The Artisan EV0 Electric Motorbike

Regular viewers will recall that we tested the Artisan EV2000R scooter here at sunny Pinewood. We liked it, and we said so. What we were scared of was taking the pretty little head-turner onto the A40 up against real traffic moving faster than Aunty Hilda in her near MOT failure of a car. The nice people at Artisan listened and sent us their EVO electric 125 counterpart.

So it’s a bit sunny – helmet on, and we send out our girlie crash test dummy for a spin. Being Pinewood Studio based, our first thoughts turned to Gerry Anderson’s foresight from the 60’s hit show Thunderbirds. He had imagined that by 2066 Virgil and Alan Tracy would be hovering around the disused London Underground on electric hoverbikes saving us from disasters. Well Artisan could be looking at saving the planet with their zero rated fossil fuel incarnation.

Its detailing is flawless. It captures every aspect of a sports bike at first glance. It charges from a 13amp plug in eight hours and if you run it for 30 minutes a day as most commuters do I am told, one charge should see you good for two or three days. Of course, that depends on a lot of things that Sheldon would wax lyrical about, including: atmospheric temperature, altitude ascension, time space continuum, weight of the rider versus drag coefficient, and finally, the battery lapse anxiety that sets in whenever you ride an electric vehicle.

That aside it looks good and again was a head-turner whenever we crept up on people here at the home of Bond. And believe me it is silent, eerily so. You could equip the Met Police with this and the crime rate would drop over night, so long as Johnny villain was not on anything faster than a moped.

Our tester experienced speeds of up to 65mph, which both pleased and disconcerted her as she approached bends, as the centre of gravity takes a while to understand. It’s not a bike for peg scratching but it was not meant to be a TT contender. That comes later when they bring out their Fireblade counterpart.

Off the line it’s quick and smooth and eventually predictable once you get used to its quirky power curve. The lack of power mid range makes it a city dweller still
and only really a short hop on the A40 between Uxbridge and Marylebone in traffic should be entertained. If you are thinking of a London/Birmingham run
you would need Sheldon to work out how many pit stops you need and how many 8 hour breaks at Costa and cappuccinos to the mile are required with its
limited 56-mile range.

Would we ride it up the A40 on a windy day? – Yes we did and we would say that this is the future of bikes as it will be cars, but come on Artisan, where’s our
TT challenger?!

Michael Infante