Pedal and electric powered ‘motorcyclebike' leaves us stumped...

HERE AT VISORDOWN, it’s no secret we rather obviously like our motorbikes to look, feel and smell like the petroleum-powered beasts we have become accustomed to… it’d be bad business if we didn’t.

However, at the same time we aren’t closed-minded to whatever the future brings us and that means zero-emissions, electricity, hybrids and generally technologies that don’t strip the Earth of all of its precious resources. When, not if.

In fact, we are confident the familiar present and the unfamiliar future can co-exist. There is room for more than one motorbike in the garage of our hearts, regardless of what fuel we pump or plug in.

That said…

It doesn’t mean this sentiment applies sweepingly across the eco-friendly movement as crowdfunded start-ups appear all over to take it to ‘the man’ – or mainstream manufacturers – and attempt to move the process on just a little bit too far than we’re ready to accept.

Which brings us on to the eROCKIT.

Appearing to be somewhere between a naked motorbike and a ‘Boris bike’ the eROCKIT packs a 52-volt lithium ion battery motor in a convoluted frame that has all the hallmarks of a motorbike but as though it has been inelegantly-tacked onto a cycle frame so it looks like a less appealing version of either. 

One man’s ugly is another’s distinctive and unique, so who are we to judge? Just to be clear though, we are judging.

Still, it has its green heart in the right place, and we applaud the ethos behind this – a zero emissions machine which blends pedal power with that battery to offer a 50x power boost, which does sound practical, all the way up to 80km/h

But then you have to wonder why you’d need to bother pedalling at all… or why you couldn’t just get an electric motorbike. Or simply, a bike. 

It’s also going to be difficult to judge its approach speed as you watch a slow pedalling ‘motorbicyclist’ confusingly going remarkably quickly.

Moreover, at £10,500 it requires you to make a big commitment to the planet by draining your bank account to compensate it. Let’s just say we admire the thinking... but we’ll leave it there.

On the plus side, it is German and weighs only 120kg, so expect it to be well-made and silently whizzing up the Straßens of Berlin soon.