A Hodaka for Modern Times? (Electric Motorcycle)

-
[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't run across one. (Probably a good thing.) I've also kept my eyes open to see if one of the new breed of electric cycle entrepreneurs decided to create a motorcycle similar in spirit to the old Hodakas.

I think I may have found it. The Fly Free Smart Desert Scrambler:

Do you think he's wearing a wet suit under the leather jacket?

Two models of the Desert Scrambler will be offered - one with 50 mile range and 40 mph top speed, another with 100 mile range and 50 mph top speed. Pre-orders should begin soon, but details are sketchy at this point in time. You can join the mailing list at their website or learn more on FB and Instagram.

Lots of cool stuff for the modern scramblerista

Love the modular motor design

and the removable modular battery


Camo for you blend -in types
 
The FlyFree Smart Desert (learn more at EVNerds)
 
So there you have it - a modest scrambler designed on the West Coast and built in Asia. I wonder if we can talk them into offering one with a red frame and a chome-plated "tank". We will have to see what pricing is, but I'm pretty excited to see bikes like this come to market. The more practical and appealing green transportation becomes, the sooner we can all start the healing.
 
May you be well!
 
PS. Here's a little more Hodaka fun for you.

A real electric Hodaka in the works

 





Location: Lubbock, TX, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Turn-Key Klunkers (Or DIY your own)

-
Image
Yep, my most recent distractions have been variations on the klunker. I've always been fond of upcycled vehicles, the ones where you take something old and uncared-for and turn it into something useful and enjoyed. Cafe racers, resto-mods, rat rods, lowriders, bobbers, all of them have caught my eye over the years. And the klunker fits right in. About forty years ago, some people in California started using old balloon-tired cruiser bicycles and modifying them to become the prototype for the modern mountain bike. If you do an image search for a klunker, you get something that looks like this: That's a whole lot of DIY retro-coolness! But wait.... Yep, at least eight of those are not DIY - they are new! Sure enough, for those of you with klunker lust who'd rather ride than wrench, there are options out there, and some are relatively affordable. The Retrospec Sully For a little over $300 you can have a well equipped klunker with retro looks and qu...
Read more

Finally - tackling the No-Weld, Longtail DIY Cargo Bike (for hopefully less than $100)

-
Image
I finally started, y'all! Long-time readers of MH or 2WM are thinking, Jeez, MH, it took you long enough! To that I say,  Both of you are absolutely right. Our biggest-ever posts on both blogs have been about cargo bikes, and the really big one is about a No-Weld DIY Longtail Cargo Bike . So, here we go, people - it's time to build one. This week, the final piece fell into place: a Giant Simple Single cruiser bike ($35ish). Originally, I planned to pick up a cheap Huffy cruiser for the build, but cheap Huffys (Huffies?) have been rather rare lately, so I ended up with a nicer (but cheaper) bike. The free swingarm donor The other two main components that previously came into place are a nice and very cheap 3-speed Schwinn step-through ($20 and not pictured) and a junky full-suspension mountain bike ($0). So, the goal here is to balance this equation: Giant + Schwinn + Junky MTB = Longtail Cargo Bike < $100 Humble beginnings (I'll also...
Read more

Fossil Free Friday: Passing on the Electric Scrambler Jones

-
Image
(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 ...
Read more