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Motorcycles

Sondors rides into electric motorcycle world with $5,000 Metacycle

By Paul Ridden
January 18, 2021
Sondors rides into electric motorcycle world with $5,000 Metacycle
A city commuter capable of freeway speeds
A city commuter capable of freeway speeds
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The top of the frame is home to a phone compartment with wireless charging
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The top of the frame is home to a phone compartment with wireless charging
The Metacycle is the first electric motorcycle from Sondors
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The Metacycle is the first electric motorcycle from Sondors
The Metacycle sports a striking cast aluminum frame, and comes in a choice of three colors
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The Metacycle sports a striking cast aluminum frame, and comes in a choice of three colors
The battery is reckoned good for over 80 miles for every four hours on charge
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The battery is reckoned good for over 80 miles for every four hours on charge
The $,5000 price tag is almost as eye-catching as the stripped-back design
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The $,5000 price tag is almost as eye-catching as the stripped-back design
A city commuter capable of freeway speeds
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A city commuter capable of freeway speeds
The Metacycle has a curb weight of 200 lb
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The Metacycle has a curb weight of 200 lb
View gallery - 7 images

Ebike maker Sondors is going bigger, faster and pedal-free with a striking electric motorcycle called the Metacycle that's aimed at making electric motorcycling accessible for everyone.

The Metacycle is not geared towards competing with much more expensive power motos like the Livewire or Eva, and it won't roll as far as a Zero, but does manage to overtake some budget commuters like the Super Soco by having a freeway capable top speed.

The Metacycle is the first electric motorcycle from Sondors
The Metacycle is the first electric motorcycle from Sondors

The first electric motorcycle from Sondors is certainly eye catching, with its cast aluminum frame rocking a sizable gap where the full tank of a gas bike would be, and cables and electronics routed internally to keep the lines clean. The stripped-back design does offer a little extra in the shape of a built-in phone/gadget compartment with wireless charging, which rocks a see-through lid so that riders can see navigation apps running on the protected smartphone.

The hub motor outputs 8-kW nominal, or 14.5-kW peak, for 80 lb.ft (108 Nm) of nominal torque – 130 lb.ft (176 Nm) peak – and a top speed of 80 mph (128 km/h). Its 4-kWh Li-ion battery is reckoned good for over 80 miles (128 km) per charge, and a full recharge takes four hours. The battery unit can also be removed for charging indoors while the moto stays outside.

The $,5000 price tag is almost as eye-catching as the stripped-back design
The $,5000 price tag is almost as eye-catching as the stripped-back design

Elsewhere, stopping power comes from disc braking front and rear, the bike benefits from upside-down forks and rear spring shock suspension, the headlight and tail light incorporate turn signals, it has a curb weight of just 200 lb (90 kg), and a seat height of 31.5 inches (80 cm).

The Metacycle is up for order now in a choice of three colors for US$5,000, with shipping estimated to start in Q4 2021. The video below has more.
SONDORS Metacycle

Product page: Metacycle

View gallery - 7 images

Tags

MotorcyclesElectric MotorcyclesElectric VehiclesLast-mile transportNew Atlas Audio
15 comments
Paul Ridden
Paul Ridden
While Paul is loath to reveal his age, he will admit to cutting his IT teeth on a TRS-80 (although he won't say which version). An obsessive fascination with computer technology blossomed from hobby into career before hopping over to France for 10 years, where he started work for New Atlas in 2009. Now back in his native Blighty, he serves as Managing Editor in Europe.

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15 comments
schmoe90
There's no way this thing is going to do anything like 80 miles at 80mph (or even be able to hold 80mph for very long). It'll probably be 80 miles at something like 20mph, and I wish manufacturers would stop playing these games :(
Username
Perfect little commuter at a reasonable price. Finally!
minivini
Schmoe - no vehicle ever made will hit its range at top speed.
Nobody
If they had a storage compartment where the fuel tank normally goes or at least extend the battery compartment up for a larger battery and some sort of comfortable seat and room for a passenger, I might be interested. This looks more like a kid's plastic toy. At least they are in the zone on price but need a little more range.
robertswww
The Sondors Metacycle has a sweet looking and stylish design, and it's probably really easy to push around with that low center-of-gravity.
Daishi
@schmoe90 it has a 80 MPH top speed and the manufacture says it offers "up to 80 miles on a single charge". Nowhere in there does it say you will achieve the maximum range while traveling at top speed and they almost certainly they mean city driving. Electric bicycles achieve 80 miles on a much smaller battery than that so it's plausible the range can be achieved at low speed. At 80 MPH sustained you probably wouldn't make it even 30 miles.
Daishi
I give it a thumbs up. The design is beautifully simple and I think it's a useful little toy for around town. People are mostly guaranteed to ask about it where you go. I wouldn't be surprised to see someone make some after market cargo bags to occupy the space where the gas tank is not. Storm Sonders seems like a pretty unique person.
Marco McClean
It's cool that these electric motorcycles all look like 1980's keytars anymore, but tiny footpegs set so far back are dangerous beyond driveway speed, much less 80 miles an hour. When I was a kid I had a minibike with little footpegs like that, you know, no bigger than your thumb, and I often snagged a tennis shoe on the ground when my foot slipped off (ow!). I'm afraid for the young model in the photograph, with her pencil-thin legs and toothpick ankles and feet. I think there should be adequate places to put your whole foot, with a rail around and maybe a little bumper in front of each one; and they could be air fins. And the electric motor could be pulsed to play buzzy music, like a singing Tesla coil or a really big floppy drive, so inattentive or blind people won't step off the curb into your path and cause a problem.
Dan Marsh
In wet weather you'd be soaked and covered in mud due to the lack of mudguards/fenders.

And, of course the 80 miles per charge is nowhere near real world mileage.

The bike is cheap just because the battery is of low capacity - there is nothing ground-breaking about that.
ljaques
That appears to be more of a scooter than a motorcycle. Why only a 4kWh battery?
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