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[Richard230]

I found this new Verge TS electric motorcycle interesting, mostly because of the styling and the open rear wheel hub motor.  The bike is a bit pricey though, at 25K Euros (about $27.5K) and you will have to wait for your bike to arrive someday as they are only accepting pre-orders: 
https://electricmotorcycles.news/ts-from-verge-motorcycles-is-ready-for-pre-order/

[princec]

Hub/rim motor. whyyyyy. The industry does not need this sort of innovation, it needs comfortable familiarity, tried & tested reliability, and most of all, inexpensive.

Cas

[ultratoad]

Now that would be hard to argue with....

[TheRan]

More wheel torque than an SR/F, but with all that unsprung weight on the rear wheel it'll have a harder time laying it down. Hopefully it has decent traction control.

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

It'll also be harder to change the rear tire.

Mainly, I'd feel way better if those cables were covered, or ideally just not set up to flex regularly at all.

[KuRi]

Really really interesting... and expensive.... we need more detailed specs!

[TheRan]

I've just noticed that it has a hydraulic lever on the left but no mechanical rear brake so I'm wondering what that's for.

[T.S. Zarathustra]

This is interesting design. Putting the motor inside the rear wheel saves up precious space in the frame, making packaging of the battery much easier. This is at a cost to suspension performance, but all motorcycle designs are about compromises. It might work well enough on smooth roads to be feasible.

[Fran K]

I've just noticed that it has a hydraulic lever on the left but no mechanical rear brake so I'm wondering what that's for.

Looking at the pictures in their media area it looks like there is a line on top of the three yellow jacketed conductors.

[DonTom]

It'll also be harder to change the rear tire.

Can't be too hard as it says:

"tire changes can be completed using conventional tools."

-Don-

[TheRan]

I've just noticed that it has a hydraulic lever on the left but no mechanical rear brake so I'm wondering what that's for.

Looking at the pictures in their media area it looks like there is a line on top of the three yellow jacketed conductors.

I imagine that's probably for sensors of some kind, I wouldn't have thought they'd go through the effort of trying to squeeze a brake disc into that rim as well (no ventilation in there so even more heat). My guess is they've gone the complicated route of using hydraulics to move a servo to control how much regen is applied to the rear wheel.

It'll also be harder to change the rear tire.

Can't be too hard as it says:

"tire changes can be completed using conventional tools."

-Don-

Doesn't mean it won't be fiddly and require the removal of a ton of bolts. There's at least four bolts required to remove the hub/rim from the swingarm (and you can't use a regular paddack stand to hold up the rear of the bike) and then however many it takes to separate the rim from the hub (there's at least 12 bolts on each side).

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

It'll also be harder to change the rear tire.

Can't be too hard as it says:

"tire changes can be completed using conventional tools."

-Don-

Why are you so credulous? Try telling that to a motorcycle service department and see how they feel about it.

Even balancing the wheel after replacing the tire must present at least an equipment problem.

I asked professionals about hub motors (everyone with experience with them doesn’t want to deal with them) and related cleverness before I generalized that this looks harder.

[princec]

Relatedly, I nearly killed myself the other night on the 690, hit a pothole at 60-70 ish. Dinged the front wheel, £550 for a new one. That's just a normal, 120/70 17" KTM wheel, the kind of which they make thousands. Wouldn't like to buy a new wheel for this thing.

Cas

[kurio99]

I won't be so quick to write this off as an overpriced, dead-end toy.  I'll reserve judgement until we see testimonials and video.  By spacing the magnets, they are able to boost torque.  Larger surface area may help with heat dissipation.  It may be possible to lighten the design as it does not have the concentrated stresses found in a more typical smaller motor.  At the moment, that's a lot of unsprung weight, but could improve in future models.    Who can predict where this will lead?  I'm not an engineer, but like seeing such innovations.  Electric motorcycles have fewer constraints than ICE, so why must they look and perform like ICE bikes?

Why did they go with the fat Judge Dredd tire on the back?  Not sure that this concept needs to be that wide to generate 80kw.  Something to do with handling or protecting the rims from damage?

[Crissa]

And it's not like there's not other bikes with unsprung weight, especially not in history.  That spinning weight gives you more balance, too.  I bet they feel like a rock when you're at speed.

Using extra rubber to protect the motor would also make sense; we won't really know until they start putting miles on, I guess.

And unlike alot of other concepts, they are at least paying lipservice to aiming to make it cheaper as time goes on.

-Crissa