We have a tendency fear what we don’t understand, stay away from what is ‘different’ or ‘foreign’. Even cute things like this all-aluminum motorcycle by Enrico de Haas of Germany’s Wannabe-Choppers are hated by some—simply because it has an electric powertrain.
“Sometimes I even get amused by that crap,” says smiling Ricky, who founded Wannabe-Choppers at age 15 with the goal of one day building a fully-built motorcycle. full head. (Seriously: His shop recently started making grips to learn more about rubber manufacturing and use that knowledge to make tires.)
Ricky and his team built this sturdy electric bike for the Exclusive European Cyclist Building Competition. For a decade, he’d wanted to build an e-bike, but he didn’t think it would be suitable for this particular event. Instead, he pursued a different idea: create a separate internal combustion engine and fit it into a single chassis.
Soon, however, Ricky realized he didn’t have time to turn his ambitious vision into reality, so he went back to the e-bike. “This bike—the stance, the shape—is something I’ve been cherishing for a long time,” says Ricky. “It’s just something in my head that I need to get out of.”
He borrowed a jig and placed a bare, straight-legged Knucklehead frame on the side table, taking inspiration from it when he installed an all-aluminum, disposable frame. He picked up a hub motor from a broken e-bike (Ricky declined to divulge which model) and started assembling his unicycle.
Every day, Ricky and his peers post their progress on social media without any hatred—because they’re not talking about the e-bike. “We just said nothing. If we show our work, they will appreciate it.”
The fact that the Wannabe-Choppers EV has what appears to be a conventional powertrain makes people dislike it. “It’s easy to decide which ‘parts’ to have on the bike,” says Ricky. “Everything on a regular bike. People get annoyed with the exhaust, but I say, ‘You wouldn’t like the bike if it didn’t have an exhaust.’”
The fake aluminum engine is a blueprint for a custom engine that Ricky hopes to build one day. The ‘gearbox’ contains the engine’s controller, the battery’s controller, and the converter for the throttle. The jockey lever is the bike’s on-off switch and 24 lithium-ion batteries are located under the single saddle.
The bike’s ’empty areas’ can be used to house more batteries to increase range. “The parts are about the same shape and size as a lithium battery,” says Ricky.
“You can stuff the exhaust, the whole engine or the gas tank. You can even tuck the battery into the frame if you want. They are empty shells, but you can give these parts a technical function.”
As the motorcycle was nearing completion, Ricky and his team swirled around names like ‘Hidden Power’ and ‘Fake News’ but decided on ‘AlSi9Mg’, which is a chemical blend of metal parts. cast aluminum.
When Wannabe-Choppers joined Build-Off, they expected audiences to hate their creation. “But that didn’t happen,” Ricky said. “They panicked. They love it, but their love makes our opponents hate it. Most of the experts at the show hate it.
He told us that a journalist said that Ricky’s decision to bring AlSi9Mg to a well-respected show was like bringing a deep-fried pizza to a master chef competition. Other builders cried to the show’s judges, saying that Ricky and his team built an electric bike, not a motorcycle, and weren’t allowed to enter the competition.
Then even more trolls piled up. “We had to ban people from accessing our social media accounts because they continued to have hate speech and bullshit,” Ricky said. “It’s just too much.”
Ricky disassembled the 175 lb motorcycle, packed it into four boxes, checked those things in as luggage, and flew to the US, hoping to meet more open, savvy motorcyclists during the show. .
He did. “People had exactly the reaction we wanted. They said, ‘I don’t like electricity, I never thought about electricity, but now I see this and, damn it, I want to build something like that.’”
“This is the reaction I want to see. I love seeing the moment when something changes in people’s minds.”
Wannabe-Choppers | Facebook | Instagram | Words of Chris Nelson | Pictures of Andrew Trahan | This article first appeared on Iron & Air
