REBEL with a cause
Okay, the Isle of Man TT-winning MotoCzysz e-racer was fine art on two wheels – but in customer streetbike terms even the different variants of the Italian Energica, while undeniably easy on the eye, still attempt to visually gloss over the fact that they happen to be electric motorcycles.
The combustion engine package and fuel tank which they and other such bikes would normally carry have been replaced by the array of batteries and ‘engine’ and various motors.
Until now, e-bike designers have done their best to hide these away in trying to produce a ‘normal-looking’ motorcycle, with nobody daring to make a design feature out of the batteries themselves, or the motors. But that’s all changed with this – the new Curtiss Zeus.
It’ll be in production next September with prices starting at $30,000 – and the fact that this has been produced by the company once known as Confederate Motors, former builder of genuinely iconic V-twin powercruisers like the Wraith, Hellcat and Combat Fighter, brings added poignancy in its wake. But whereas Confederate’s various models all featured muscular engines that were as loud in action as they looked to be at rest, the born-again Curtiss brand’s debut Zeus E-cruiser model is a rebel with a cause.
It breaks new
