Back in August, I got to be the first outsider to hoon the new Brammo Empulse R. That was a big deal, because the bike is sort of a watershed moment for electrics, being the first production machine to realize the potential of the power source. It's not just an excuse pegged to zero emissions, it's a desirable consumer product in its own right. Now, here's video from that two-day ride.

We originally tacked video onto our shooting schedule to see if we could come away with material for an episode of the show (returning for season two next week) or just a standalone video for HFL. In the end, only dedicating a small amount of our time to shooting video and doing so at the end of the (extremely hot) second day, meant I wasn't altogether happy with the end product. Given our limited production budget, I passed on editing the material ourselves, but Brammo felt it was worthwhile cutting together the video you see here for its own use.

What you're watching doesn't represent the full potential of the bike or riders. On a day where it was 107 degrees in the shade, the heat was limiting performance of both people and product. I was completely exhausted and, after charging the bikes in the hot sun, then doing repeated photo passes at low speed, the Empulse's controller was limiting motor performance too. No huge deal, it just cut outright power, blunting acceleration and top speed as we filmed on the hot tarmac. Performance picked back up as we cruised home at a sustained 50-60mph.

Hopefully this remains a good overview of the Empulse, I look forward to getting another chance to do the bike video justice sometime soon.

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