2 Wheels Maybe

Black Tea -  they didn't hook me with the name, but the price, the stats, and the simplicity - goodness... The BlackTea website I'm blaming this one on Greg and Micah. Greg's been talking to me about converting an old Allstate Puch Saber to electric and Micah Toll already ordered a BlackTea citing non-buyers-regret from the Onyx launch. Just like Greg and I had been discussing - 72 volts and 3000 watts seem to be the sweet spot for small electric motorcycles. It should be able to cruise easily at 45mph and have a 35-mile range on just one battery. (BlackTea gives the option for a second battery to double the range.) It's been an ongoing discussion around here - a smallish electric electric scrambler. It was a growing flame in my project list that really heated up with the Fly Free Smart campaign . Back in the early 1970s, little gas-powered scramblers were everywhere and they were great fun and very economical transportation. From Honda to Hodaka , dozens of co...

(Getting it out of my system) The Scrambler Jones It happens more often than I want to admit. I go through a season of jonesing for a motorcycle to ride. It doesn't make financial sense, it doesn't make logical sense, and I know that if I had one, I would not ride it much. But I dearly miss the feeling of riding a motorcycle along a windy road on a beautiful day. The latest jones has been slightly different - it's still retro and it's still electric, but this time it's dirtier - I'm jonesing for a scrambler. When I look at what's commercially available, there's not much other than one very desirable bike - the Fly Free Smart Desert. Yes, I straight up want one. The Fly Free Smart Desert But they finished the pre-sale and haven't started the post-sale (and I could not afford either, snagit!) Subtract the surfboard, the ocean, the cool helmet and jacket and goggles - that could be me! What else is out there? I've ...

[Before you get excited, no this is not about the Hodaka name being resurrected - that's not it.] If you're not familiar with Hodaka, feast your eyes on the Ace 90 and imagine you're wanting a nice little trail bike for a nice little price in the late 60's or early 70's. Love those chrome tanks and red frames! Photo Attribution from Hodaka Wikipedia The Hodakas were very simple, very tough, and very affordable little scramblers that were a little ahead of their time. And like a lot of the electric bikes and motorcycles we see these days, they were conceived and designed on this side of the planet and manufactured in Asia. (In this case, it was Oregon/Japan.) For a while there they were the market. But then the big four Japanese motorcycle companies stepped up their game and made it much harder for Hodaka to compete. But, man, were they something for a while! Over the years, I've kept my eyes open for a Hodaka to convert to electric, but I haven...