Posts Tagged EICMA
Hungarians make goulash of Enertia
The world is flat. And it’s shrinking. You might, for instance, see a video on YouTube posted from another country with people speaking a foreign language, but something familiar catches your eye.
For example, here’s a video of a couple guys at the Brammo booth from the EICMA motorcycle show in Milan, Italy last Autumn. You don’t have to speak their language to know that they are mightily impressed with the Enertia.
Thank goodness there are generous people in this crazy mixed-up world who like to help out a non-Hungarian speaker with a rough translation of the review.
(Warning – not for the faint-of-heart-Brammo-fans)
Don’t be rattled by people’s shock about electric motorcycles — though looking at this design (points at the Enertia) I am not surprised. Nowadays everyone wants to build alternative energy vehicles, which for now means batteries. Can’t imagine what the designer was thinking when he decided that it should look like this.
I warned you. It gets worse.
That’s not even the worst of it — listen: 95kph top speed which even a (unintelligible) can pass; 128km range — two round trips in town then you can plug it in to charge and take a taxi to your destination. And the price — 8600 Euro — what idiot would pay more than 2.5 million (forints) for this? If there is such a person anywhere that was willing to buy one of these, let us know, I swear we’ll pay them for a spin on this.
But why does a motrcycle have to look like this? Suppose when much smaller batteries are developed, the shape of the chassis will change… (pans camera to two girls roller skating by — Hello, now that’s the kind of alternative transportation I could stand — tie them to a sled, they would pull and I would crack my whip — giddyup!).
(pan back to the bike): They kept the chassis simple and tried to figure out how to maintain the motorcycle look while fitting numerous batteries in there. This is why this technology is in its infancy — so much crap needs to go in there, that a motor block is around 50kg. This battery mass is a lot. It’s true that the gyroscopic effects of a gas motor are no longer present, so pushing the bike into a turn may be easier, but there is a lot of room for advancements. This is why the traditional ice bike makers do not need to shake in their boots — even twenty years from now there’ll be a need for ice machines. I support the effort — hooray, work on it, but not in such a disgusting form — it makes me want to puke.
Look at the photos. What a production floor. These guys are dead serious about this. That someone is actually going to buy this. 2.5 million+ (forints)…
The American flag on top of the pole tells us that these guys are from the other side of the ocean. Regardless an Italian word comes to mind that I would use to describe this: “un-do-ri-to” ( actually an Italian-sounding Hungarian word, means disgusting).
It gets better . . . slightly.
(standing by the Empulse). Moments ago I gave this brand a one star rating, but now I’ll change it to just below a three, since this bike looks much more like a bike, though what they messed up here is that the batteries are visible. The reason it’s below 3, not above, is that the girls at the booth keep running away from the camera — they look like crap and refuse to be on camera — then why are they here?
Standing by the 2009 race bike — the value of the brand is increasing in my eyes, now that I see they built a race bike as well — they now have my 3 star+ rating.
Okay, so it ends on an “up” note. Plus, it gives me an excuse to post one of my favorite pictures from the EICMA show:
Ciao, le Brammo Ragazze
Givi Bags, Graphics, and Some New Events for Brammo
We’ve seen the Givi Bags that Brammo has in its online store, but Brian Wismann has posted some pictures recently of some graphic wraps that will soon be available for those Brammo Enertia owners who wish to update the look of their side panels.
These are pictures of the Enertia Plus — me want centerstand — which will be rolling into the hands of willing buyers any day now. Actually, I have no idea when that will occur but there are many willing and vocal buyers over on the Brammo Owners Forum who want that day to be sooner, rather than later.
Coming Events
Brammo updated its Events Calendar and for those in the Portland area (or anyone else willing to travel to Portlandia) it will be the last weekend of January. Here are the events on the way:
Jan 27th-30th 2011 Portland International Auto Show (Portland, OR)
Brammofan’s BrammoBabe of the Year
So many Brammo Babes, so little time.
Disclaimer: If you knew my background, you’d know that I am all about treating women as men’s equals (although, for the life of me, I can’t understand why women would want to lower themselves to our level). If any of my female readers or, heck, any of my readers regardless of gender want to suggest winners of this year’s “Brammofan Brammo Beefcake of the Year,” have at it.)
(UPDATED: December 15, 2010. One of the nominees has requested that her likeness and name not be used in this competition. I have complied. If you happened to be one of the many people who voted for her, I’m sorry, but your votes just got flushed. I edited the poll so that you may vote again.)
(UPDATE: Due to the FLOOD of requests following the write-in votes for Susanna Schick (aka @pinkyracr ), her photos have been added, below, and her name has been added to the poll, as well. In her own words: “I’m the only one doing it for LOVE” )
The nominees, in order of appearance:
Laguna Seca, Brammo Empulse unveiling
From left: Jessica, Alana, Kelly, some ugly dude, and she-who-wishes-to-not-be-named.
Here’s my favorite pic from the event:
From left: Alana, Kelly, and Jessica
EICMA, Milan, Italy
From left: Vessy, Suzanna, Alessandra, and Alessia
Another picture:
From left: Alessia, Alessandra, Suzanna and Vessy
Macau Grand Prix and Hong Kong Bike Show:
From left: Jojo, Mark Buckley (not in the running for Brammo Babe of the Year), and Ceres.
And another:
From left: Ceres and Jojo.
And by special request:
Pinkyracr, back when we had no idea who the masked rider was...
And, for the evening gown portion of the show . . .
Pinkyracr, again, on an Orange Enertia this time...
I definitely have my favorite(s), but I figured that among my millions, thousands, hundreds, dozens of readers, there were likely a few who had favorites as well. So I’ll throw it open to the minions for a vote:
Answers due . . . soon.
(Note: because of the addition of pinkyracr, I have additional, write-in votes that need to be added on to her final total. Also, the write-in vote for “some ugly dude,” referencing the first picture from the Laguna event, will have to be discarded, as the Brammo Man of the Year contest has not been announced yet.)
Brammo Slideshow from EICMA 2010
Graphic on the Brammo Booth at EICMA
Enjoy this slideshow of the various pictures posted by Brammo folks of what’s going on around their booth at EICMA. I plan to update this album all week long, so keep watching.
Brammo Events, Annotated
From the recently-redesigned Brammo website comes the Events page:
I’m especially curious about the “Brammo branded party” as I’ve been trying, unsuccessfully, to get some stickers with the Brammo Bull logo added to the Brammo store.
Brammofan Logo designed by Matt Cokeley, aka @PopSciGuyConnect with me on Google +
