It’s no secret the motorcycle industry is in dire straights. Baby Boomers, the most reliable and consistent motorcycle customer demographic for decades is aging out, and the sales numbers manufacturers and dealerships once relied upon just aren’t there anymore. Younger, upcoming generations, minority groups and female customer bases are all seen as possible wells of new, rejuvenated sales, but it’s short-sighted to say the industry’s problem is a lack of marketing to one group over the other. The real problem is much more primary than simply one rider’s interest over another. Cake, the new upstart company, based in Stockholm, Sweden, reckons it has the answer: the Cake Kalk might just be the perfect motorcycle for first-time riders.
The reason motorcycle sales are on the decline is the same reason the manual transmission is dying off. Almost, if not every, car on the market today has an automatic transmission as standard and manuals are rare options; more often than not, it’s the automatic cars being driven off the lots. Whether it’s because people aren’t bothering to learn, have no one to teach them or just can’t be bothered, the manual transmission is old tech and part of the past. Now flip that and imagine what car sales would be like if the manual transmissions were standard — and in most cases, the only option — on 99 percent of cars on sale. That’s the case for motorcycles.
Honda is the only large manufacturer utilizing automatic transmissions or clutchless systems, not including scooters like the Vespa and the current electric bike selection. I’m convinced it’s not the idea of riding a motorcycle that is turning new riders away, it’s instead learning the relatively complex system of operating a clutch with your left hand, shifting with your left foot, accelerating and operating the front brake with your right hand and braking the rear wheel with your right foot. In fact, I’ve been riding for nearly a decade now and just writing that out was intimidating and overwhelming.
Cake is out to put potential new riders on a motorcycle by bridging the gap between pedal bikes, electric-assist bikes and full-sized, full-power electric motorcycles. You would think the Cake Kalk would have some direct competition, but in terms of style, design and performance, the little Swedish electric motorcycle is all on its own.
The Good: Stefan Ytterborn, Cake’s founder and CEO (and founder of the helmet brand POC) is also a former brand marketer and designer at Ikea. His signature style is very apparent in the Kalk. The Kalk, whose name is a Swedish term for the limestone gravel the bikes are tested and developed on, has a simple, essentialist design — it’s the first thing you notice and admire about the company’s first bike. The sheer size of it, or lack thereof, is incredibly deceiving because even though it only has 16 horsepower and 31 lb-ft of torque, the bike only weighs just 154 lbs — or in industry terms, absolutely nothing. It might share a silhouette with a 125cc dirtbike, but the Cake hauls ass like bike twice its size. Power, combined with a lightweight chassis and tuned suspension translates into perfect traffic and trail carver.
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