Amarok P1: The Superlight Electric Bike Unveiled

A well known fact that the electric motorcycle developers have ignored so far but which made internal-combustion-engine motorcycles so successful i.e., ‘Less weight equals more performance’ finally seem to have a taker. The Amarok P1 that the Canadian motorcycle designer Michael Uhlarik unveiled today weighs just 325 pounds which is almost half what its other electric counterparts weigh.

That means the flyweight Amarok — can do more with less. It needs a 7.5-kilowatt-hour battery to complete the 12 laps of a TTXGP race while its rivals need 12 kwh, or more. It also will be faster.

“Smaller chassis dimensions means a tight handling package and a smaller frontal area, reducing aerodynamic drag,” Uhlarik says. “Less weight and less complication means lower costs to build and, using high-performance common metals instead of exotic alloys and composites, means simple tooling, hand fabrication and ease of repair and modification.”

The P1 doesn’t employ a traditional frame. The battery is the frame, and much of the bodywork as well. The front suspension and rear swingarm are bolted to that battery, increasing simplicity, reducing parts and optimizing weight.

This allowed Uhlarik to overcome one of the biggest problems everyone struggles with: Where to put the motors. Most bikes on the TTXGP grid use the Agni 95 because it has an excellent torque-to-weight ratio, it’s simple and it’s readily available. But the 95 has a terrible problem with overheating when pressed hard over full race distances. That’s why you usually see them bolted to the sides of a bike, out in the airflow. That helps keep them cool but spoils aerodynamics.

Uhlarik hid the motors under the seat, ducting cooling air through what looks like the fuel tank — something that’s proving tough to eliminate on e-motos because it provides a major point of contact between rider and machine when riding hard.

The Amarok is one of only a handful of motorcycles designed from the ground up for electric power. The stunning MotoCzysz E1pc, which won at the Isle of Man and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca last year, the Brammo Empulse RR and the Mission R are ground-up designs, but they come from relatively large companies.

Despite a limited budget, Amarok has big goals for its fledgling motorcycle-racing program. While this year’s P1 is currently the lightest machine in the TTXGP field, the P2 we’ll see next year should be 50 pounds lighter, giving it power-to-weight parity with the purest, most elemental racing machine of all — the 250cc Grand Prix bike.