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Electric vehicles, as has become clear over the last decade, are the way of the future. The internal-combustion engine will likely always have some role to play, but the days where the vast majority of roadgoing vehicles get round by burning hydrocarbons are numbered. That’s most clearly true when it comes to cars, but as brands like Zero Motorcycles and Harley-Davidson have shown, electricity is also the fuel of tomorrow for motorcycles. And as with gas-powered bikes, electric two-wheelers are free to explore wild designs in ways that street-legal cars and trucks can’t dream of, due to pesky details like “crash tests.”
Still, it’s hard not to be taken aback by the stripped-down, future-cool audacity of the Cleveland Cyclewerks Falcon. This motorcycle seems about as simple and clean as a bike can get, all metallic finish and straight lines (with the exception of the two solid-disc wheels). It’s a look only made possible by the boxy 4.4-kWh battery that makes up the bike’s heat, which supplies power to a nearby electric motor that whips up 17.5 horsepower and 29 pound-feet of torque before rolling through gears and a chain drive to the back wheel.
Sure, that’s not a lot of juice compared to, say, the new Zero SR/s, but the Falcon’s diminutive weight of just 175 pounds means it can still hold steady at highway cruising speeds. The company claims a maximum range of 180 miles on a charge, but as New Atlas points out, given the battery’s small size and the fact that a rider will double the total weight, that’s probably a wildly hopeful prediction.
Also wildly hopeful: the Falcon’s price. Cleveland Cyclewerks is currently only offering the Founders Edition of the Falcon, at the brow-lifting price of $14,995. A Zero Motorcycles S, in contrast, starts at $10,995. Or, if you’re still okay burning gasoline, you could buy a Honda CBR1000 ABS for $12,999…or a Triumph Speed Triple for $14,350…or an Indian FTR Rally for $13,499…or, well, a ton of other great motorcycles for less.
