There's a neat little category opening up somewhere between e-bikes and electric motorcycles, and Cake's new Kalk& (Kalk and) is a perfect example. Weighing just 79 kg (174 lb), with a range "over 86 km" (53 mi), it'd be a super fun dual sport commuter if it wasn't for the price tag.
The minute you ride a powerful, lightweight electric bicycle like the Stealth H-52 – or heck, even just anything with a 1,000-W motor in it – you start thinking: something a bit more powerful than this, with a bit more range, would make an absolutely wild zero-emissions giggle-machine commuter if you could get it street legal, make it do highway speeds and keep it lightweight and silly.
The Cake Kalk& is such a giggle machine, and it's got all the bits and pieces necessary to make it street legal. Developed from the company's Kalk Or off-roader, it runs a 10-kW (13.4-hp) motor putting out 42 Nm (31 lb-ft) of torque – enough for a top speed "over 90 km/h (56 mph)" that won't get you honked off the freeway on a short stint. The battery offers a humble 2.6 kWh, but the range is more than enough for daily duties round town or the odd blast up a trail if you've got one close by.
It's got programmable regen braking, multiple riding modes, 220-mm motorcycle brake discs front and rear, a mirror, LED headlight and taillights, indicators, fenders, plate holders and a set of dual-sport tires.
It's also got suspension that's been specially developed for it by Ohlins, which is probably lovely to ride on, but it contributes to the Kalk&'s biggest issue: the price of €14,000 (or US$14,000 in the USA) is just insane for what you're getting. The Zero FX, optioned up with a 7.2-kWh battery, offers four times the power and better range for $10,500, and even that's too rich for a lot of riders. China's Sur-Ron is doing a 10-kW street bike with a bigger battery for $3,000, and rumor has it the company is working on a street-legal version of its wicked Light Bee off-roader that could match or beat the Kalk& on performance for Chinese money instead of Swedish.
That's not to say the Kalk& doesn't look like a ball to ride, and a beautifully built thing, but we can't imagine it's going to sell in huge numbers at that price. Check out the Kalk& in the video below.
Source: Cake
