Aug 20 2008
Ex-Tesla employee electric motorcycle prototype gets driven
Filed under: EV/Plug-in, On Two Wheels, USA
So you’re enjoying a lovely day, driving the twisty Skyline Blvd. in California on your Ducati Multistrada when, through a series of fortunate events, you find yourself trying out the saddle of a different bike that just happens to be a top secret electric prototype using a chassis from the same manufacturer as your personal ride. That’s what happened to a guy we know only as thomasj, who wrote about it on the Motorcycles’ Journal. He had spotted a suspiciously quiet Ducati 900ss with an overly-large back sprocket and struck up a conversation with the apparent owner. The man turned out to be former Tesla employee Forrest Deuth who has started a company currently known as Hum Cycles which is now in stealth mode and whose mission is to “create the greenest and most fun commuter vehicle on the freeway.” Sounds like a great goal to us and if the end product is as good as thomasj thought the prototype is, they just might succeed.
The guest rider found the torque to be mule-strong and unrelenting while the throttle stayed smooth and precise. No shifting was required as he quickly brought it up to the shy side of 100 mph, and then, with the help of some Brembo hardware, back down into legal range again. Like other electrics, it wasn’t really silent though it was, thankfully, free of annoying vibration. Aside from speculation, there is precious little to be known about this project at this time but when they are good and ready we are hopeful there will be some beans spillin’ here.
[Source: Motorcycles’ Journal via Doug@TeslaMotorsClub]
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Original post by Domenick Yoney