The Curtiss One electric motorcycle is now available to order. To mark the occasion, the brand has created a trailer that launched on Youtube this month. Using a quote from Tennessee William’s, we learn, “The Opposite of Death is Desire.” Curtiss sees their motorcycles as desirable, and I have to agree.
Viewing the Youtube film of the launch of Curtiss motorcycle’s The One, I was taken back to my childhood watching futuristic movies and TV shows such as Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. The electric machine has cues from those, yet now in the 21st Century, making me excited. I honestly sat agog watching The One being ridden by Curtiss’ Founder and CEO, Matt Chambers.
Matt (above) shares a passion for motorcycles and is philosophical about their design, construction and use. He doesn’t do ordinary, so he employs people like JT Nesbitt, a Designer at Curtiss Motorcycles.
Together they share the vision of what they want Curtiss motorcycles to be. Looking at The One, I am in awe at the results.
In a deliberate return to old school riding Curtiss have taken away technology in their modern electric motorcycle. The rider focuses purely on riding, the pleasure and senses of travelling on two wheels.
Matt emphasises this is in the film, believing that motorcycle riding should be pure and simple, with no need for Sat Nav and large digital displays.
About The One
The One is a fully modular LEV, Light Electric Vehicle that Curtiss uses as a platform to develop other models. The bike has the proprietary, patent-pending Centered Power Axis (CPA) mounted via a unique, future-proof Triple Load Path (TLP) architecture.
The One’s platform architecture is specifically designed to last forever and is the basis for the future of all Curtiss motorcycles. In a world where people have been forced to accept short product life cycles and intentional obsolescence, Curtiss strives for customers to own fewer but better motorcycles, clothes and other products throughout their lifetime; this, Curtiss believes, is the only honest form of sustainability.
The aircraft-inspired TLP monocoque is the ultimate, no-compromise motorcycle chassis architecture; there is no better way. The digitally milled-from-solid bulkheads, backbone, and fuselage skins create a geometrically perfect outcome for each example, unlike traditional architectural methods. The result is stunning to behold – it is flex-free, devoid of fatigue, and creates the lightest, slimmest possible chassis for a motorcycle.
The Power Pak is also the radiator for the machine keeping its radially-arranged cells submerged in non-conductive coolant. To maintain safe operating temperatures for the battery unit and the other components that make up the One’s unique power train. Additionally, Power Pak serves as the backbone of the Triple Load Path monocoque, adding strength to the design.
The Centred Power Axis is the power train solution providing a perfect balance, incredible power, and minimal parts count. The motor is centred along the horizontal and vertical axis of the chassis, with a massive hardened-steel proprietary drive shaft keyed to the centre axial flux motor.
This forms the ideal organic swing arm pivot solution for perfect final drive geometry and shunt-free application of power.
There are no transmission or gearbox, meaning power is passed directly from the motor to the rear wheel via a maintenance-free toothed belt drive. Riders have no shifting, no clutch, just a direct connection between the wrist and the effortless torque available at any rpm from the most power-dense motor in the world.
The result is rider centred control, precision, and purity like nothing ever before. The tremendous power output is 120 hp (peak) and 87 hp (steady) and is fully adjustable tuning via cloud-based software updates.
About Curtiss
Few people outside keen motorcyclists will have heard about Curtiss; other American brands such as Harley-Davidson and Indian Motorcycle are better known. Curtiss has been around since Glenn Hammond Curtiss started making bicycles in 1898. He then moved into motorcycle construction, the first of many launched in 1901. The history of Curtiss motorcycles has been up and down but is now planted firmly in the future, building electric machines.
Curtiss The One – Where and How?
Just fifteen of these beautifully designed and built motorcycles will be available. Priced at $115,000, they can be reserved with a deposit of $30,000. Each model is handcrafted by Curtiss One Designer JT Nesbitt in the New Orleans creative studio.
She is accompanied by a unique oil painting and a collection of digital renderings of your personal work of art, with a signed letter of provenance. The One will be delivered to customers in late 2021. More information and updates can be found at www.curtissmotorcycles.com.
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