MOTORCYCLE SPORT & LEISURE: Sytse, how did this project come about?
SYTSE TACOMA: In a way it started during my mechanical engineering university studies, when I was 21 years old. I had an electrical engineer friend who wanted to build an electric car, and he needed help with the gearbox.
I enjoyed the work, although it ended up taking up most of my free time over a year. We finished the car in the summer of 2012, and it did an awesome zero to 100km/h in six seconds.
Then I thought if we can do a car like this with a box of scraps, then surely we can do something a lot better in the form of a motorcycle.
The idea behind building this bike was to change the perception people have of electric vehicles, that they are actually fast, have the range and performance, convenience and cost savings that everyone hopes electric vehicles will have, and I think this bike achieved most of this.
MSL: How long did it take you to build this project from start to finish?
ST: It took about a year to design everything on CAD, before I spent a cent on it, because I wanted to make sure, before I sank a lot of my own money into it, that I had the recipe right, so everything was designed and tested in a computer simulation model. Once I knew it was going to work, I went out and bought all the parts when I was 25 years old and it took about another year to build it. This was all done part-time, while having a full-time job building electric buses.
MSL: Can you say something about your electric motor?
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Esta historia es de la edición October 2019 de Motorcycle Sport & Leisure.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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Honda CRF1100L ES Africa Twin
Without panniers he was adventuring nowhere - so at least Bertie's got something sorted now
BMW R 12 nineT
Chad gets a track day surprise when BMW's R 12 nineT turns out to be surprisingly fun on track
Test fleet: VOGE 525 DSX
After testing the Voge's abilities on a long ride, it was time to take it to the Cotswolds and see how it would manage on the rougher stuff
Portuguese Perambulations
Nearly over before it had begun, a brief workshop stint allows Spain and Portugal to be explored
Highway to Heaven
Three friends take on the challenge of riding the length of Canada, from Vancouver in the southwest to Inuvik in the north. The road is long, the conditions merciless, and wildfires are tearing through the country. To top it all off, the final leg of the journey is the ultimate test of gravel riding skills, nerves, and courage - it's the legendary Dempster Highway...
Battlaxes at the ready!
We tend to take tyres for granted, never really looking at them in any detail, or at how they work, just hoping that they keep us shiny side up at all times. Even in the wet
Ducati Riding Experience
When I rode the Ducati DesertX to France last year, I did have a bit of an explore on some easy fire roads and gentle green lanes in the wilds of the Médoc area, but was left with the feeling that, had I the experience, the DesertX would have been capable of taking me along some more extreme trails to some even more exciting places. If only there was a way of finding out just how well the Italian adventure bike could cope with some more extreme terrain...
Four pot flyer
Many said that sports bikes, and particularly bikes in the traditional Supersports class that was populated by 600cc inline fours, were dead. Maybe they spoke too soon?...
Eastern adventurer
With an increasing interest in smaller capacity adventure bikes, the market expands with a new entry
First Time Lucky?
It's ironic that the first all-new MV Agusta model to hit the marketplace right after Italy's No.1 trophy brand was acquired by Austrian giant Pierer Mobility, owner of off-road titans KTM, should be the company's first dual-purpose model of the modern era, powered by MV's all-new 931cc three-cylinder engine that's destined to form the basis of a whole series of new models in coming months and years.
