Changing Times

OFF THE WIRE
agingrebel.com
There are a couple of new electric bikes in the news at the end of the first week of December 2013. And Harley-Davidson continues to expand its marketing base in Asia.
The bike about which all the globe is currently atwitter is called the Voxan Wattman and it debuted this week at the Salon de la Moto in Paris.

Voxan
The Voxan is built by Venturi Automobile, a French company that builds electric sports cars. It looks like a prop from The Jetsons (photo above) and it weighs 772 pounds. Venturi claims the bike’s motor produces 200 horsepower and that it is the most powerful electric motorcycle in the world which may be most analogous to building the world’s lightest lead balloon. The bike was designed by a Serbian named Sacha Lakic.
The manufacturer claims the motorcycle can go from 0 to 60 in 3.4 seconds and can hit a buck in just under six seconds. But the thing only has a top speed of 105 mph. The electric motor runs off a 12.8 kilowatt hour battery. It takes about 30 minutes to achieve an 80 percent charge. When fully charged the manufacturer claims the motorcycle will run for 112 miles.
Voxan hasn’t announced a price but it considers the Voxan Wattamn to be a prestige product that will be built by hand, one at a time, for an “an exclusive international clientele that is passionate about technology and emotions.” Voxon’s President, Gildo Pallanca Pastor, is also quoted in the press release as saying that “It is…a starting point for a new human and technological adventure which is built on ten years of challenges, creativity and solutions proven in developing Venturi vehicles.”

Saietta R
A second public relations campaign is currently touting the Saietta R, an electric motorcycle built by a British company called Agility Motors. It is also stylish, inconvenient and under powered but environmentally correct. The press packet describes this one as designed for “urban assaults rather than long-haul freeway blasts.” The Saietta R, like the Voxan, has a range of 112 miles which seems to be about as far as these things can be made to go.
The manufacturer claims the Saietta R motor will make 97 horsepower and 94 foot pounds of torque. It runs off an 11 kilowatt hour lithium battery. It weighs 485 pounds and has a top speed of 80 mph which is about the de facto speed limit on the 105 Freeway in Los Angeles.
It takes eight hours to fully charge this beast. An optional “fast charging system” can cut the time needed for a full charge in half. The Saietta R will go on sale in the United States in about a year and is expected to cost $22,000.

Meanwhile In Vietnam
The Harley-Davidson Company opened its first dealership in Ho Chi Minh City last week. The business calls itself Harley-Davidson of Saigon.
The Motor Company is aggressively expanding into Asia. Harley recently announced two, new bikes aimed at the Asian motorcycle market. The new Harleys have engine displacements of 500 cc and 750 cc. The company also has an assembly plant in India.
Vietnam is the fourth largest motorcycle market in the world, trailing only China, India and Indonesia.