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[JaimeC]

https://www.motorcycle.com/features/triumph-poised-to-lead-the-electric-motorcycle-field-with-the-te-1-prototype.html

Discuss!

[princec]

All trousers and no legs. Also a bit daft of Triumph pursuing a concept design so totally at odds with most of their entire current range ethos and current hot-sellers.

Like, lots of 180hp, no mention whatsoever of battery capacity or charging rate, the only things anyone really gives a crap about. I see the latest issue of Bike has the Curtiss in it as well, with exactly the same level of hopeless journalism: ooh isn't the battery pretty, but we have no idea what is inside.

I'm sure they'll get there in the end (well, they will go out of business in exactly 9 years if they don't).

Cas

[Richard230]

I had the same feeling after reading that article. Lots of words and not a lot of facts or information regarding the prototype's technology. It seemed more to me like smoke and mirrors being funded by a government grant. Everyone involved spinning their wheels and beating their chests while hoping the money doesn't run out. Meanwhile there appears to be no business plan by Triumph for jumping into the commercial electric motorcycle market with the TEp1 or any other EV. Maybe we will see the results of the research program at an IOM electric motorcycle race some day.

Kind of reminds me of my son-in-law who worked on his physics doctorate at the University of Washington. He, his classmates and professors were being funded by NASA to build a instrument that could be rocketed into the Aurora Borealis to measure its plasma content. After many years of work they finally shot the device into space and then apparently the results were so confusing that writing their thesis became a real headache.

[NEW2elec]

Haven't read the whole thing yet but it sure reminds me of the Damon Hyperdrive.
Like 95%.

[JaimeC]

Way back in the dark ages of personal computing, a company called "Digital Research" debuted a PC environment called "GEM" that ran on top of DOS.  It introduced an Apple MacIntosh style interface for the IBM PC with windows and icons all controlled via mouse pointer (WIMP = Windows/Icons/Mouse Pointer).  It was the highlight of the expo that year and terrified Bill Gates because Microsoft had NOTHING like it.

Gates immediately issued press releases and artistic renderings of a Microsoft alternative he was going to call "Windows."  Mind you, up to that point, not a single piece of code had been written!  It was all artistic renderings and Gates' marketing savvy.  He was able to convince the OEMs NOT to invest in GEM because something much much better was on the way.  Gates was the undisputed MASTER of "Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt" (aka FUD).

I suspect we're seeing that strategy continuing today in the electric motorcycle world.  Why buy an electric motorcycle from a company you've never heard of when WE'RE coming out with our own REAL SOON NOW!

[princec]

I'm glad I finally saw through the FUD and went out on a limb and got my Zero. It's actually real, and actually already great.
Triumph (and indeed ALL of the incumbent dinosaurs) are all desperately behind in the EV race. They've got 9 years left, the clock is ticking, and they've not even got their crap first gen stuff on the streets yet. By the time their first-gen rubbish turns up - and it will be lame, just look at every other incumbent automotive company's first efforts - Zero and Energica will be quite some distance ahead of them, along with who knows how many agile startups who got the jump on them like Sur-Ron and SuperSoco and Sondors. Ironically only Harley had a clue and then promptly priced themselves out of existence.

Cas

[DonTom]

https://www.motorcycle.com/features/triumph-poised-to-lead-the-electric-motorcycle-field-with-the-te-1-prototype.html

Discuss!

I didn't see anything there worth discussing. The main thing I want to see is a spec sheet with the important details, with little BS.

But it does look nice, which is the last thing I care about. I prefer to ride bikes than to look at them.

-Don-  Auburn, CA

[Crissa]

Their current market only cares about horsepower, so... how is that at odds with their current market?

-Crissa

[princec]

That's nothing like Triumph's market! Triumph's bread and butter is pseudo-retro roadsters and adventure bikes. I think the Bobber was the fastest selling bike they've ever produced. They stopped making the Daytona, and they've never bothered making a faired Speed Triple, and all their other faired bikes apart from the Trophy are gone from the range and they're not coming back. The new Trident 660 is bang-on the money and shows some pretty keen thinking, so I hope they apply a bit of that design language to whatever they're trying to come up with here.

Cas

[Fran K]

Nice long article.  I have yet to finish it but taking deposits thankfully is absent.  Hopefuh the hub motor cheering squad here reads the mass placement sentences.  Zero and Triumph seem to be at the same dealerships often.  Why a government funds getting a 180 hp sport bike out in circulation is puzzling.  Is a human really capable of operating such.  Frame at the steering neck is strange.
 

[Sklith]

Nice long article.  I have yet to finish it but taking deposits thankfully is absent.  Hopefuh the hub motor cheering squad here reads the mass placement sentences.  Zero and Triumph seem to be at the same dealerships often.  Why a government funds getting a 180 hp sport bike out in circulation is puzzling.  Is a human really capable of operating such.  Frame at the steering neck is strange.

The UK wants their EV production to be focused on premium vehicles, and performance-oriented motorcycles fit the bill pretty well. A 180 hp sportbike is considered somewhat underpowered by today's standards.

Edit: The UK's reason for focusing on premium EVs is because of how high-margin they can be.

Edit 2: Oh god, the prototype pics have a belt drive on that thing. I hope they switch to a chain when it goes to production!

[Fran K]

Look at the last picture, it is of the motor.  There is a lever and ramp.  Reverse?  Neutral for easy pushing?  Perhaps just a coolant hose fitting?

How long ago were the European motorcycles agreeing to 100 hp at the crank?

[JaimeC]

Edit 2: Oh god, the prototype pics have a belt drive on that thing. I hope they switch to a chain when it goes to production!

Why on earth for???

[shayan]

The same details were available quite sometime back on the Williams Advanced Engineering site: https://www.wae.com/what-we-do/case-studies/triumph-te-1
More on the battery tech here: https://www.wae.com/what-we-do/case-studies/multi-chem

[princec]

I love belt drives, so I'm hoping they keep it!

Cas