Remember Land Energy? It’s the proud Cleveland, Ohio-based electric motorbike manufacturer that evolved from what once was Cleveland Cycle Werks. As the short version of the story goes, when CCW began working on its first electric bike, founder Scott Colosimo soon realized that he just couldn’t go back to the old way of doing things. From then on, he said no to both combustion and overseas supply chains—all the Land bikes, the company says, are both designed and built in Cleveland.
On paper, the idea for the District family of e-motos—which is the category name Land uses—seems particularly promising. While pricing in the high-$7,000 or low-$8,000 range means it’s not exactly cheap, the idea is that you’re buying into an adaptable, upgradable ecosystem. Land Moto’s big idea is that the batteries are hot-swappable, and that while the chassis will stay the same, the heart of the bike will essentially be upgradable into the future. It’s a cool idea if they can pull it off, for sure.
To do that, though, Land Moto has to exist on more than just our screens—and now, in April, 2022, it will. Bikes have already started shipping out to pre-order customers, so they can experience all that the three flavors of Land District have to offer.
Gallery: Land Moto District
The Standard version is the most basic, no-frills model, and is not set up for street use at all. That means no headlight, no turn signals, none of that stuff. Meanwhile, the Street and Scrambler variants of the District do what they tell you on the tin. Both are street-legal, but the Street has more road-biased tires, while the Scrambler gets a set of Shinko Scrambler dual-sport rubber installed from the factory.
Since it’s early days yet, we will of course have to wait to find out what people actually think of these bikes once the owners get some seat time with them. The idea of creating an electric bike that’s something else—something between an e-bike and a motorcycle, is an interesting one. While Land isn’t alone in exploring this uncharted territory, its stated goals are among the most direct we’ve seen so far. Using its CORE battery packs as distributed energy, which can also power your devices or even act as a battery backup when off the bike, is a solid move.
As we’ve said before, it all looks incredibly promising on paper, and we’re definitely interested to see how riders like these bikes now that they’re rolling out into the world. To us, the more people on two wheels, the better—and all types of two-wheeled vehicles are welcome in our tent.
