application of that much power at highway speeds. If you spool the engine up to 200HP in first or 2nd gear, one of two things will happen, you'll break rear tire traction, or you'll have a bike on top of you (wheelie/loop out). Even on my XR, with <200HP/TQ, if you're in the power in 2nd, the front wheel is coming up (without the nannies on) or power is being cut (with the nannies on).

But sure, I'd ride it!! Sounds like a hoot.

 

[akbeemer]

In a car, the HP/torque figures from an EV are kind of neat; most cars have tires that FAR outmatch the engine. Or, put another way, the limiting factor in how fast you go 0-60 is the engine, not the tires.

On a motorcycle though, I'm really not sure what one does with 885 ft/lbs of torque. Having ridden a few motorcycles in the 200HP+ club, I'm equally sure that there's nearly no application of that much power at highway speeds. If you spool the engine up to 200HP in first or 2nd gear, one of two things will happen, you'll break rear tire traction, or you'll have a bike on top of you (wheelie/loop out). Even on my XR, with <200HP/TQ, if you're in the power in 2nd, the front wheel is coming up (without the nannies on) or power is being cut (with the nannies on).

But sure, I'd ride it!! Sounds like a hoot.

I suspect the bike has state of the art traction control that gets the power to the track in a controlled manner.

 

[mjfink420]

I suspect the bike has state of the art traction control that gets the power to the track in a controlled manner.

I'm sure it does, but, the fact remains that there's only so much the tire and geometry of the bike can take. Put a big drag slick out the back and stretch the swingarm a foot or two, no question, an electric motorcycle with close to 1000ft/lbs of torque is going to destroy a 1000cc superbike in a straight line. But most 1000cc bikes (or bigger) today aren't limited by the engine, they are limited by tires and geometry (at least for 0-60 times; a roll on from 30-100, yeah, the electric motorcycle should be faster).

 

[akbeemer]

As speed increases the traction control will be able to apply more of the engine’s power to the road surface. With modern technology on a bike it is much more difficult to have too much power.

 

[mjfink420]

As speed increases the traction control will be able to apply more of the engine’s power to the road surface. With modern technology on a bike it is much more difficult to have too much power.

Yeah, basically what I was trying to say; from 30-100, this thing would destroy any bike out there. Just not sure there's much improvement to be had (with any engine/motor tech) from 0-60. A 1000cc sport bike is going to be metering power pretty much the entire time to keep traction and the front wheel on the ground, it's not power it lacks, it's traction and the directive to keep it shiny side up (wheelie control) that keeps 0-60 times hovering around 2.5 seconds. I recall reading the H2R is in the low 2's, but, AFAIK, nobody even really publishes numbers anymore because it's kind of meaningless. "Fast enough to flip the bike over", which would be true for pretty much any modern bike with 150HP+.

 

[taran1900]

"Interesting" is not what came to mind when looked at the photo of it. "Meh" is what came to mind.