Hold on, kids—Triumph’s new electric motorcycle is almost here!
The Triumph TE-1 project has been running for a couple of years now, with periodic updates from the Brit manufacturer, but as you can see from the video above, it looks like this machine is pretty much ready for the road. This is the best look we’ve had at the new battery bike, and this dyno run footage looks like the bike is ready to go. We have no word on pricing or specs yet, but at least you have a good look at the machine here. It appears to be a pretty modern-looking naked bike, just the sort of thing you’d expect from Triumph, in an appeal to the streetfighter market segment it’s played in for the past three decades.
According to Triumph, the fourth stage of the bike’s R&D program is done with. The past six months were spent doing the following (As we told you in our last write-up on the TE-1):
Rolling road testing – core functional assessment to include:
Throttle calibration
Powertrain performance mapping
Power and torque output
Range and battery consumption assessment
Rider mode development
Software functionality validation
Thermal optimization
Track testing – encompassing dynamic rider assessment to include:
Handling
Acceleration
Braking and braking regeneration strategy
Traction control
Front wheel lift control
It seems the engineers have this bike sorted to their satisfaction, and now you can sign up at Triumph’s website for a peek at the official reveal (link here). You can also see a few more details on Phase 4 of the testing program there.
Brit bike revival?
If you dig into the TE-1 project, it’s interesting to note that there are several other organizations working with Triumph, including F1’s Williams Racing. There’s also a lot of UK government money backing this project. Look around the rest of the British motorcycle scene, and you’ll see a bunch of new names involved in similar electric bike startups (although with far less name recognition than Triumph). After the Japanese OEMs basically ran the Brits out of the moto business in the 1970s, with the exception of Triumph, it looks like the country is about to make a big impact in the moto world again, thanks to the power of the battery bike.
