We tend to be afraid of what we don’t understand, shying away from things that are ‘different’ or ‘foreign.’ Even something as lovely as this all-aluminum motorcycle from Enrico de Haas of Germany’s Wannabe-Choppers is hated by some—simply because it has an electric powertrain.
“Sometimes I’m even happy about the bullshit,” says a smiling Ricky, who founded Wannabe-Choppers at 15 with the aim of one day creating a completely scratch-built motorcycle. (Seriously: His shop recently started making grips in order to learn more about rubber manufacturing and use that knowledge to produce tires.)
Ricky and his team built this rigid EV for the exclusive European Biker Build-Off. For a decade he’d wanted to build an electric bike, but he didn’t think it would be the right fit for this particular event.…