Electric Dirt Bikes are coming…
Powersports are changing from petro to electro fast!
Are you ready ditch your gas-powered dirt bike?
I think it is accurate to say that you are prepared to give your gas powered dirt bike a run for its money! Becoming an early adopter is scary…and converting some portion of your life to electric is going to happen sooner or later!!! We have to tell you that electric dirt bikes are awesome? We’re jump-starting the discussion a little and taking a gander at what these battery-controlled monsters are equipped for nowadays.
CAKE is a Swedish electric bike company born out of a passion for gravity sports, and on a mission to develop the highest performance electric two-wheelers with the mission, to inspire and contribute to accelerating towards the zero-emission society, combing excitement with responsibility.
THE ADVANTAGES OF ELECTRIC DIRT BIKES OVER GAS
Let’s start with exactly that, the ignition. On a traditional petrol dirt bike it’s kick-start all the way, which can be tedious to say the least and prohibitive for younger and lighter riders. The great joy of the electric version is that it’s a case of turn the key, press the ignition switch and away you go.
No kick-start also means no stalling, which in turn means no need to rev the engine, which then means pretty much no loss of traction moments. And once you’re up and running, there’s no clutch or gears, just a throttle and brakes.
All this suggests electric dirt bikes are easy to ride, making the sport more accessible to youngsters and novices. Of course, to die-hard gas heads it’s a case of not needing any skill to ride these bikes, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a lack of fun.
Another major point of the latest e-bike technology is they are silent. Add to that the fact that they are zero emissions and the local ramblers might not hate you after all when you go for a ride out on your local green lanes (as long as you are fully road legal, of course). True, the sound of a two stroke engine at full throttle will be missed by many, but in these environmentally-conscious times maybe quieter is no bad thing.
When it comes to maintenance, there’s nothing really to go wrong. No oil change, no grease and no engine troubles. You’ll still have to take care of the suspension, bearings and chain and then there’s the aspect of battery life.
THERE MUST BE SOME DOWNSIDES TO RIDING OR OWNING AN ELECTRIC DIRT BIKE?
The major downside of owning and running an electric dirt bike is that it can be fairly cost-prohibitive at the moment. Something like a KTM Freeride E costs around $12,000 and extra batteries and chargers can cost several thousands of pounds. BUT the new LUNA Sur-Ron X bikes may just be the winner for the dirt bike / mountain bike rider….and the price is right (we hear around the $4500 mark).
Of course, each charge may only cost a matter of pennies in terms of electricity, there’s the overall life expectancy of the battery and how long each charge will last to consider too. Many of the new generation electric dirt bikes have different selectable ‘ride modes’ , which means if you’re just having a cruise around your battery life will be much longer than someone constantly accelerating or braking.
Although having said that, clever technicians, like those at French-based company Electric Motion, have come up with a system that means a brake button slows the bike down going downhill, but recharges the battery at the same time.
WHAT TYPES OF ELECTRIC BIKES ARE OUT THERE TODAY?
A quick search in Google and you’ll see there are loads of cheap, imported electric bikes for kids. You can get one of these for a few hundred dollars, but they are just toys. Whilst the electric car sector is growing with the likes of the Nissan Leaf and Tesla, the same can’t really be said for performance road and touring motorbikes, yet. Developments by companies such as
- KTM Freeride E-XC. KTM is a monolithic name within motorsports, and to say that they’re one of, if not the most, dominant motorcycle company in today’s medium isn’t far from the truth. …
- Electric Motion Escape. …
- Zero FX. …
- Alta Motors Redshift MX. …
- Cake
- Sur-Ron
- Segway
so far…
Electric scooters are fairly well-established and great for messing around the busy town and city streets. However, it’s in the leisure/off road sector that motorbike manufacturers are coming on in leaps and bounds.
Keep your eyes open for the electric dirt bike revolution to hit us all very soon!
Fact Credit: intotheblue
