P126
CN
III GUEST EDITORIAL
BY SCOT HARDEN
I
couldn't help but notice the
strong reaction a few weeks
ago to Michael Scott's In the
Paddock column: Silence of
the Amps. Now I'm a big fan of
Michael Scott, but it's clear some
took exception to his position
on global warming. More impor-
tantly, it illustrates just how closely
associated electric motorcycles
remain to the subject. No other
topic in all of motorcycling draws
more angst or ire than electric
motorcycles. It's the third rail of
any conversation regarding the
future of motorcycles and motor-
cycle racing. And like religion and
politics, a topic best not discussed
amongst friends. However, at the
risk of crashing CNs' inbox again,
I want to share a few thoughts on
electric motorcycles with the hope
of shifting the focus of the conver-
sation and shedding some of the
baggage that surrounds them.
I've spent a lifetime in this indus-
try helping bring new motorcycles
to market for OEMs like KTM and
Husqvarna. I also spent six years
doing the same for an electric
motorcycle manufacturer, where
I developed a clear understand-
ing of the technology; it's benefits
and limitations. In the process, I
heard every objection imaginable
by the press, dealers and consum-
ers. Even my close friends and
industry colleagues looked at me
like I had grown a third eye when
Politics, Religion and Electric Motorcycles:
Another Perspective
Take them for
what they are—
electric-powered
motorcycles.
they learned I was working for an
electric motorcycle manufacturer.
As a group, we are nothing if not
deeply passionate about our sport
and, as it turns out, fairly rigid in
our views about what constitutes a
"real" motorcycle.
As the responses to Mr. Scott's
article demonstrate, the biggest
challenge facing electric is its
connection to hot-button topics
like global warming, governmen-
tal regulation and personal free-
dom. Electric technology adop-
tion has been filtered through the
lens of these much more signifi-
cant issues from the start. I think
the technical term is "shit-misted."
Of course, it doesn't help that it
comes along at a time when, as
a society, we are more polarized
than ever before, especially on
topics like climate change.
Therefore, I encourage motorcy-
clists to look at electric power as
they would any other new tech-
nology and form opinions based
solely on their value proposition
as motorcycles. We've done this
before when we went through a
similar, although admittedly not
as radical, technology shift a few
years back when it came to two-
strokes versus four-strokes for the
off-road market. Battle lines were
drawn; proponents lined up on
both sides of the fence. In the end,
four-strokes prevailed and look
what we got for it—on the plus side,
much lighter, more technically
sophisticated, high power four-
strokes. On the downside, higher
retail prices, increased mainte-
nance and operational costs, re-
sulting, as some might argue, in a
declining ridership. Driving the shift
to this technology was the need
to meet more stringent emissions
