Surron claims you can ride
about 75 miles at 31 mph on
a full charge, depending on
terrain and throttle-happiness.
This is the vagueness that
haunts electric bike buyers and
converters. But 75 miles at a
casual pace is a pretty good
upward limit. Let's see how that
turns out.
Surron doesn't drop in name-
brand suspension or brake com-
ponents here. Fastace is listed
as the suspension supplier and
the 47mm fork felt surprisingly
good. Full travel front and rear
is rated at 11.4 inches (290mm)
and each end is fully adjustable.
Likewise, the unbranded brakes
did some stopping. Granted, I'm
going pretty slow at TKO.
SO… YOU
RACED IT!?
Nothing like being thrown out
of the hive as a little worker bee
and fighting for survival, am I
right? Yes, I took the opportunity
to not only test a pre-production
Storm Bee F, which is arguably
not a race bike, but I raced it at
the biggest hard enduro event in
America.
This was the first year of the
Electric Cycle Rider EMoto
class at TKO—a field full of Sur-
ron Light Bees, Electric Motion
uber-expensive trials machines
and some one-off handmade
dirt bike weapons. And me. On
a Storm Bee. Just wingin' it.
TKO is a great event for this
test. There is a one-lap time trial
for your starting position into the
ECR EMoto main event. You
race that for a couple hours.
Then, if you do well enough in
that race (cut-off time was 1:45
or so) you can (it's optional) take
your electric motorcycle into the
amateur main event in the after-
noon and annoy gas bike riders.
Generally, the races get
longer and harder the more you
race at TKO. And you have time
between each to evaluate, adjust
and get motivated to try again.
I rode all three events, putting
in a decent time in the hot lap,
limping in a low-voltage/dying
battery condition in the EMoto
main to qualify for the Amateur
main (we didn't start with a full
battery—oops!) and eventually
RIDE REVIEW I 2023 SURRON STORM BEE F
P88
(Left) Careful not to
round off the front
axle nut. It's easy
to do. (Right) You
won't see name-
brand suspension
components on
the Surron, but the
Fastace shock and
fork are surprisingly
sufficient. (Bottom
left) Look mom, no
clutch! That's the rear
brake up front on the
left grip. Oh, and a
Turbo Button!
