Tacita electric cruiser

[Richard230]

This seems like an interesting vehicle - if it goes into production and if they can pick up enough retailers to sufficiently cover the market.  However, I am not quite sure about that 5-speed transmission and clutch. The comment is that the clutch can be used to vary the motor's torque - and how did that work out on the Empulse?  That all sounds kind of familiar and perhaps unnecessarily complicated for a brand new motorcycle that needs to establish a reputation for reliability.  Also, the advertised retail prices seem a little low to me for the company to make enough profit to stay in business for very long. 

https://electricmotorcycles.news/tacita-cruiser/

[RickXB]

The empulse transmission is more in the concept of a bicycle gears than a car transmission.

On a bicyle, do you "need" 10-12 gear? No. 
1 is enough to get you going. Just need a tall gear to have the same top speed because you're RPM limited &  a bigger pair of legs to have the same wheel torque as the lowest gear.

Do you need to run through all of them? No.
You just pick the one that suit you most and go with it. Yes, 6 gear is probably 3 too many, same as a bicycle.

For me, I have a 42T so
1st gear is for street ;0-80km/h, 90% of the time . 
2nd for boulvard 40-100km/h,
3rd for highway ramp,
4 for highway
5,6... getting to 170kmh or "hypermiling"

A single gear need at least  twice more Torque at the motor shaft to have the same wheel torque as a mutli gear in 1st. Give me the same wheel torque than a multi speed with a single gear and I choose the single gear. Until a 150lb-ft+ single gear is available, I will stick with a tranny.

[siai47]

Sounds like this will have performance close to an Empulse.  The Empulse has a little more powerful motor, 42 KW peak and 90 NM of torque--all at a lower 5400 RPM.  Same number of gears.  Hope they have picked something a little less "clunky" then the IET transmission.  Also uses an induction motor which is a little easier to control than the PM motor used on the Empulse.  It's a toss up as to which is best but the induction is a little cheaper to manufacture and uses a less complex controller.  The range specs seem in line for the battery capacity and the charge times indicate a on board charger with similar capacity to the Empulse.  They also allude to some sort of possible DC quick charge.  So what you really have is a cruiser Empulse.  Nothing too radical in the styling department however I prefer the Empulse "sport bike" style to the cruiser.  A very comfortable seat and riding position might win a lot of people over.  I notice a choice of belt or chain drive.  It will be interesting if they can get a belt that won't shread with the starting line torque on the belt in first gear.  Even Zero's have belt issues if not adjusted perfectly and that is a single speed setup.  A belt that could last (and a quiet gearbox) could really be a change for the better from the Brammo/Victory Empulse.  Hope they can pull it off but it's going to be tricky.   

[siai47]

If you look carefully at the Motard version of their other bikes I think there is a IET transmission like the Brammo has lurking inside it.  Spacing of the shifter, output shaft and clutch release matches the Brammo.  Tacita says their slogan is IET "Italian Electric Technology".  Not far from IET "integrated electric transmission" as found in the Brammo.  Hey, the're both made in Italy---IET had to do something with all those goofy  transmissions that they built.  Why not wrap another motorcycle around it.  BTW-it looks like some of the other models have some other type of transmission or a different case with the IET guts to fit their needs.

[Shinysideup]

Watching the teaser video in the article, at 0:22 you can hear a gear change that sure sounds exactly like my Empulse.

[Richard230]

Watching the teaser video in the article, at 0:22 you can hear a gear change that sure sounds exactly like my Empulse.

Since the bike is apparently manufactured in Italy, it would make sense that they would use the Empulse's Italian transmission/clutch components.