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[Richard230]

Maeving RM1S is a small electric motorcycle built in the U.K. It has a hub motor and two removable batteries. It seems like a nice bike for urban and suburban use, especially for riding around England. As small electric motorcycles go, I like the styling. Price is 7.5K pounds:

[Stonewolf]

The RM1 has been around a while and is apparently pretty nice, the S is a slightly more powerful version.

[princec]

It deserves to do well I think.

Cas

[Fran K]

I like the open face helmet and no eye protection.  There is another video on that "channel" about the BMWCE04 different guy with a full-face helmet and the visor.  If someone can post a video (link) of a hub motor motorcycle where they try and overheat the motor and how easy or hard it is I am curious.  They wait until it is homolgomated to go public.  It even has sort of a fake exhaust pipe.  Paint scheme of the Norton I had.

[hotsauce]

I like the open face helmet and no eye protection.  There is another video on that "channel" about the BMWCE04 different guy with a full-face helmet and the visor.  If someone can post a video (link) of a hub motor motorcycle where they try and overheat the motor and how easy or hard it is I am curious.  They wait until it is homolgomated to go public.  It even has sort of a fake exhaust pipe.  Paint scheme of the Norton I had.

I don't have a video but know from experience (someone else's, but I was there)  that running an 8kW continuous hub motor on a 300lb motorcycle thrashing it around a track for about an hour or so will do it. Max speed was around 85, but it's the "slow down, full throttle, slow down, full throttle, repeat until dead" that will really build up the heat.

And that fake exhaust pipe is a cable housing. I like how they incorporated the aesthetic

[Stonewolf]

I actually think Maeving did a great job with the design.

As for hub motors, I'm not a fan generally but I think they work great for low power bikes where the weight of the motor out at the end of the swingarm unsprung is quite low. You get rid of a lot of the inefficiency, complication, weight, and crucially for a bike in this class expense.

[TheRan]

I'm still not sure how I feel about hub motors. Like Stonewolf says it's more efficient and less complicated, less to maintain and fewer points of failure and for less performance oriented bikes the unsprung weight doesn't matter so much. It also frees up space in the frame for batteries (although the Maeving hardly makes good use of that with only about 5kW/h). In this case though I don't think they're passing on the lower cost to the customer, it's still pretty expensive for what you get. What I don't like about hub motors is the lower torque and fixed drive ratio (1:1), the unsprung weight for faster bikes or those used off road, and I just can't get over the aesthetics because it reminds me of cheaper crappy ebikes. If it was a solid wheel like on one of the BMWs then I'd probably feel better about it.

[princec]

Its main problem is that it's basically head-to-head with the Super Soco TC Max which is half the price. Granted it's probably half the quality too, but it's got a proper motor and drive belt.

Cas

[Stonewolf]

I think it's important to realise when looking at cost that economy of scale is massive. Maeving build a few thousand bikes a year compared to thousands per month for even premium ICE bikes. Energicas are so expensive not because of their battery but because they're hand built using repeatable fabrication, in low numbers, with parts bought in batches of tens or hundreds rather than thousands. Low volume means high unit cost and low amortisation of capital cost. SuperSoco is probably shifting container loads of their TC and TC Max in markets Maeving will never have access to built with labour costs Maeving can only dream of. Selling them in Europe is almost an afterthought.