While many who've read my screeds will undoubtedly believe I'm an EV acolyte, the sound of an engine still gets my hair all tingly. I love a good motor. The induction noise. The exhaust. The revs climbing through their range to redline. It still gets me excited and wanting more.
In fact, when I was just recently in Iceland, one of our group managed to knock the silencer off the exhaust system of his Ducati DesertX V2, and the noise that emanated from it was positively glorious for the next few hours until we could fix it. Think straight-piped rowdiness going up hillclimbs and rallying as if it were Dakar. Perfection dot gif.
Yet, the world's need to reduce the carbon footprint we all make—mostly, what corporations and billionaires make, though—is at an all-time high. Heatwaves are sweeping the globe. Droughts are intensifying. And our snowpacks and ice sheets are fast melting away. I'm still not sure EVs are the end-all, be-all, but they're a stepping stone. And in this new world order, I'd like for classic motorcycles to still be around, not just thrown away in some scrap heap or parked in a garage, never to be seen again.
Luckily for us, the folks over at Beachman Bikes, and the company's new Special Vehicles Division (SVD), aim tokeep these classic motorcycles on the road and running well into the future by converting them to electric.
"If someone brings us a classic bike that rides great, we won't touch it," says Steve Payne, Beachman's COO and the head of SVD, adding, "but being able to preserve a bike that was headed to the scrap yard and give it a whole new life is a pleasure."
And that's a concept I can get behind. Preserving something that is already headed to its death and getting a new lease on life by becoming an EV. With a blown motor and clutch, and some other issues, Beachman's first EV swap from SVD, a Honda CB500, really took its time in cultivating what the owner and company wanted from the project. According to the brand, "rather than casually dropping a battery into an old frame and calling it electric, Beachman SVD brought the original CB500 back to life with a quality restoration and battery integration that delivers highway speed capability, reliability in daily use, and the kind of ride confidence required from a modern motorcycle."
Again, the idea is not to just electrify everything for the sake of electrification, but to preserve the past for the future, and deliver the same kind of ride quality, ethos, and feel as the original.
A 200 amp-hour battery pack running 72 volts provides the CB500 with power, and is supposedly capable of normal cafe racer range. What that is isn't stated in Beachman's release, but given the company's other products, 60-80 miles is likely per charge. Likewise, the company 3D-scanned the frame, and worked with its battery supplier to engineer a drop-in solution, which can now fit most other CB500 EV conversions. There's even a "vintage-inspired" charging port, so as not to break up the motorcycle's classic design.
Beachman has previously done conversions with Kawasakis, Volkswagens, Chevys, and even a Meyers Manx.
As for price, conversions start around the $8,000 mark when adjusted for conversion from Canadian, which isn't all that bad. And for those saying it ruins history, it ain't yours to ruin. Don't tell other people what to do with their stuff or how they should use it. It's theirs, not yours.
