Torque.
Torque is an American ideal. An ideal that runs deep in American Motorsport. Until now, the industry at large had employed either large displacement or motors fed via forced induction to satiate the public's appetite for immediate power. This led to the constant use of fossil fuels and the contamination of the fresh air supply in our cities. The endless march of technology and progress inspired the search for an alternative form of energy to move us from one place to another. From the past to the present, the all new fully electric 2016 Victory Empulse TT is here. It may run on electricity - but riding it is a gas.
Introductions.
The introduction to any new model of bike is generally the same: Here is the key. This is the start button. This is "on." So on and so forth. Normally you straddle the bike, go through the familiar motions, and be rewarded with vibrations and the growl of a high-quality gasoline powered motor roaring to life between your legs. The Empulse TT is a little different. The key, the "on" position, the start button; these are all in the same place, and everything makes sense in that regard. It's the absence of the familiar whir of a priming fuel pump that is first noticed. Normally, this would mean something is amiss with the machine, but not with the Empulse TT. Stay the course, and hold the starter button for a moment. Silently, the gauge wipes for a second time. A barely-audible, yet quintessential electronic click is the only sound heard, and a yellow "ON" emblem flashes on the dash. Now what? Is that it? There is no auditory reward other than a healthy click signifying that electricity is moving about the system. There is no rumble, no vibrations from electrons pulsing around the system, poised silently to tear down the road like this aggressive riding position suggests. Odd feeling this.
Quiet.
The Empulse TT, in its ready state, is absolutely silent. In a quiet warehouse far removed from the continual drone of big, v-twin powered machines marching up and down Lazelle St, this new-aged rocket was sitting like a silent soldier standing guard outside the palace of a king and his court. Do not let the silence of its readiness fool you. With electric power, the reaction to a mere crack of the twistgrip results in near-instant locomotion. The physics of gasoline-powered engines and their torque curves do not apply to an electric motor. An electric motor delivers its payload directly to your face in one, linear hit. "Rolling on" the power has a new definition with electric power. It is pure torque. And we like that.
Speaking of the drone rolling through the Black Hills... The Sturgis Rally, like most rallies around the US, are accompanied by the dull roar of motors that, by mid-week, devolve into a sort of white noise in the mind. By that point, the drone is only noticeable in those pre-dawn hours when it is truly quiet. Imagine the scene if every one of those V-Twin powered motorcycles were electric. Stealthy-quiet electric bikes pumping through the veins of the hills with nothing more than a whine of electric rotors echoing off the valley walls. Slicing silently through the streets of Sturgis, the Empulse TT is a ninja on mission amidst a sea of drunken pirates, loud and boisterous, thundering the same song: "Potato - Potato - Potato" for everyone to hear.
Bring to Heel.
This moto is akin to most other motorcycles in that it has a power plant, two wheels, a set of handle bars, and pegs. However, the grasp of these tools is needed only to help wrap your mind around the use of the bike. Everything else falls away after that. Upon setting off on the bike, there is no worry of which gear is selected. There is no worry about the clutch position. Sitting idle, there is nothing to do other than twist the throttle a smidge, lift feet and set off. No pesky clutch engagement point, no worry about being in 1st gear. Just twist and lift. This sounds crazy, I know. I was instructed by the members of the Victory team to put the thing in 3rd gear and go. Gentle roll of the right wrist and I am away. Wild, man... Wild.
Once rolling, this bike is like any other bike on the road, minus the thundering motor, producing heat and leaving noxious fumes in its wake. Clutch to shift, just like you would any other bike. While I am not sure exactly why there are gears on this thing, as you can start it from a dead stop in every gear that I tried, the shifting was fluid and the new transmission did what new transmissions do and gave me a good bit of feedback even if I caught a false shift every now and again. This is not the chunky cruiser transmission of the Hammer S that I rode to the warehouse on, but more a refined set of cogs that took a tap of the toe rather than a stomp of the heel to get in gear. The wildest part of this new power train was coming to a stop in traffic. My years of motorcycle riding taught me that I needed to clutch in, downshift, clutch out, alongside administration of brakes. Once stopped, either hold the clutch or find neutral to give my left hand a rest. Not so fast, muscle memory... The Empulse TT required none of this. Simply administer brake, and pull it down to a stop. No clutching required. I stayed in 3rd gear while in traffic and never had to touch the shifter. There was no negative effect of this as there was torque on tap to get me rolling no matter the gear. Riding the Empulse TT required some remapping of basic operations, but in the stop and go traffic of Sturgis and daily life, it would be really handy to be able to start and stop without clutching or worry of proper gear section. And in the day's heat - not sweating away atop an internal combustion engine.
If my basic grasp of physics and gearing doesn't fail me, gears are essentially torque multipliers and dividers. They take the input torque and multiply it to get off the line and set off, and when rolling, that same power is divided and translated into higher, faster rolling gears. With the electric motor offering all of the torque at an instant, the need for torque multiplication is almost a moot point. There is no fear of lugging off of the line because you are in a gear that is too tall. Twist the throttle while in gear, and the machine rolls to life regardless the ratio. What the gear selector does however - is modulate the rate of acceleration. Pick a lower gear to zap up to a lower top speed, pick a higher gear to have a more mellow rush up to the over 100 mph top speed (impossible in the rolling chicane that is the Black hills Rally).
This brings up a rather odd thing about this particular electric bike: the shift pattern is 1, 2, Neutral, 3, 4, 5, 6. That is not a typo. 1, 2, Neutral, 3, 4, 5, 6. Why you might ask? I don't have an answer for you... Sorry. The engineers state that there is enough torque and speed spread in 3rd for "typical riding" and shifting simply allows the rider to match their desire for acceleration.
En Flight.
While piloting this machine down the open road, I was immediately struck with how happy this bike was in a turn. When tipping its heft off of the side stand, I was slightly nervous that it was going to feel heavy due to the electric motors and the batteries. This is not the bantam weight sport bike that I was somewhat expecting. The motor is mounted near the swingarm pivot so the weight is relatively low. The bars are tight in to the body and the steering tube is rather steep, which helps get this bike to run around corners with little effort. The single rear shock provides a sporty feel in the rear end with little sag once my narrow butt settled into the seat. The inverted shocks up front felt quite solid and offered little front end dive when the 4-piston Brembo brakes pinched down on a pair of dual floating discs.
The best time to enjoy the Empulse TT is powering up and down Vanocker Canyon Road early in the morning, long before the hangovers wear off and the roadways crowd with electrolyte starved bodies on gasoline hungry sleds. The tight, aggressive body position inspires confidence in the corners, while the Continental Sport Attack II tires grip the pristine roads of the Black Hills without drama. While the public roads were not the ideal place to really test the limits of the Empulse TT, cruising along at a decent clip was more than enough to put a smile on my face. I cannot say that I saw the advertised top speed of 100 mph, but I won't report that I didn't either. Let's just say that I have no doubt that it will get there. And that there were plenty of police to mitigate speeds…
Once back at the warehouse, I begin to process all the thoughts and experiences that I just had. The techs roll the bikes over to their charging stations, and by "charging stations" I mean the standard electrical sockets in the wall of the warehouse for a top-up of the batteries. My bike saw 45 miles logged on the odometer, and I was left with 46% battery life on the clock. The bike was plugged in to the 120V charger and the display read "Charging: 11 Amps Time Remaining: 4:30 Hours." This is not the quick charger that runs off 220V, but after a 45 mile spirited ride at highway speeds, and then up a fairly aggressive canyon road, I was expecting a little more downtime from a run-of-the-mill outlet.
While riding an electric bike, I couldn't help but occupy a different space in my mind. My normal mental state when riding a new bike for review is flush with metrics and evaluations of ride, throttle, and braking characteristics. On this bike it was easier to focus on that matrix. The whir of the electric motor was easily defeated by the wind noise coming off of my helmet. The same way that one is able to concentrate a little better when the sound is turned down on the radio, it was slightly easier to take in the characteristics of the bike without wrestling with the extra input offered by the exhaust note. Do not get me wrong, I am in absolute love with a great sounding engine and a crisp or throaty exhaust note. It is music to me, but it can be overarching. Pervasive. The great sound produced by a machine can fill in the gaps where it lacks in performance. This, being an initial run by Victory at an electric bike, is a very solid effort with very little filler required.
The Brammo underpinnings offered Victory an invaluable starting point into the electric motorcycle market. This burgeoning segment is only going to diversify and get better as technology progresses and as we, as a people, rely more heavily on alternative energy sources for our locomotion and enjoyment. I cannot write that I did not spend a good amount of time staring at the battery gauge on the display. I felt a bit like a pubescent girl watching the red gauge in the upper right-hand corner of her phone as she was desperately awaiting a text from Tommy. This is the result of the fear of the unknown. I have no idea how to optimize the use of a battery. With some practice, I am sure that I would learn how to hyper-mile the bike and be able to take full advantage of the regenerative system during my commute, but after 45 miles, I am a subject rather than a commander of the battery system. The availability of electric power will become more prevalent as the demand for it increases, and with that will come understanding and utilization. At this moment, we are on the precipice of a revolution.
100 years ago, gasoline was not available at every major intersection and despite that fact we are still using gasoline-powered engines to get us from place to place. Sure, it is scary to think that we would be marooned in a location for a couple of hours while our mode of transport charges up, but Heaven forbid that our free movement about this great nation be slowed by the simple inconvenience of refueling with clean power that is sustainable.
Viva La Revolution.
This bike is a revolution in many ways. Victory, with its wide dealer network, could be a pioneer in getting an electric motorcycle initiative off of the ground and make it a legitimate answer for commuter motorcyclists and otherwise. Thinking outside the box is something that Victory and parent company Polaris Industries is really good at, and I can see quick-charge stations being offered at dealerships across the nation. I have no doubt that the market will, in the not-too-distant future, be able to produce a system that will have a range longer than 100 miles, and a zero-emmission, electric motorcycle will be feasible for more and more riders.
Long story short, this bike may not be THE answer, but it is certainly a step in the right direction. It is a better solution that will help us get from here to there. It checks all of the right boxes for me. It is fun, it has a decent enough range that you can commute on it, and you can take it out on the weekend for a romp around the highways and byways around your home. It is not a long distance hauler, but not many sport-oriented bikes are that. At $19,999, it is not a cheap motorcycle, but cost averaging and the total cost of ownership, that sticker price comes down if you commit to logging real, daily miles on this machine - and pass every gas station along the way. The Empulse TT works really well as a sport motorcycle and a spirited commuter.
