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It would be incorrect to say that we are eagerly awaiting the Segway Apex, an electric motorcycle from the recognizable urban transport brand. While the bike looks intriguing, we are skeptical of its actual abilities.

Set to debut at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on the second week of January, one the motorcycle items of note is this electric motorcycle concept from Segway.

The Chinese-owned brand has been teasing its Apex for a couple weeks now, though details are still light on this potential future model. All we know right now is that parent company Ninebot says that the Segway Apex will do 125 mph / 0-60 in 2.9 seconds.

A continuation of the info dump from Pierer Mobility, where an investor presentation is spilling the Austrian company’s future plans for the KTM, Husqvarna, and GasGas brand, our next news items concerns the bikes from Husky.

Like with the KTM news, the big headline revelation is the coming 490 platform, which for Husqvarna will be called the 501 lineup.

As we saw with the orange bikes, the blue and white bikes of Husqvarna see a wide range of uses for the upcoming twin-cylinder 500cc engine.

Known better for its self-balancing standing two-wheeled vehicles, Segway is brand to watch in the electric mobility space righ now, as it continues to push into more establish mobility sectors.

For instance, the brand had a convincing electric mountain bike / moped on display at EICMA, and now as we get ready for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January, Segway has another model designed to get our attention: the Apex concept.

When I walked by the BST booth at the EICMA show, I wasn’t that surprised to see an electric motorcycle concept parked in the carbon fiber parts maker’s stall – it seemed like every booth at the Milan show had one, in some sort of attempt for attention.

With a small crowd around what I would learn was called the BST HyperTEK, I wasn’t that astonished that this particular concept was gaining attention. The bike was…lurid.

Built with crazy shapes, an impossibly small battery pack, and eye-catching colors, you would have had to been blind not to be struck by the electric concept.

“Mission Accomplished” I thought to myself, as the South African brand had clearly achieved its objective of bringing passersby (including myself) into their booth, though the carbon wheels on display would have done the trick just as easily.

It wasn’t until later that night though that I would learn that the BST HyperTEK was the work of renowned motorcycle designer Pierre Terblanche, which is of course when everything started to make sense.

I have been lucky in my career to ride some of the finest one-off electric motorcycles ever created. I was the first to ride the Mission R street bike from Mission Motors, and first of two journalists to swing a leg over the Isle of Man winning MotoCzysz E1pc.

I was the first to ride the Alta Redshift SM prototype, back when the company was still called BRD Motorcycles, one of only a handful of souls can lay claim to riding the Lightning LS-218 around a race track, and one of the first to swing a leg over the Energica Ego.

Coming to the Valencia track in Spain, I knew though that I would be adding another one of these special machines to my list, as Energica had invited Asphalt & Rubber to ride its MotoE race bike, the day after the Valencia GP.

Five flying laps on the Energica Ego Corsa is all that we would get this day at the Spanish track, which didn’t include our out-lap and in-lap, which I have to admit disappointed me.

It was teased at the EICMA show in Milan, with the Japanese brand saying nary a word about the electric motorcycle chassis it had on display near the back of its booth.

Just one of the many surprises that were quietly shown to the public, this electric motorcycle showed a green steel tube frame, a modest battery pack, and what appeared to be mock engine cases.

Beyond those details, and the fact that this bike existed, there was not much else to say about the prototype, until now.

As expected before the EICMA show, electric motorcycle maker Energica will bring a significant boost to its 2020 model year lineup, starting with larger capacity battery packs.

Now with 18.9 kWh (nominal) of energy onboard (the most of any production electric motorcycle on the market), the Italian brand has nearly doubled its battery capacity, without adversely affecting its models’ weight and cost.

Energica says that this battery increase is a direct result of its participation in the MotoE World Cup.

Bad news for electric motorcycle race fans, as the organizers of the Isle of Man TT have announced that they will no longer hold the TT Zero event for the 2020 and 2021 editions of the iconic road race.

The Isle of Man’s Department of Enterprise says in a press release that it has become “increasingly challenging” to run the electric class and to find competitors for it each year.

Of course, anyone watching the TT Zero race will see that the only promising entries came from the Mugen team, that the starting grids were single-digits in number, and that both factors made for lackluster viewing.

William Shakespeare wrote the story “Much Ado About Nothing” which easily could have been the true telling of the Harley-Davidson LiveWire production halt, which we reported last week.

This is because we are happy to report that Harley-Davidson has resumed the production line for its first electric motorcycle model, after determining that concerns over the bike’s charging system were localized to a single model.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting tough news for the Harley-Davidson LiveWire, as the American motorcycle brand is halting production of its first electric motorcycle because of issues with the bike’s charging system.

With bikes just now arriving at dealers, the announcement is poorly timed, and the issue seems to stem from the onboard Level 1 charger on the Harley-Davidson LiveWire, as owners are being told only to use the DC fast-charging system on the bike.

There is this misnomer in motorcycle design that because a machine is powered by electricity, it has to provoke some sort of design aesthetic from the far future – like there is some notion that this next-generation powertrain can only exist if it looks like it fell out of some sort of science-fiction novel.

I suppose, that trap is easy enough to fall into when you consider the great hope that is being placed into electric motorcycles for our industry’s future, but it surprises me that so few electric motorcycle designs are capable of transcending the tastes of several generations of motorcyclists at once.

A rare machine that did this well was the Mission R from the now defunct Mission Motors, and Tim Prentice from Motonium Design crafted the Mission R to look like a real motorcycle, not a science-fiction protagonist, but yet we only have to look at the Mission One prototype to see how even skilled designers can misjudge the conservative nature of motorcyclists.

Today, I offer you another design that can be mentioned alongside the Mission R as “electric done right” as Walt Siegl has once again added a chapter to his ongoing book, entitled “two-wheeled perfection.”

A collaboration with Mike Mayberry, the man behind the stunning Ronin 47 project that used leftover Buell 1125R motorcycles, this drool-worthy performance is simply called PACT.