Are electric motorcycles worth buying?

Electric motorcycles are my jam. If I’m on two wheels and it’s not a bicycle, then odds are I’m on an electric motorcycle. I don’t ride them because they’re clean or green, though those are nice side benefits – I ride them because they’re fun and enjoyable. They’re infinitely better than sitting in a car watching the world go by through glass. And the ownership experience is so much nicer than gas motorcycles due to their greatly reduced maintenance, lower cost of ownership, lack of vibrating cacophony, and a laundry list of other reasons.

My love of these awesome e-motos has put me in a unique position of having ridden pretty much every one of them out there.

Now let me stop the pedants right here for a second. No, the title isn’t clickbait.

But to say it in more words than fit in a headline, I’ve ridden basically every electric motorcycle out there, not counting a few cool international models I’m still missing (Stark Varg, TS Bravo, etc.) and a few super low-volume boutique e-motorcycle companies in the US (Tarform, Lightning, etc.).

But other than those few edge cases, I’ve ridden every major electric motorcycle currently available in the US, and some that aren’t even available yet.

Here’s a rundown of what you need to know about each company, the cool bikes they build, and how they ride. And since I could never possibly cover each one in enough nitty-gritty detail in a single compilation article like this, make sure you click through to the in-depth reviews I’ve done on these bikes as well.

To avoid playing favorites, I’m also going to bang these out in alphabetical order. Sorry, Zero, but that’s on you guys.

My first experience on the Arcimoto FUV and Roadster

Arcimoto

You might not even think of Arcimoto’s FUV (which stands for Fun Utility Vehicle) to be a motorcycle, but that’s what these electric three-wheelers are considered in most places. Some jurisdictions call them autocycles, but they’re mostly three-wheeled motorcycles.

And just like the name implies, they’re super fun to ride.

They have some idiosyncrasies, mind you. There’s no power steering, and so they feel pretty heavy to steer at low speeds, but they’re a blast at any speed. With a pair of bucket seats, they basically feel like 75 mph electric go-karts. They’re quite powerful, though they’ll never beat something like a Zero or a LiveWire off the line. Even so, they’ll get you up to 75 mph quickly, and they actually feel quite good at speed.

One of the best parts is also just how many looks and comments you get. The last time I was riding one was in San Francisco when I attended the Micromobility America 2022 conference. People were stopping me on street corners just to ask about these wild-looking things. Another experience near Miami was the same thing – people were riding up next to me on the street just to talk about it.

I also like how they have a locking trunk in back and how the rear seat can also be used for a decent amount of cargo space (when you’re not carrying a passenger).

The range is modest at around 100 miles in city conditions, but highway riding cuts that range down quickly. Don’t expect to go on long touring rides with these.

I’ve also tested the open-top Arcimoto Roadster, which feels more like a trike motorcycle. Its chopped top and sportier seating position give an entirely different sensation. It’s a lot of fun, but I prefer the FUV for daily riding.

Neither are the most practical vehicles on the road. They’re too wide to lane split but too small for carpool duty. But they make up for it in sheer charm.

The only other slight downside is that you’ve got to think about your placement on the road as a triple-track vehicle. Unlike a motorcycle, where you swerve around obstacles or a car where you straddle obstacles, triple-track vehicles like these trikes mean you have to be more accurate when “threading the needle” with potholes, road debris, etc. If this were your daily driver, then I’m sure you’d get used to it quickly. But each time I hop back in one, I have to remember that I’ve not only got three wheels on the ground, but each one follows a different line.

CAKE

CAKE has three main platforms: the Kalk electric dirt bike, the Ösa electric utility bike, and the Makka electric moped. To be fair, I’ve only tested the first two, and it wasn’t a particularly long test ride on either, but they were both quite enjoyable.

The Kalk is their original dirt bike-style electric motorbike. It introduced the brand’s Swedish design with a love-it-or-hate-it appearance and showed that CAKE was here to play with the big boys. You’ll regularly see CAKE Kalks flying through the air and taking big jumps in stride.

The bikes are powerful, fairly lightweight, and a lot of fun to ride, though they’re pretty pricey at around $14,000.

The lower cost INK line drops the price by a couple thousand bucks, but these still aren’t budget bikes. Fortunately, they do have both on- and off-road versions of the Kalk line, meaning you can actually use them as street-legal motorcycles too.

The CAKE Ösa is a utility bike that was first marketed as a “workbench on wheels.” That feels like a suitable name for these things. They are incredibly modular and are designed to be customized based on your needs. Whether that’s delivering packages, powering an electric saw for a carpentry job, or working as a forest ranger and carrying around axes and chainsaws, they’ve been outfitted for just about everything.

They’re also quite powerful and fun to ride. I was having a bit too much fun with one in a gravel lot in Munich, leading to one of my only motorcycle crashes from getting a bit too jubilant in the corners.

Of all the powerful e-motos out there, who crashes a CAKE Ösa?

CAKE’s rides are awesome-looking and fun-riding electric motorcycles, but they don’t have the same bang-for-buck you’d get elsewhere. You’re paying for fancy Swedish design, which is still worth something, but it means these won’t be the best option if you’re trying to squeeze every penny. For those that want something different looking though, CAKE takes the cake.

CSC

CSC is a California-based motorcycle importer that deals with largely Chinese-made bikes, both ICE and electric. They’ve got some of the best prices in the business, and they only work with good-quality imports. They also have an absolutely massive warehouse in LA that is stocked to the brim with dozens of spares of every part on all of their bikes, which ensures that you get US-level service if you ever need a spare part. I’ve tested all of their electric motorcycles, but my sister has their CSC SG250, and the head mechanic at CSC even walked us through a carb tuning question over the phone while we worked on the bike. So don’t think that just because these are Chinese bikes means you’ll get bad quality or poor service. You get good versions of both.

CSC RX1E

Now let’s get to the bikes. The most impressive in the lineup is the CSC RX1E. I rode one near LA, and it was so much more impressive than I was expecting.

It’s got a super comfortable adventure bike setup, even though it’s really more of an urban commuter. But with a liquid-cooled motor, top speed of 80 mph (130 km/h), and a range of 112 miles (180 km), it can handle any commute you can throw at it. At its current price of $8,495, it gets you similar performance to an entry-level Zero motorcycle but at a fraction of the price.

CSC City Slicker. I wish I had my Dianese jacket on when I crashed that CAKE Osa above…

A much smaller bike in the company’s lineup is the CSC City Slicker, which is more like a Honda Grom-sized electric motorcycle. It has a lower top speed of 45 mph (72 km/h) and is definitely meant for sticking to the city, hence the name.

The removable battery makes it convenient for charging in an apartment, yet it still gives you all the motorcycle fun of flying around turns while trying to drag knee. It may have scooter-level performance, but it comes in a motorcycle-shaped package. When riding the City Slicker, I would always get questions from people and thumbs-ups along the way. There’s just something about a mini-moto that makes people look up.

CSC Wiz

Speaking of scooters, the CSC Wiz has much of the City Slicker’s performance but in a true scooter platform. That means you get a cargo trunk, a step-through body for even more cargo space at your feet, and a big comfortable seat with plenty of room for a second rider. As long as you are OK with speeds in the low 40’s of mph, then the Wiz is a great, low-cost electric scooter option at just $2,495.

Last but not least, you’ve got to check out the CSC Monterey. At just $2,195, this vintage Honda Cub-inspired scooter looks incredible. It’s underpowered and only gets up to 32 mph (51.5 km/h), but it makes up for the lackluster performance in pure charm.

I got a Monterey, and everywhere I went, people would smile and give me a thumbs-up. When I parked, people inevitably want to ask me about it. It’s a crowd-pleaser for sure. I ultimately gave it to my father, who gets a kick out of the classic styling. It also goes nicely in his retro-themed garage. If you live in a beach community or other area with lower-speed roads where a 32 mph scooter will suffice, the CSC Monterey is a hoot to ride.

Energica

Wow, Energica’s bikes are some of the most powerful motorcycles I’ve ever ridden. I’ve been on three of the models, including the Ribelle, EsseEsse9, and the new Energica Experia.

That’s actually the order I tested them, and each one gets better and better, at least in my opinion.

Energica Ribelle

I’m more of a comfort cruiser type of rider than a super-tucked sport rider, and so while the Ribelle is fun, that streetfighter is sportier than I really need. The EsseEsse9 was my favorite with its lower pegs and higher bars, even if the bike has slightly less power than the Ribelle.

But when Energica launched the Experia, that bike quickly became my favorite of the bunch. The sport tourer combined a powerful drivetrain with a comfortable and upright seating position. And with level 3 DC fast charging, touring is a reality with quick charge stops while grabbing a coffee or a bite to eat.

The Experia is my hands-down favorite of the bunch, but any time I get a chance to hop on an Energica, I know I’m going to have a good day.

My first ride on an Energica Experia in the Italian Alps

I was on the Ribelle for a couple of days on a recent trip to San Francisco and had a blast on the bike. While going over the windy bridges, I was glad to be on a solid, heavy bike as opposed to something much smaller.

So while I’d definitely opt for the Experia if it were me, the company’s sportier bikes are still a blast. The only model I haven’t tried is the Evo, which is just so much sportier than I’d ever need or want. But those who have them seem to love them, so to each their own!

Gogoro

Gogoro technically isn’t available in the US… yet. But since the company is rapidly expanding its presence, I’ll include Gogoro just in case they decide to come stateside soon.

The company recently expanded to Tel Aviv, Israel. For those who don’t know, despite being in the US often to ride new bikes and enjoy the country’s vast diversity of riding areas, I actually live in Tel Aviv most of the year. And so I was one of the first to get a new Gogoro S2 ABS electric scooter when they came out.

The scooters use a pair of swappable batteries that are the heart of the Gogoro Network. I’ve never charged the scooter – I’ve only ever swapped batteries. Theoretically, the range is well over 100 km (62 miles) in the city, but I’m often taking it up to its top speed of 95 km/h (59 mph) on highways, and so I often get closer to 60-70 km of range (36-45 miles).

But there’s a battery swap station every mile or two in Tel Aviv, and so range just isn’t an issue. When the batteries start to get low, I just roll into a battery swap station and pop in a pair of freshly charged batteries. The whole thing takes barely a minute if I’m moving slowly, and I can get it done in 30 seconds if I’m quick. A monthly subscription of around $38 covers my access to the swap stations.

The scooter itself is fairly peppy and offers 125cc-equivalent performance. I can best 250cc scooters at traffic light races, but they eventually overtake me with enough time to spool up. For a city ride, though, the Gogoro gives me more than I need.

The combination of a robust battery swapping network with a sexy-looking and powerful liquid-cooled scooter makes for an awesome setup for the city. I really hope Gogoro expands to Europe and the US soon because you guys need to try this.

Kollter

Kollter is another one of those brands in the US that has Chinese motorcycles but with good quality manufacturing and proper local service.

I’ve tested the ES1 Pro, which is a great commuter bike that can get up to around 65 or 70 mph (105-112 km/h), though I tested it in the city and never had a chance to get it going that fast.

The bike is also available in a chain-drive off-road version, though I like the belt-drive on-road version better as it’s quieter and also lower to the ground, which is nice for my 30-inch inseam.

The bike isn’t wildly powerful, but it’s enough to beat cars off the line at green lights, which is what I expect out of a commuter bike. Anything less, and you might as well get a scooter.

Kollter is actually known as Tinbot in Europe if you’re wondering why there are nearly identical-looking versions across the pond. And the company is coming out with several new models in the next few months that offer more power and speed, so this is going to be an exciting company to watch.

LiveWire

I LOVE me some LiveWire bikes. I was one of the first to ride the original production version of the Harley-Davidson LiveWire back in 2019, and my takeaway was that it was an incredibly-performing bike that was also grossly overpriced. Well, perhaps not grossly. But at $30K, it was pretty darn pricey.

My first ride on the original Harley-Davidson LiveWire

The company ended up spinning off LiveWire as its own all-electric sub-brand and relaunched the bike as the LiveWire One.

At closer to $22K, now we’re talking. I’ve ridden the LiveWire one as well, and it feels pretty much the way I remember the H-D LiveWire to have felt a few years ago. The bike is incredibly powerful off the line with a 0-60 mph of 3.1 seconds.

It’s fun in the canyons and works great in the city as well, and I love the Level 3 DC fast charging for quick fill-ups. The last time I was riding the LiveWire One in LA, I made frequent use of the fast charging in 20-minute stops, which allowed me to get over half of the battery’s charge back into the “tank.”

My loaner LiveWire One at a fast charger in Los Angeles

I also had the chance to test an early prototype of the LiveWire Del Mar, which is LiveWire’s second bike, schedule to be released early next year.

At $17K, it’s a decent bit more affordable than the LiveWire One, but it still offers nearly the same 0-60 mph time. It’s not a toned down LiveWire One, though – it’s an equally fun bike in its own right.

LiveWire S2 Del Mar

In fact, I also find it more comfortable since it doesn’t have as long of a reach as the LiveWire One. The only downside in comparison is that it’s likely to have around two-thirds of the range of the LiveWire One. (We don’t yet have full battery or range specs from LiveWire at the time of publishing.) But as a more urban-oriented bike, even 100 miles (160 km) of range is going to be plenty for nearly any commuter.

After my LiveWire S2 Del Mar test ride, I was kicking myself for not pre-ordering one of the Launch Edition bikes. Those 100 individually numbered motorcycles are all but guaranteed to become collectors items one day.

NIU

This alphabetical ordering gives us some doozies, like NIU’s cute little city scooters following up behind LiveWire’s rocket of an electric motorcycle.

But I call ’em like I see ’em, and I see NIU as a great option for anyone who needs a modestly powerful scooter in the city. I have the NIU NQi GT Long Range, and it has served as my daily driver for just over two years. The scooter does absolutely everything I need it to do (well, except for taking my dog to the vet) and has been an awesome way to get an electric vehicle in the city when my wife and I neither want (nor can afford) something as large as an electric car.

The NIU isn’t the most powerful scooter out there, but it keeps up with the 125cc scooters off the line without a problem.

One of its quirks is that your feet are up a bit high since one of the two giant batteries is under the foot platform, but I got used to it quickly and stopped noticing. I also wish it had more built-in storage, but I just added one of NIU’s cargo boxes on back and that gave me extra cargo space.

With a top speed of 80 km/h (50 mph), it’s been sufficient for the city, but I’d certainly love to upgrade to the newer NIU MQi GT EVO, which tops out at 100 km/h (62 mph). I test rode one last year at the EICMA Milan Motorcycle Show, and the first thing I noticed was how the more powerful motor accelerates even quicker than my NQi GT. If you’re going to be riding a lot with your partner or just want a faster and more powerful scooter, the EVO is a great option.

I haven’t ridden NIU’s RQi Sport electric motorcycle yet since it’s only been released in China. But the first chance I get, I’ll be on it.

Ryvid Anthem

The Ryvid Anthem is an absolutely fascinating bike. I rode it a couple of times on a recent trip to LA and had an absolute blast on it.

The innovative folded metal frame is lightweight and even allows the owner to customize the geometry by changing key points, like the head tube angle and the mounting points for the suspension.

The seat is also mounted on an actuator that lets it raise or lower by up to 4 inches (100 mm), even while riding.

Micah Toll (L) and Ryvid cofounder, Dong Tran (R)

The bike feels light and nimble, even if it’s not the fastest off the line like a LiveWire or Energica. But it makes up for it in style and experience.

The Anthem is also quite comfortable, especially for a smaller rider like me at 5’7″ or 170cm. But because you can raise the seat up by 4 inches, taller riders can feel good on the Anthem as well.

The last cool thing to mention on this bike is the removable battery. It may be small at just over 4 kWh, but it is removable with a quick release and even has wheels so you don’t have to carry the 65-pound pack inside to charge it. Instead, you just roll it like carry-on luggage. That’s a key benefit for apartment dwellers who don’t have a place to charge on the street.

As a commuter bike, the 75 mph (120 km/h) or so top speed is enough for pretty much any urban road or highway sprint.

You aren’t going to be overtaking in the left lane too often on the highway, but you can at least maintain safe speeds to keep up with traffic. And like I said, this is a commuter bike after all. It’s not a sport bike or a tourer. It’s for getting to work and having fun while doing it. And the Ryvid Anthem absolutely accomplishes that while leaving a stupidly-big smile on your face.

SONDORS Metacycle

The Metacycle. Wow, I waited so long for this ride. The bike was unveiled at the start of 2021 but didn’t start making deliveries until Q3 of 2022, with the volume really picking up this month at the end of 2022.

The bike also changed somewhat from the original design, gaining about 50% more weight and seeing its sustained top speed drop from 80 mph (130 km/h) to somewhere in the 60-70 mph (100-112 km/h) range. A turbo button puts the bike in sport mode for brief sprints up to 80 mph (130 km/h), but then it requires a cool-down period where you’re stuck at the continuous top speed until you can do it again.

My Metacycle test ride

But since this is a commuter bike and not really a long highway cruise type of bike, that’s probably going to be fine for most people.

I test rode one of the first production Metacycles in LA and took it on a combination of fast highway riding and local city street cruising. I got an extrapolated range of 40 miles (64 km), though that was with ample use of the sport mode. Not exactly the most impressive range, but obviously fine for anyone with a commute of less than 40 miles (or 20 miles if you don’t have a charge spot at work).

The bike itself is actually a lot of fun to ride. Not only is it a head turner and conversation starter at traffic lights, but it’s a nimble and easy-riding bike for weaving between cars and slicing through traffic.

In fact, it’s so easy to ride that it feels like a simple upgrade from an electric bicycle. If you’ve been riding higher-speed e-bikes like Super73s or other motorcycle-inspired designs and want to upgrade to an actual motorcycle, the Metacycle makes that transition quite easy.

The bike comes with some neat innovations I haven’t seen elsewhere, like a see-through glovebox with a wireless charger for your phone. The original $5,000 price was a great deal, but even the current $6,500 price feels reasonable for what you ultimately get.

Sur Ron Light Bee

The Sur Ron Light Bee is like if an electric bicycle hit puberty, lost its pedals, and grew some power. It’s not a “real motorcycle” in the sense that it’s barely 6 kW (8 hp), but it can hit a solid 45-50 mph off-road and is often found beating gas-powered motorbikes in races.

The thing barely weighs over 100 pounds, and thus it feels more like a heavy electric bicycle beneath you, except that it has a short enough wheel base and sufficient torque to flip you right over if you grab too much throttle.

Using a Jackery power station to recharge my Sur Ron in the field

The Sur Ron’s Achilles heel has always been its lower battery capacity, which can be sucked up in 40 minutes or less of super hard riding, though it could last for a couple of hours of leisurely trail riding.

But as a fun runabout that you toss in the back of your truck and take out to the boonies for off-road shenanigans, it’s a great starter off-road bike. And considering its usually priced at around $4,000, it’s just not that expensive either.

It may not be here for a long time, but it’s here for a good time.

Zero

I guess we saved the biggest for last here. Zero has so many models in its lineup that it’s hard to keep track of them these days. I think I’ve ridden most of them at this point. From the flagship SR/F and sleeker fully-fared SR/S, to the smaller Zero FXE and other bikes in between, there’s a bit of something for everyone.

Zero SR/S

I recently had the chance to test out the new Zero DSR/X, which is the company’s newest and perhaps most impressive model. The electric adventure bike gave me some of my first tastes of high-power adventure riding in the trails over Park City, Utah. Between the rider aides that help a so-so rider like me play at a much higher level to the utility additions like tons of locking storage space, that is one impressive bike! It also comes with a massive battery pack to match its massive pricetag of $24,495, so don’t expect to get into this one cheap.

Even so, Zero’s entry-level bikes in the FX line still offer a thrilling ride for closer to half of that price. I fell in love with a 2019 Zero FXS a few years ago, but the Zero FXE is likely my new favorite among the company’s starter bikes. As a commuter-level bike that still gets you fast speeds, powerful acceleration, and an entry ticket into Zero’s walled garden, it’s a hell of a ride.

As Zero’s prices have walked up, though, this undisputed leader of the US electric motorcycle market has been faced with a number of new start-ups trying to eat its lunch on the commuter end of the spectrum. Companies like Kollter, SONDORS, Ryvid, and CSC all offer interesting and unique commuter-level electric motorcycles that could give options to those that can’t afford (or can’t justify paying for) Zero’s higher prices.

What’s next?

One of the coolest things about the electric motorcycle market is just how quickly it is evolving. New e-moto companies seem to crop up every month, and new models are rolling out on a weekly basis.

Who knows what bikes we’ll see in the coming years?

The only thing for certain is that I’m going to need to find myself sitting in a pile of new saddles if I want to keep this up. And that ain’t a bad thing to me!

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The world of motorcycles is rapidly changing, with the rise of electric motorcycles heralding a new era of motorcycling. If you’re considering getting your first motorcycle, there’s never been a better time to join the electric revolution. Electric motorcycles are the perfect first ride for anyone entering the world of two wheels, offering numerous advantages over traditional combustion engine-powered bikes. From better control to reduced maintenance and even lower operating cost, electric motorcycles are the perfect starter bike.

This is going to be controversial for traditional riders who grew up on gassers. That’s fine. This article isn’t for them. It’s for you, a prospective rider who sees the advantages of getting around on two wheels (fun, convenience, cost, lifestyle, parking, etc.) and is trying to decide if it’s time to join up and on what type of bike.

Many folks who have been riding for years or decades will tell you that you have to learn on a gas bike. Why? Because that’s how they learned.

What a terrible reason to do something, “because that’s the way it used to be done.” We’re living in the future, congratulations! Doctors no longer prescribe arsenic to treat headaches and you no longer have to ride on a loud, leaking, and vibrating combustion chamber. You’ve got options now, and one of those options is the choice to leapfrog century-old technology and go electric right from the start.

As a relatively young rider (34, to be exact), I’ve come of age in my motorcycling journey during a time when both electric and combustion-engine bikes were readily available. And so I fortunately had the chance to compare both without being forced to fall in love with only one because it was my single option at the time like most older riders.

And that has taught me that combustion engine bikes have essentially two and only two advantages over electric motorcycles: It’s fun to run through the gears, and they can be ridden on cross-country trips for more than a couple hours without needing to stop for a charge. That’s about it.

Everything else comes up heads for electric motorcycles, especially when you’re talking about a new rider getting their first bike.

One of my Zero FXE test rides in California

Ease of control

Electric motorcycles are generally (but not always) single-speed, meaning you have no gears to shift. They aren’t automatic transmission since there isn’t any shifting, but it’s fairly analogous to comparing a car with a manual transmission to one with an automatic transmission.

Sure, it’s fun shifting. I learned to drive on a car three times my age with a stick throw so long I had to lean forward to hit first and third gear. But it was also much more to learn, complicating the process.

The same goes for learning to ride a motorcycle. If you’re new to manual transmissions, you have to learn not only how to control a motorcycle’s movement, but also how to shift gears. Those are two very different but equally important concepts and motions. Having gone through both learning processes, I can tell you that it’s just much easier to learn to ride on an electric. Without worrying about any shifting, 100% of your focus is on your riding. That means more mental energy for bike control, car awareness, road debris, lane presence, etc. Those things will eventually be second nature to the point that you don’t even think about them, but when learning to ride it is much easier to learn those things without also having to think, “Wait, that car just pulled out in front of me, did I slow enough for second gear or should I be in third before I let this clutch back out?”

The downside of the single-speed setup on e-motorcycles is that you don’t get the fun feeling of running through the gears. I do miss it sometimes, and it’s pretty much the only part of riding gas bikes that I enjoy more than electrics. But since the tradeoff is that you can repeatedly unleash the crazy performance of electric motorcycles like Harley-Davidson’s LiveWire One with its 3 second 0-60 mph time — all without needing to shift — usually makes up for it. The other saving grace here is for commuters. When you’re riding in traffic or otherwise commuting through a city with lots of starts and stops, shifting turns from something fun into an annoying chore.

Having tested an electric Harley on the track, I can tell you that easily and repeatedly doing 0-60 mph in three seconds is positively wild.

Speaking of ease of control, a light electric motorcycle makes a great upgrade from a powerful electric bicycle since the controls are so similar. I got started with motorcycling this very way. In 2010 I found my way into high power DIY electric bicycles – essentially e-bikes that exceeded the legal limits of traditional electric bicycles. At a certain point you want to go even faster with even more power, only to realize that you’re basically building a motorcycle on a bicycle frame.

That’s where a lot of people make the decision to just jump into real motorcycles and enjoy the added benefits of higher quality and safer components, not to mention finally being street legal again.

Many electric motorcycles forego the traditional foot lever rear brake for a hand lever instead, more closely mimicking bicycle controls. A quick note though: If you’re not in an already backwards country like the UK, you’ll find motorcycle brakes and bicycle brakes are reversed from each other, i.e., the right brake lever controls the front brake on a motorcycle. As someone who goes back and between e-bikes and e-motorcycles, often in the same day, it’s a little mental note that is important to master.

Having two hand brake levers makes an electric motorcycle even easier to control, especially for new riders that are already familiar with bicycles. Traditional motorcyclists that are used to a foot brake will usually say they prefer it, but that’s because it’s what they’re used to. Again, we have better options now because we live in the future. Hand controls are more precise. Throw a basketball at the hoop and even the least athletic among us will probably at least hit the backboard. Now try again with your foot and see how close you get. Hand control is simply more intuitive and easier.

Many electric motorcycles like these Ryvid Anthems use two hand brake levers.

Electric motorcycles require less maintenance

This is probably the biggest single advantage of electrics over gas bikes. And I have a lot of personal experience with it. Electric motorcycles aren’t maintenance free, but they’re pretty darn close. You’ve still got tires and brakes to keep an eye on (and a chain if you don’t have a belt drive bike), but those are few and far between issues. Gas bikes require much more frequent maintenance to keep them running well since their engines are a collection of hundreds of moving parts instead of an electric motor’s single spinning shaft.

My sister rides a 250cc bike. I ride electrics. Guess who’s bike is constantly needing work here and there to keep it running well?

If your goal with getting into motorcycling is to actually ride, then electric is probably for you. If you’d rather spend a good bit of your time wrenching instead of riding, then perhaps an engine based on 100+ year-old technology is right for you.

Electric motorcycles are cheaper to operate

When it comes to daily operating costs, there’s no comparison. Electric is simply easier on your wallet.

And it’s not just the fuel. Sure, gas is expensive compared to much cheaper electricity. That’s an easy one to see the instant advantage of electric drive. But it’s all the other costs that add up too.

There are no air filters to replace. There are no periodic oil changes. There’s not a constant list of consumables that you have to keep buying in order to ride.

And depending where you live, electric motorcycles come with other benefits. I pay significantly lower monthly insurance rates because my bike is electric. Where I live, a 1,000cc-equivalent electric motorcycle has an insurance rate of a 250cc motorcycle. Many countries also offer incentives like reduced toll fares or cheaper parking permits, though you can often get away with parking motorcycles for free when they fit into smaller areas that cars can’t park.

Electric motorcycles are quieter, smoother, and more comfortable to ride

Electric motorcycles offer a better ride experience because they are quieter, smoother, and more comfortable. That’s actually three benefits in one, so let’s break it down.

Electric motorcycles are quieter than combustion engine motorcycles, and this is a big advantage. You can hear things happening around you, whether that’s animals in the forest, approaching car danger, or the musings of your riding partners. Being able to carry on a conversation while riding next to a friend or with others at a stop light is a nice bonus. You can roll out in the morning without rumbling exhaust annoying your neighbors or waking the baby. A few years ago I was in LA and went on an early Sunday morning sunrise cruise through a super fancy Hollywood neighborhood on a Harley-Davidson LiveWire. I enjoyed winding through the hilly residential streets on one of Harley’s burliest and quickest motorcycles (0-60 mph in three seconds flat!) yet without waking the occupants of all the fancy houses I was drooling over. The few people awake and out on morning walks gave me a smile and wave and instead of dirty looks for riding a loud motorcycle through their neighborhoods early in the morning.

And don’t for a second buy that silly “loud pipes save lives” misconception. There are few larger fallacies in the world of motorcycles. We’ve all been in a car before, either parked or moving, only to be startled when a loud motorcycle whizzes by the door. It’s startling because we didn’t realize it was coming. Which is the whole point, and illustrates that loud pipes do nothing other than annoy people parked next to you at a red light. Cars are so sound-proof these days that even a loud motorcycle is on top of them before a driver even realizes it. You’re buying yourself a fraction of a second early warning at most, and in some cases that can be even more dangerous when a loud bike spooks a driver into doing something stupid.

And gas bike riders who are relying on their exhaust noise alerting drivers are actually at a disadvantage. Too many drivers with headphones or talking on their phones will be completely oblivious to loud motorcycles. Relying on them hearing you is a good way to get yourself hurt or killed.

As an electric motorcycle rider, I don’t wonder if drivers see or hear me. I just assume they don’t. That allows me to always ride as if I am invisible to drivers and to make defensive riding decisions accordingly. “Loud pipes” are a dangerous crutch. They don’t save lives, aware riding does.

Testing out the upcoming LiveWire S2 Del Mar

Next, electric motorcycles are smoother. Their power delivery is immediate and fairly linear. When you twist the throttle, you know exactly what you’re going to get. It doesn’t depend on your RPM level, how closely you matched your clutch speed to your engine speed, or how your carburetor is tuned for the current temperature and altitude. An electric motorcycle’s drivetrain is a precise computer-controlled machine, not a literal combustion chamber harnessing thousands of explosions to spin a wheel. That makes every movement on an electric motorcycle smoother and more predictable, which is exactly what a beginner rider needs.

Lastly, riding an electric motorcycle is more comfortable. There’s no heat source roasting your thighs or the ankle of your passenger. In traffic you aren’t sitting in a cloud of exhaust (at least not your own). Your garage doesn’t have oil stains on the ground. The bike isn’t vibrating your wrists or your family jewels (not to mention the studies that show the heat and vibration of gas motorcycles contributes to low sperm count and erectile dysfunction). Just about every aspect of the riding or ownership experience is physically more comfortable as well as healthier.

Future-proofing your motorcycle

When looking to the future, a combustion engine-powered motorcycle simply seems like a poor investment from a few directions.

For one thing, many countries are introducing stricter regulations against polluting vehicles. Next, electric motorcycles are constantly debuting new technological advancements. In comparison, there haven’t been many big technological advancements in combustion motorcycles in decades. The technology has basically been refined as far as engineers can take it. There’s not much more we can do with exploding gasoline in a cylinder.

But electric motorcycles, which are already outperforming combustion motorcycles, are still in their infancy. Every year we see huge leaps forward. Some new advancements can even be downloaded as new features. Try that on a gasser.

Energica motorcycles can fast-charge, even at Tesla Supercharger stations.

But don’t electric motorcycles suck to charge?

If you’re new to electric motorcycles or even electric vehicles in general, then you’re probably thinking that charging is a major downside.

In some rare cases, you’d be correct. For example, if you want to do motorcycle touring (riding many hundreds or even 1,000+ miles per day), then it can be burdensome on the majority of today’s electric motorcycles. It’s been done on e-motorcycles, though it takes a bit of planning.

But outside of the rare case of someone riding through multiple states in a single day, charging is actually an advantage of electric motorcycles, not a disadvantage.

If you use your motorcycle for commuting or daily transportation, a battery is simply better than a fuel tank. Since you can charge at home overnight, you start every day with a “full tank.” It’s as convenient as having a gas station in your garage, except without the smell or long lines. With a battery instead of a fuel tank, you’re never stopping to fuel up since you simply charge at home while you’re sleeping. Most electric motorcycles have ranges of hundreds of miles in the city. That means for commuters, you’re basically never worried about range or where you can find a plug since you start every morning fueled up.

Ironically, you’ll find that when used in a commuter role it is gas-powered motorcycles that end up range anxiety. They can’t fuel up at home so they always need to know where a gas station is.

The traditional gas bike riders will try to tell you that because electric motorcycles aren’t as good at touring, they’d make a poor choice to own. But again, they’re wrong.

First of all, most people don’t go on several-hundred-mile touring rides that often. It’s a small minority of all motorcycle rides. For most people, finding several days or weeks to dedicate to such rides simply isn’t feasible very often. And if that’s something you really want to do once or twice a year, you can rent a gas bike to do it. That way for the other 360 days a year you ride a nicer, more convenient electric motorcycles.

As a new rider, the vast majority of your rides will be in the sub-one-hour range. You’re not going to be riding coast to coast very often in the beginning of your motorcycling journey.

Secondly, electric motorcycles actually can do touring thanks to fast charging. Several e-motorcycles now use DC Fast Charging, which refills the battery most of the way in around 35 minutes. It’s longer than a gas fill up, sure. But after a couple hours of riding, you’ll want to take a break to stretch your legs, get a coffee, drain out the last coffee, etc.

Are electric motorcycles expensive?

Purchase price and charging times are the two major areas that I hear gas bike riders cite as reasons new riders shouldn’t start with an electric motorcycle. We’ve already covered why the charging issue is baloney. Now let’s talk price tags.

Addmitely, electric motorcycles are usually still a bit more expensive than gas bikes with the same speed and power specs. It’s to be expected since a better vehicle is going to cost more. But the price gaps aren’t as big as they used to be, with the larger price gaps still on the higher performance end of the spectrum. And most new riders aren’t going to start with an ultra high performance electric motorcycle.

If you look at something like a $25,000 Energica that can hold its own against a Ducati, then yes, they’re expensive. But if you start with a much more reasonable lightweight or middleweight electric motorcycle, then the prices are more reasonable as well.

The SONDORS Metacycle, which is capable of highway speeds but is better suited for suburban or urban commuting, fluctuates between $4,000 to $6,500 depending on current sales. Newcomers like the Ryvid Anthem are priced at $7,800. And the CSC RX1E, which can reach 80 mph (130 km/h) and has a city range of around 80-100 miles (130-160 km), is priced at around US $8,500.

But if you want to go even smaller and really dip your foot in the shallow end of the electric motorcycle pool, there are mini options like the CSC City Slicker at just $2,900.

Granted, these are all available in the US as that is where the majority of our audience lives. But if you’re outside of the US then you probably have even more options for low-power and mid-power electric motorcycles.

Most of these bikes are imported from Asia anyway, and Europe and Oceania are currently being flooded with new options for cost-effective and modestly powered electric motorcycles. So while this article is a bit America-centric, rest assured that you’ve probably got some good low-cost e-motorcycle options in your neck of the woods.

An environmentally conscious decision

You’ll notice I saved this one for last. I think the environmental impact of electric motorcycles is important, since we have only one planet Earth and we all share it. But let’s be honest, most new riders are going to place more importance on the fun, convenience, and cost aspects of electric motorcycles.

Even so, you should know what a big impact on the environment is at stake here. Emissions caused by transportation are one of the leading causes of climate change. While trying to not sound too alarmist here, we are steadily destroying this planet. If you have children, they will live in a worse environment than you do now. That is a simple fact, not up for debate.

There’s a chance that if humanity works together, we can change that. I’m not yet totally convinced that our species has the collective will to achieve that level of cooperation, but it is still physically possible. And putting fewer polluting vehicles on the road is a step in that direction. Even if not for your future kids’ health, then what about yours? If I asked you to wrap your lips around the tailpipe of a combustion engine, would you do it? No, of course not. You know that’s literally cancer-causing fumes being pumped out of it. So why would you ask other people to breath in a carcinogenic cloud from your own tail pipe?

Electric motorcycles make the perfect starter bikes for new riders

So there we go, I’ve beaten this dead horse to the point of corpse desecration. The point is simple: Electric motorcycles make a better choice for new riders for so many reasons. They’re easier to learn on. They’re easier to ride. They’re cheaper and more convenient to own. They’re healthier for you and everyone around you. They’re simply better.

Despite all those benefits though, you unfortunately will probably still need to ride a gas bike, at least for a few days. If you live in the US or many other countries, you’ll still likely have to learn to ride a gas motorcycle to get your license. At least, for now.

I’ve gotten two motorcycle licenses in two countries and each time I was put on a gas bike to do it. Several years ago I got my motorcycle license in an MSF course in the US. It was two evenings of classroom instruction followed by a weekend of parking lot instruction, capped off with a parking lot exam. After years of riding in Tel Aviv without a local motorcycle endorsement (“Sorry officer, I didn’t know…”) I finally went through the process internationally too. There it involved 12 classes of combined parking lot and street-riding instruction, followed by both a parking lot and a street-riding exam.

In both cases I was put on a gas bike to do my instruction and testing. As much as I’ve harped on the advantages of electric motorcycles, I don’t hate that I had to learn and demonstrate proficiency on a gas bike multiple times. It’s allowed me to occasionally borrow gas bikes from friends or family. And if I ever need to do an action movie sequence where I kick someone off a motorcycle and hijack it to chase down a bad guy, chances are it’s still going to be a gas bike for the next few years until electric motorcycles eventually become the majority.

So it’s not a bad skill to have, knowing how to operate a gas bike. It’s kind of like the value of knowing how to operate a manual transmission in a car. I almost never drive anymore since I pretty much live on two wheels. But the rare case comes up, usually on vacation, where my wife and I are the only ones in our friends group that know how to drive a stick. That means when traveling, especially in Europe and Asia, we’re able to beg, borrow, or rent a car more easily (though it has the downside of forcing us to be designated drivers in any group we’re in). It’s not a skill I use often, but I’m glad to have it. And so if you have to learn how to ride a gas bike to get your license and then immediately switch to an electric bike, that’s not a terrible thing.

And look, even if after this long and drawn-out article about the advantages of electric motorcycles you still end up wanting a gas bike, I won’t lose any sleep over it. Whatever you ride, you’re going to have a blast. You may be surprised how open and accepting the motorcycle world is. It’s full of fun people that enjoy riding. At around a quarter of the red lights I roll up to other gas bikers will start asking me about my electric ride. It’s a fun world full of cool people. And if you end up on a gas bike, that’s not the end of the world. You’ll still have a great time.

Just not as great as if you went electric. 🙂

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