RIDING THE ELECTRIC BETA EXPLORER: THE WRAP

We have been getting more opportunities to ride electric bikes of various sorts. Some are better than others. The fact that Beta is offering the Explorer is an endorsement of sorts. Here’s a company that specializes in the most hard-core off-road bikes in the world, and they are on board with E-motos. As a side note, I’ve started using the term “E-Moto” a little reluctantly. They aren’t regular motorcycles, and the term “E-Bike” generally refers to bicycles with pedal assist. E-Moto will have to work until a better name comes along.

So the Explorer is an E-Moto from mainland Asia. Beta does not make them in Italy. It was, presumably, made to Beta’s specifications. I got interested in testing one when Rodney Smith (who works for Beta) said he was actually buying two of them for himself. It turns out you have to have two of anything this weird. It doesn’t mix with regular motorcycles because it doesn’t have the range or power to ride where normal bikes go, and normal bikes are too loud and big to go where the Explorer is at its best.
I’ve been riding it on the trails around my neighborhood and having a blast. It’s smaller than a motorcycle and is great for tight, twisty switchbacks. I’ve made many of these trails myself on a mountain bike, so I feel I have the right to ride them as long as I don’t make any noise or get in anyone’s way. Admittedly not everyone has their own personal trails, and E-Motos definitely are not welcome in heavily ridden mountain bike areas.

You can explore some cool stuff on the Explorer, hence the name. You can get in trouble, too.

Setting those issues aside, the Explorer sits between the Surron Light Bee and the Surron Ultra Bee in terms of capability. It’s a little bigger and faster than the Light Bee, but the Ultra is faster and bigger yet. It has Standard mode, Rabbit mode and Rocket mode. In Rocket, it’s almost as fast as an Ultra bee, but you only get about 10 seconds at a time. I’m sure that hacks will be developed to make Rocket last longer, but it might backfire with overheating issues or even chassis breakage. I figure there’s a reason it lasts only 10 seconds. It still tops out at 47 mph.

According to Mark Tilley’s son Jacob, it’s short enough to work well on BMX jumps, which isn’t true of all the other electric bikes on the market. So far, nothing has broken under Jacob, and that’s saying something. He’s gotten over 2 hours of riding on it and had enough charge to get home. When the bike is brand new, it has an oddball safety feature (just like several other bands). If you touch one of the hand brakes, it cuts out the motor. This can be a nuisance. Rodney actually disabled this before giving the bike to us.

We have several other E bikes of different sorts and we are learning more about them. Check out the full test in the October print edition of Dirt Bike.

CHANGES ARE A COMIN’

This flier on E-Bike rules came in the mail with the water bill in a local So Cal suburb.

Currently many suburban neighborhoods are awash with kids on electric bikes. Horse trails and sidewalks have turned into all out raceways. Some local authorities are taking action and many bikes have been seized. One serious problem has arisen; the bikes are often unregistered. Some don’t even have VIN numbers, and that creates real problems if the bikes are impounded. Some can’t be reclaimed. We don’t know how this will turn out, but it’s almost certain that changes are afoot.

THE FORGOTTEN HUSABERG

The 2009 Husaberg FE450 has been largely forgotten today, but it was designed around revolutionary ideas that blew apart some long-held convictions and principles. This was a motorcycle designed in Sweden and manufactured at the KTM factory in Austria. Underneath the bike’s new hardware was one prime directive: centralize the mass. The crankshaft was not only the heaviest single part of the motor, it acted as a gyroscope, which had dramatic effects on handling. Husaberg placed the crank in the exact center of the bike and then attempted to place as much of the bike’s non-rotating weight as close around that point as possible. In order to do this, the crank was placed over the gearbox, and the top end was angled forward at 70 degrees. Fuel injection had just arrived in those days, and the Keihin throttle body was placed above the motor while the fuel tank was wrapped around everything else. The center of the bike was dense with tightly packed stuff.

The Husaberg was a serious effort at mass centralization. Today, these are highly coveted motorcycles.

We expected the bike to be ultra stable and impossible to turn. That wasn’t the case. So much for traditional thought. The Husaberg turned more or less like a conventional bike. It had some unusual traits, certainly, but they weren’t at all bad. The most striking characteristic was that the rear wheel got traction all the time. It hooked up and resisted stepping out of line. The flip side came in loose turns where you needed to break the rear wheel loose. It resisted. You couldn’t be tentative about kicking the rear wheel out.

It’s clear to us that the Swedes had extreme trail riding in mind for this bike. It had a lot of ground clearance and a very tall footpeg location. That makes it easy to get over huge rocks and logs. It had a version of PDS no-link suspension, so there was no linkage to hang down. Plus, it was a very light bike for the time. The bike weighed 251 pounds without fuel. That was outrageous for an electric-start bike of the time.

The 2009 FE450 wasn’t the final chapter in the Husaberg story, but it was the last true product of the Swedish brain trust. The concept of having a separate line of motorcycles simply didn’t pencil out, and soon bikes carrying the Husaberg name were nothing more than rebadged KTMs. The concept of mass centralization, however, proved itself, and was incorporated into many of the bikes we ride today. They might not have upside-down motors, but it turned out that you didn’t need to go to such great lengths to accomplish the same goal.

HELMETS OF THE STARS

Back in the early ‘90s, if you were a pro motocrosser, you wore either a Bell, a Shoei or an Arai. And, if you were important enough, it was painted by Troy Lee. Back then, custom paint jobs were the mark of success. Almost all of the helmets also bore Jeff Spencer stickers, as he was considered the trainer/dietician who was mandatory for victory at the highest level. In 1991, we took the helmets right off the heads of the top riders and shot photos of them all. We probably gave them back before they had to go to the start line.

Damon Bradshaw was a Bell man early before becoming a Shoei man. The Camel sticker was mandatory in Supercross back then.