The coming of the electric motorcycle

“When we first built it, we took it to the racetrack the next day as there was a race meeting and we wanted to get some track time to sort it out and see how well it went. We entered it in the open class and went out in the heat race and . well, it blew everything away and won.”

“It was much faster than the original 50cc supermotard. They don’t have too much juice as a 50cc two-stroke but as an electric bike they are putting out a peak of 15 horsepower and they have just so much more torque,’ he says.

Unlike the 50cc version which comes with a close ratio six speed gearbox, the electric motor doesn’t have a clutch or a gearbox. When the bike is at a standstill, so is the motor.

“We run them as automatic,” says Kolin. “There’s only one gear and a reduction direct drive to the rear wheel, whereas the gas motor uses the six speed gearbox. Even with the six speed gearbox, the 50cc motor isn’t in the hunt. We’ve run them head to head – the supermotard gas version against the electric version - and the electric version just smokes it.”

Currently, the electric version weighs in “around 50 to 60 pounds” heavier than the petrol version. “The electrics are heavier, because they’re lugging around a lot more lead, says Todd. “With better battery technology, it would lighten it up a lot. Nickel metal hydride batteries would lighten it considerably but they would cost more money.”

Currently, the price of the electric bike is around twice what of the normal petrol Derbi. “A brand new one with zero miles on it would cost around US$6800 with the 48-Volt SLA Battery pack. “The price varies because some people want a longer range, while others don’t care so much about the range and want high performance and more power is what they regard,” saysd Kolin. “We build to their specs.”

“Some people want to have it go 60mph while others are happy to cruise around town at 40mph so we set it up the way the customer wants it. There’s usually about a 30 day lead time for us to manufacture a bike the way people want it, from the time they pay their deposit until it’s ready for delivery.”

The road race replica GPR and supermotard both come in around US$6800, giving a bike with around 18bhp and a top speed of 52 mph.

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