Review: Brammo Empulse R

The promise of this new electric motorcycle is clear and simple: a top speed over 100 mph and a range in excess of 100 miles.

Achieving either would give Brammo's Empulse R a marked advantage over any other production electric motorcycle to date. Doing both holds the potential to rocket the nascent form of transportation into the mainstream, creating a product that's not just environmentally friendly and cheap to run, but also real-world, everyday practical and fun to ride.

Can the Empulse hit those magical numbers? Testing it on the roads around Brammo's Ashland, Oregon, factory last week, it absolutely did. But, it achieved so much more that those numbers didn't end up feeling like the real story. This thing doesn't just serve as practical, fun transportation; it uses the benefits of electric propulsion to achieve real performance benefits over internal-combustion-engine sportbikes as well.

This thing doesn't just serve as practical, fun transportation, it uses the benefits of electric propulsion to achieve real performance benefits over internal-combustion-engine sportbikes as well.But why would you want an electric motorcycle when ICE bikes are cheap, fast and efficient? In America at least, motorcycles are frequently objects of leisure. Reducing the guilt of ownership and use while enhancing the image is a proven driver of desire. With the Brammo Empulse, you can have your performance and enjoy it safe in the knowledge that you're not damaging the environment, too.

Formerly a maker of high-end, boutique performance cars like the open-wheeled, open-cockpit Ariel Atom and road-legal replicas of '60s Lola race cars, it makes sense that Brammo wouldn't stop at just making a practical motorcycle. The bike's designer, Brian Wismann, rides what's currently the fastest motorcycle in the world – BMW's S1000RR – as everyday transportation and the company won the fledgling TTXGP North American Championship last year with its Empulse RR race bike, adapting lessons learned on the track to this production motorcycle.

When developing the Empulse, however, Brammo benchmarked the much more practical, but still fun Triumph Street Triple. This is intended to be a motorcycle that's equally at home on city streets or carving up a mountain road. The Empulse's riding position and chassis geometry are both based on Triumph's bike, and Brammo targeted its outright performance too – a decision that might sound overly ambitious given the Empulse weighs 470 pounds and that its proprietary, liquid-cooled electric motor makes just 54 hp and 46.5 pound-feet of torque to the 416-pound Triumph's 105 hp and 50 pound-feet.

Riding the two motorcycles head-to-head on Ashland's twisty, technical Green Springs Highway, it was the Triumph that had to work hard, using its extra power to keep up. That's because the Brammo steers faster, holds a line with more stability and inspires considerably more confidence in its rider.

It achieves that through higher quality, fully adjustable suspension and lightweight forged-aluminum wheels, of course, but also the inherent benefits of an electric drivetrain.

On a traditional bike, heavy components like the gas tank, gearbox and cylinders are spread out over a larger area as defined by their necessary mechanical relationship. But electrics can keep their heavy batteries virtually anywhere and mount their engine and gearbox in the optimal location.

Brammo has maximized this advantage, squashing the drivetrain's area into as centralized a position as possible, limiting the effect its weight has on handling. That's a trick ICE race bikes and their road-going replicas are increasingly employing as well, but what the Empulse does that no ICE bike ever could is remove the impact reciprocating inertia and vibration have on handling and feel.

Multiple pistons flying up and down at incredibly high speeds can limit a bike's willingness to turn, and the Empulse has none of that. Where the vibration and noise of thousands of tiny explosions per minute can interrupt communication between rider and road, the Empulse R simply makes smooth progress. The result is a bike that's free to be incredibly stable, even with high g-forces loading its suspension in corners, but will also drop into that corner with unbelievable speed. It does both while channeling feedback from the tires, suspension, throttle and brakes directly to the rider without any interruption.

The Empulse uses a trick no other electric motorcycle has before to make the most of what power it has: a conventional six-speed gearbox and clutch lever.The result is a motorcycle that might be slower than that 675cc Triumph in a straight line, but one whose easy pace along a tight mountain road is equal to the ICE bike's maximum possible speed through the same stretch.

And the Empulse isn't exactly slow, either. Its straight-line pace feels just a touch behind middleweight naked bikes like the Suzuki SV650 or Kawasaki Ninja 650. Also, it uses a trick no other electric motorcycle has before to make the most of what power it has: a conventional six-speed gearbox and clutch lever.

That technology, licensed from Italian firm IET, enables the Brammo to maximize both efficiency and power at any speed range while building a level of man/machine interaction back into the bike. Other electric motorcycles have lacked that involvement.

The Empulse's motor maximizes both power and efficiency at 7,000 rpm, redlining at 9,000. Using the gearbox to keep revs between 6,000 and 8,000 keeps the bike in its powerband while also minimizing its power draw and maximizing range. That's a neat trick, since you don't need to drop the revs on the highway in order to save battery capacity.

And in another electric motorcycle first, the Empulse is practical for highway use too. It pulled strongly to an indicated 105 mph tested top speed and, over a route that included suburban and rural surface streets, plus a stretch of 55 mph divided highway where riding speeds averaged 70 mph, we saw a realistic range of 75 miles. That included no attempts whatsoever at maximizing efficiency other than frequently neglected efforts to keep it in that 2,000 rpm-wide range. That matches Brammo's claimed 77-mile combined range using the SAE Test for Electric Motorcycles. Drop that average speed to a city-like 19 mph (which includes frequent stops) and that test delivers 121 miles. Riding the Empulse fast up a mountain while dragging knee and using a lot of full throttle returns a practical 50 miles of fun.

The Empulse locates its charging port on top of the "tank" in the same location as the gas cap on most ICE motorcycles, making charging easy. The 9.3 kWh battery pack takes eight hours to charge from empty using a standard 110-volt outlet, or 3.5 hours using a J1772 Level 2 quick charger, the same type that fits electric cars like the Tesla Model S and Nissan Leaf. Topping up a partially empty battery takes much less time using that Level 2 charger, and it adds five miles of range for every 10 minutes of charge.

The Empulse R falls behind that benchmarked Triumph in one important metric: price. Where Brammo's bike will retail for about $19,000 when it goes on sale in the next couple months, that Triumph is just $8,900. That's a price differential that should decrease in coming years; Brammo has benchmarked Triumph in another important metric: production volume. The British manufacturer made 48,000 motorcycles last year at plants in both England and Indonesia. Brammo intends to use the $45 million Series C funding it just secured to scale its volume to 50,000 bikes a year.

That figure would make Brammo the eighth largest bike manufacturer in the world. Products like the Empulse that tick both the head and heart boxes should be more than capable of creating that level of demand.

WIRED 50 miles of knee-down fun for just $1.25 of "fuel." One of the best-handling bikes ever, regardless of power source. Visible batteries and electric motor connect electricity to lust. Gearbox re-instills rider involvement.

TIRED Clunky gearbox can be reluctant to shift. Heavy clutch could make city riding tiring. Ambient temperatures in excess of 105 degrees can limit performance. Low pegs limit lean angles.