How would you design an electric motorcycle?

I often find myself looking at manufactured products, and wondering “how would you go about designing something like that?”

For some things, the sheer scale of the problem is so large that it’s hard to wrap your head around it.  But, there are many things that are more human scale, in complexity and difficulty. A good example is an electric motorcycle.

Some time back, I was having a conversation with some folks from  a company that does crowd-sourced engineering projects, about ideas for interesting projects. I suggested an electric motorcycle.  My thinking was that, with the availability of standard motors, control electronics, battery packs, and lots of OEM parts (forks, wheels, brakes, and even frames), it would be an interesting exercise, with relatively simple engineering, and an emphasis on industrial design.

I was reminded of this conversation when I learned I’d be hosting a webinar with industrial designer and engineer, Nout Van Heumen. Nout has become somewhat of a rock star in the Dutch industrial design scene. While his regular job is pretty much standard engineering work, his side job is a lot more fun: doing industrial design of some very cool projects. One project of particular note is the Orphiro electric motorcycle.