An Electric Motorcycle That You Can Buy Just Rode 193 Miles On A Single Charge

One of the biggest concerns about electric motorcycles is that, as of right now, buyers pay a metric ton of money for something full of compromises, be it range or charging speed. An electric motorcycle startup has just broken an important record: The most miles ridden on a single charge. A Verge TS Pro, a new electric production motorcycle with a crazy hubless wheel and 137 HP, just rode 193 miles without recharging. It’s impressive, but also keep your expectations in check.

Motorcycle buyers in some regions haven’t quite latched on to electric motorcycles like they have to electric cars. Here in America, electric motorcycle brands have been dropping like flies as adoption remains slow. Elsewhere, some folks still have reservations about going electric for their motorcycle just yet.

I got to spend a year and a half with an electric motorcycle as my primary transportation, and I understood the problem. Many electric motorcycle firms will charge you upwards of $20,000 for a bike that goes fewer than 100 miles on a charge before it has to sit and charge for an hour or two. A lot of motorcycle riders in the West straddle two wheels for fun, and there’s not a ton of fun to be had spending more time charging than riding.

Sadly, battery technology just isn’t where it needs to be to completely fix this problem, but the folks of Verge Motorcycles think they have the coolest, most advanced electric motorcycles on the market yet. Not only does the company’s Verge TS Pro have a wicked hubless rear wheel design and 137 HP, but it just set the world record for the most miles ridden on a single charge by an electric motorcycle.

I will get to the record and the small caveat in a moment here. Some of you are probably wondering what the heck a Verge even is. I first covered this company back in January 2023 and then covered it again in November 2023 when the company brought real motorcycles to the Los Angeles Auto Show.

A Fast Donut

Here’s a lightning-quick backstory for you from my previous report:

Back in 2018, Teemu Saukkio had an idea. He felt that the motorcycle market was ripe for more attitude with a dose of innovation. Finnish motorcycle manufacturer RMK Vehicle Corporation sprouted up to make Saukkio’s idea a reality. The RMK E2 was designed in Saukkio’s garage and by working at a breakneck pace, the motorcycle made it to EICMA 2019. The company, now called Verge Motorcycles, presented the TS, an electric motorcycle ripped right out of the dreams of many bikers.

Finland-based Verge launched and began shipping motorcycles to customers in Europe in late 2022, but a lengthy homologation testing process for the United States market has pushed the company’s American launch to this year.

At first, the biggest selling point of a Verge has always been its rear wheel. Verge has leaned so heavily on its special wheel design that it has marketed itself as “Reinventing The Wheel.” Of course, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you why because you’ve already seen the photos in this piece.

The Verge team designed the TS architecture to be as lightweight as possible while also maximizing space. A typical electric motorcycle has a big battery residing where an ICE motorcycle’s engine would be. Then, behind that big battery would be the bike’s electric motor. That motor would then deliver power to the rear wheel through a chain or a belt. In Verge’s eye, this is bad for the motorcycle’s center of gravity and adds unnecessary maintenance, too.

Moving the motor to the rear wheel means that a company can fit an even larger battery into the motorcycle for better range. It also means no chain to oil and belt to check. Now, pretty much every other company that has followed this path has used a hub motor. Verge took a different path and engineered a hubless motor, from my previous story:

At the heart of a Verge TS is its hubless wheel, which contains the motorcycle’s motor. The inner part of this wheel system is attached to a swingarm, and the outer part is what turns. Verge says that this motor works using the electromagnets on the wheel that repel each other, rotating the assembly. The end result is a motorcycle with a big ol’ donut hole where the rear wheel is. Verge says that this doesn’t just look killer, but has one huge benefit: the power produced by the motor goes directly to the wheel.

Verge says that the entire drivetrain is housed in that rear wheel, leaving the body of the cycle free for the large battery. Sadly, the front wheel isn’t of a wild design, but the motorcycle still looks plenty awesome.

The Verge TS comes in three flavors. The base model is the TS, which was slated to cost $26,900. The cheapest Verge had motor rated at 107 HP and 516 lb-ft torque at the wheel. The base TS hit 60 mph in 4.5 seconds and raced on to a top speed of 112 mph. Range is said to be up to 155 miles. This motorcycle can feed from DC fast charging and tops up in as quickly as 55 minutes.

The reason why I used the past tense there is because Verge’s website now only shows the two higher models, the TS Pro and the TS Ultra.

For $29,900, the TS Pro motorcycle bumps the power up to 137 HP and 737 lb-ft torque. That’s good enough to shave a full second off of the 60 mph acceleration time, and top speed is upped to 124 mph. The battery pack is said to last 217 miles and charging is as quick as 35 minutes. For $30,900, you can also get your TS Pro in the California Edition, which gives you sweet orange paint.

Finally, for a whopper of a price, $44,900, you can get the TS Ultra. Like a smartphone with such a name, you get some ridiculous numbers.

Power tops out at 201 HP and you get 885 lb-ft torque. That cuts acceleration to 60 mph down to 2.5 seconds. The top speed is the same but range ups to a maximum of 233 miles. Charging is as quick as 25 minutes. The Verge TS and TS Pro come with a 20.2 kWh battery of Verge’s own design while the Ultra uses a 21.8 kWh pack. Today, Verge says the TS Pro is “the world’s most advanced electric motorcycle.”

Proving That Long Range

On March 22, Verge decided to prove its range claims by breaking a world record. In a promotional video published by the company, it said that it needed to hit at least 180 miles to beat the previous record for “The longest journey by an electric motorbike on a single charge.”

To achieve this record, Verge got two influencers, Sam Clarke and Sara Sloman, to ride a single unmodified Verge TS Pro around the urban and suburban areas inside the London M25 ring road. As per the video and release note, the ride happened on public roads, and the riders kept going with traffic, making it a real-world test.

Sam and Sara were aided by a convoy of cars as support vehicles, and the plan was to switch riders every 60 minutes to 90 minutes. This switching schedule was also chosen so that everyone could get a break from driving or riding if they needed to. To illustrate how slow this ride was in London’s busy traffic, the first rider changeover happened at only 15 miles in.

The team originally stopped the run at 187 miles while the bike still had enough charge left for the computers to report data. Sadly, the GPS data, which is used to verify the record, had a 10-mile gap in it due to signal loss, requiring the team to get back out there and ride the motorcycle some more. When this speedbump occurred, the bike read 23 percent charge left with an estimated 39 miles remaining, so out they went.

Finally, at the end of the run after 16 hours of riding, the GPS had recorded 193 miles ridden. The bike itself still had 7 percent left in its battery, but the team shut it down there with the record secured. Verge Motorcycles did something that hadn’t been done before and in the process, proved that its bikes really do have a humongous range.

All of this is awesome for sure, and I congratulate Sam and Sara for their achievement!

But as I said, you, as a buyer, should also keep your expectations in check. Electric motorcycles are like electric cars, where they get their best range at slow speeds rather than highway speeds. The route did have some motorway riding, but they weren’t exactly simulating an American commute. The riders even note that a key to beating the record was limiting stop-and-go scenarios and limiting time spent at higher speeds.

Verge says that if you ride at a steady state of 56 mph, a TS Pro should last you 124 miles. In my experience, riding something like a Zero DSR/X at a constant 56 mph will get you not too far away from that number. Going 56 mph would be dangerous on an American highway, too, so you’ll be doing that speed on backroads just like I did, or sacrificing a ton of range for 70 mph or better.

So, the Verge TS still suffers from pretty much the same problems other electric motorcycles do, but it can last just a little bit longer. As Verge’s new world record proves, electric motorcycles still work best in urban and suburban environments. Will Americans pay between $29,900 and $44,900 for something like this? There have been much cheaper electric bikes that have struggled to find buyers, so we’ll have to see if that donut wheel gets riders interested in paying more. But I also plan on taking a ride for myself to tell you if the hubless tech lives up to the hype.