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[Stonewolf]

I saw this on The Pack. Obviously vapourware until it appears on forecourts but it's really very pretty.
https://thepack.news/a-new-name-is-making-noise-in-the-european-e-motorcycle-scene-bbm-motorcycles/

Sadly with a promise of performance chops and a 13kWh battery it looks like their ethos is "We saw the lessons everyone else learned the hard way and said 'yeah but we're built different'".

It does have some good points like 200kg weight and a liquid cooled battery pack but as we saw with everyone else who launched a big road bike around 13kWh it doesn't matter how good the charging is, a leg length of around 75km/47m (125km/78m total range) does not cut it. See Energica's choice to increase range by 60% and optimise for one charge because that fits the use case.

Maybe there's something that makes up for that further down the article but I completely lost interest when I got to the app part (ugh).

[princec]

tbh this is currently on paper the closest competitor to the defacto market leader (which I would say is the Gen3 Zero platform). Battery size though slightly smaller is at least in the same ballpark, charging tech is vastly superior to Zero, and those bikes really do look stunning. They're great design. They don't look like different-for-the-sake-of-it, and they're not nearly as stoic as the SR/* bikes. Price is also competitive with Zero. So I wouldn't dismiss them quite so quickly!

Cas

[TheRan]

According to the article only the motor and inverter is liquid cooled, the battery is air cooled. Not so good for fast charging after some spirited riding (being on the smaller side when it comes to capacity that means you're pulling more amps). Price wise is comes out to £17.6k once you factor in tax plus it'll likely end up being more expensive than that here in the UK, so more like SR/F price for SR specs.

[Stonewolf]

Ouch, that doesn't feel advisable as they're driving that battery pack awfully hard to hit a 15 minute charge.

[MVetter]

I think it's nice that in 2025 they're managing to recreate a 2014 Energica that looks like a 2020 SR/F.

[Stonewolf]

I dunno, I will defend their honour on the aesthetics front because it's drop dead gorgeous.

[TheRan]

The only thing I don't like aesthetically is the swingarm, too skinny and looks like the ones made from box section you'll find on cheap bikes. I prefer the tail end on the roadster model and the cafe racer looks like it could be quite tasty, not a style you often see with electrics.

Speaking of the different models I don't get why they'd give them different speed limits, it just seems arbitrary and if anything the cafe racer would be the fastest with the better aerodynamics. I wonder if they're going to charge more for the artificially faster models. Also the different range figures is just poor advertising. I can understand giving slightly different preset modes depending on the model (say an off road mode on the scrambler, slightly tweaked "sport" mode on the sportier models) as long as there's a completely customisable custom mode, but at a quick glance it makes it look like they have different capabilities and makes their sportiest bike look like it has the least range.

[Stonewolf]

Yeah none of that made sense to me, I'm assuming they're all over the place with modes and different test cycles (urban, ex-urban, combined).

Also, why would you have sport mode with anything other than max regen?

[TheRan]

Isn't Zero's sport mode also low regen? I'm pretty sure that's why I made my own custom mode, I wanted full power but coasting with minimal resistance while turning felt so wrong. I can only assume it was intended to feel faster because you won't slow as much when you roll off the throttle, or the brakes offer better control for sportier riding.

The rest of the modes they have don't seem to be all that logical either, more like they used a random number generator. Why would one bike need an extra 24hp in city mode but less regen and why not max regen to recoup as much energy as possible considering there would be a lot of slowing down around traffic?

[Grauteufel]

Also, why would you have sport mode with anything other than max regen?

I am with you on this, in sport mode you want the most help pulling up.

We have a local manufacturer (Stavic) who also have the Sport mode with the lowest regen setting.

[Specter]

Stone and Great.  the answer is heat.
performance wise yah that's totally stupid, the regen is a must imo, in perf mode and once you really learn how to use it, a gamechanger... again jmo.

but im thinking, the sport mode is really stomping the C rate on these batteries and is going to create quite a bit of heat in them, which is going to be an issue. now letting it throw another 0.5C or more back into it via regen, in out in out in out is going to give them even more heat to have to deal with.  They are doing whatever they can to keep the heat down, and probably have the mindset, aka STREET fighter, it's mostly straight line running, not a lot of back and forth like a track / moto racer would be or need for the regen at the end of the run.

That's kind of ironic in a way.   Street Fighter  GRRRrrrr!!!   Naked Racer,  Woo Hoo !!! but the flat front end of the thing's got the aerodynamics of a fucking brick.  SOME Fairing work would go a long way for actually winning that race    Those fairings help a ton especially up there.  The Ribelle it's a rough time getting thru the 140's  with the open front end, the EGO now,  with fairings 160s is doable pretty easily

Aaron

[Stonewolf]

I dunno, for a streetfighter you really want something that's spunky and hooliganish, changes speed on a thought, and feels like it's got all the shove; that says max regen to me. I can buy the argument for thermal control on a track but for road use it basicly doesn't come up.

[Motoproponent]

360 volt architecture, on a 13kwh pack that can DCFC from 20% to 80% in 9 minutes.

That's 40kw-ish charging power, right?

With a passively air cooled battery pack? I mean, color me skeptical.

But maybe since the pack isn't a sealed monolith they expect to replace modules that go belly up from the kind of abuse some of us would dish out on it. Kind of taking a play out of the Lightning playbook.

But it's all vaporware still.

[Specter]

i agree stone, but when you get an engineer who never raced, possibly doesn't even ride, and tell him, we need to reduce battery heat... oh thats easy, just limit regen to 15 percent.  it looks good on paper, and the bean counters don't know any better.  viola.

Aaron