Today I picked up the February issue of (the monthly San Francisco newspaper publication)
City Bike and I see in their "News, Clues & Rumors" column, on page 4, an item titled "Empulse-ive" (catchy, huh?). It provides the usual description of the old Empulse, while adding the mention of the six-speed transmission and goes on as follows:
"
The gearbox is a new feature, and some of our readers may have had something to do with it. You may recall we speculated that Harley-Davidson hosted a secret electric-motorcycle test ride ("News, Clues," November 2011), but a City Bike reader we met while talking electric motors with the dreadlocked king of e-bikes, Scuderia's Don Lemelin, said that he was at the event, and yes, it sure looked a lot like a Brammo Empulse, and yes, it performed about as well as a Suzuki Gladius (the SV650's replacement). He also said (NDA be dammed) that many riders told the event hosts they wanted a gearbox. And boom, the Empulse's launch has been postponed while Brammo's engineers try to stuff a gearbox in there."
Then they go on to say: "
Pie in the sky? Hardly: Brammo has been purchased by Polaris Industries, a behemoth with the deep pockets (and lucrative defense contracts) to get a product like this to market. Expect it this summer."
I won't comment on how much of this story is accurate, I'll let someone else do that. I am just the messenger and I figured you would want to hear what
City Bike had to say, especially as the paper is not widely circulated outside of the Bay Area.
I'll also comment that the Suzuki Gladius is no longer in Suzuki's 2012 lineup - poor thing. It must have been the name.
