Motorcycles

The Emula electric motorcycle is a two-wheeled time machine

The Emula electric motorcycle is a two-wheeled time machine
The Emula prototype: an electric motorcycle designed to act like a time machine, emulating the sound, feel and power delivery of motorcycles of the past
The Emula prototype: an electric motorcycle designed to act like a time machine, emulating the sound, feel and power delivery of motorcycles of the past
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The Emula will have a "boring mode" in which it behaves like a high-performance electric motorcycle – ie, better than all the other bikes it emulates
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The Emula will have a "boring mode" in which it behaves like a high-performance electric motorcycle – ie, better than all the other bikes it emulates
The first three motorcycles chosen for emulation: a 1989 250cc 2-stroke, a 2004 800cc twin, and a 1999 600cc inline four. Theoretically, any number of other bikes could be programmed in
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The first three motorcycles chosen for emulation: a 1989 250cc 2-stroke, a 2004 800cc twin, and a 1999 600cc inline four. Theoretically, any number of other bikes could be programmed in
Thus far, the Emula is just a prototype
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Thus far, the Emula is just a prototype
The Emula prototype: an electric motorcycle designed to act like a time machine, emulating the sound, feel and power delivery of motorcycles of the past
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The Emula prototype: an electric motorcycle designed to act like a time machine, emulating the sound, feel and power delivery of motorcycles of the past
All the different systems the "McFly Core" uses to emulate the bikes of the past
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All the different systems the "McFly Core" uses to emulate the bikes of the past
View gallery - 5 images

This has to be one of the weirdest electric motorcycle projects we've ever seen. The Emula aims to bring the noise, vibration, lumpy power curves and gear shifting of gasoline-powered motorcycles through into the electric age.

Electric motorcycles, the argument goes, are boring. They're silent, so you don't get the hair-raising soundtrack of a screaming engine on full song. You don't have to shift gears, so that's one less fun thing to do, and their power curves are just about linear, with torque available everywhere, so they lack the "character" of an ICE bike.

2Electron, a company from Torino in western Italy, has decided to put all that character back in, and has built a prototype electric motorcycle designed to act as a kind of time machine, letting you experience the bikes of the past on a platform of the future. Thus, the Emula has a big ol' touch screen on the dash, which allows you to choose between several different kinds of old-school gas motorcycle, from 600cc inline fours to 80s-era 250cc two-strokes to 800cc twins.

The first three motorcycles chosen for emulation: a 1989 250cc 2-stroke, a 2004 800cc twin, and a 1999 600cc inline four. Theoretically, any number of other bikes could be programmed in
The first three motorcycles chosen for emulation: a 1989 250cc 2-stroke, a 2004 800cc twin, and a 1999 600cc inline four. Theoretically, any number of other bikes could be programmed in

Once you've picked one, it does its best job to act like that kind of bike in every way. We're talking custom power curves to match the dyno charts of the petrol bikes. We're talking a fake hydraulic clutch lever and foot shift lever with "realistic feedback," that moves you up and down a series of simulated gears.

We're talking speaker systems on the tank and under the seat, playing a pre-recorded engine sound matched to your chosen motorcycle type, simulated gear and simulated RPM – something like the SoundRacer device we had huge silly fun with, oh so many years ago. And to take things even further into the absurd, it's got vibration shakers all over the bike to shake certain bits at certain revs.

Eventually, the company plans to offer a wide range of other motorcycle types, so the Emula begins acting like a little history lesson as you flip through the years and the bikes that defined them.

The sheer time, love, diligence and thought it would take to build and program this system – which the company calls the "McFly Core," after Marty McFly from the Back to the Future movies – boggles the mind. The more we think about this project, the more complex and difficult and crazy it gets. Especially when every single one of its features, viewed objectively, makes an electric motorcycle worse.

All the different systems the "McFly Core" uses to emulate the bikes of the past
All the different systems the "McFly Core" uses to emulate the bikes of the past

Don't get me wrong, I love my petrol bikes and always will. But having ridden a few top-shelf electrics, I see their silence as a stealth asset, as well as a reminder of their ruthless energy efficiency. I see gears and clutches as ungainly but wonderfully familiar ways to work around the fact that gasoline engines don't deliver torque at all engine speeds. Electrics don't have this problem; there's huge torque available at all times, so gearshifting is irrelevant and you don't need to hear the engine to know what gear you should be in. Their total lack of engine vibrations gives you an uncanny level of road surface feedback through your hands, feet and tush.

There's something profoundly silly to me about making a perfectly good electric motorcycle, then taking chunks out of its power delivery to pretend it's an ICE bike, and saddling it with all the other trappings of the last century, just to appease a kind of rider that would never buy an electric in the first place. I mean, vibrating footpegs, for goodness' sake.

According to Motorrad magazine, the Emula will have a "Boring Mode" in which it just acts like a high performance, 250 km/h (155 mph) electric sportsbike, and my suspicion is that the vast majority of riders who try this thing out will immediately realize why electrics will be such superior machines as soon as the energy density issue is solved.

The Emula, at this stage, is just a prototype. Check out a video below.

Emula test bench

Source: Emula via The Pack

View gallery - 5 images
6 comments
6 comments
svenne
Be cool though to rock up to the local waterhole with a nice Ducati deep boom, and leave to the sound of a raspin 2-smoke. Can you get the smelling sensation of burnt oil to go along with that?
Bill S.
Here is the problem.....Nobody under 40 wants these motorcycles due to the price. They are toys and the younger folks that are stuck with student loans, the need to move out of mommy and daddy's basement simply can't afford a toy like this. That is why Harley Davidson is sucking wind. The last time I was in a HD dealership, the youngest guy in there was about 68 years old. So where is the market for these things. I would love one, but just too young to become an organ donor.
Nelson Hyde Chick
This is stupid! Fake noise to make me feel like I am riding a motorcycle of yesteryear.
orbit398
I think this is really cool. Would love to see one in person. But imagine the price is quite high. There is nothing like the screaming motor/noises with a bike at the local track. Noise always helps with cell phone idiots in cars....
Speden Spelit
This would address the main thing holding me back from getting an electric motorcycle, which is that they seem bland with no character other than high torque. Would be nice if they added dynamic adjustable footpegs and handlebars that the Damon Hypersport will have, then the Emula could be a real chameleon.
geemy
seems like a gimmick that you would use a couple of times then forget. although having virtual gears and pitch of a fake engine noise could help on a track to be in the correct "gear" and rpm in a corner and also have finer control over the power delivery.
this raises the question if having fewer controls is always better