Introducing, The Hungarian Flexibles

"And I will call him, 'Otto.'"

Just last month, Brammo announced that production of its award-winning motorcycles was beginning at the Flextronics production facility in Sárvár, Hungary.  Today, we have a new video, along with some great photos.  That guy up there is henceforth to be know as “Otto,” because, when I first saw the video he stood out as 1. the most identifiable and 2. the guy most likely to be named, “Otto.”

Otto and the rest of the gang shall, henceforth, be known collectively as “The Flexibles.”  And, once more assembly lines get the green light, these guys will be known more specifically as “The Hungarian Flexibles.”

Before we go to that beautiful Brammo footage, there are a few images to share that I think illustrate the amount of anal-fixation obsessive  precision that these guys put into the assembly process.  First is this little exercise in quantity control:

Globs of grease? Not quite.

That, my friends, is lithium grease for the kickstand.  I’m not going to tell you which of these quantities is the correct one (TRADE SECRET) but if one of the Flexibles applies too much or too little, he is sent for re-education therapy in the cellar of  Flextronics’ campus at the hands of Domina Zita:

Üdvözöljük az osztályteremben, Otto.

Here’s another illustration of the work of someone who has successfully graduated from Grease Application 401:

And, finally, the finished assembly:

Here’s some more pics of The Flexibles, followed by the video with countless other amazing details to dissect over the coming weeks:

Finally, here’s the long-awaited (believe me, you have NO idea how long-awaited) video:

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

Brammo – European Rumors Begin

Brammo's Aaron Bland talks about the Empulse, at EICMA in Milan, Italy

Following Brammo’s appearance last week at the premiere motorcycle industry show, EICMA, some whisperings have been heard:

• The Brammo electric motorcycles will be produced for European customers at one of Flextronics’ facilities in Sarvar, Hungary.
• Plans include being in full production by April 2011.

Prices for the bikes will be:

• Enertia E 7900 Inc VAT
• Enertia Plus E 8600 Inc VAT
• Empulse 6.0 E 9900 inc VAT
• Empulse 8.0 E 11900 Inc VAT
• Empulse 10.0 E 13900 Inc VAT

For us ‘Mericans who might not be familiar with the “value added tax” concept, the Wikipedia is a good starting point, as always.

That’s all I got, folks.  As always, stay tuned for more information, which will be shared with the Brammofan faithful as it becomes available.