It’s not every day you see a new concept and immediately know it’s going to reshape an entire industry. Steve Jobs shook the music world to its core with the iPod. Elon Musk’s Tesla forced a seachange in the automotive industry. And now, in 2022, Kawasaki has changed the way we look at electric motorcycles forever with the Kawasaki Bex: The world’s first all-electric motorcycle built entirely around the performance and aesthetics of a mountain goat.
Yes, it seems team green has been playing coy with us for the past three years: First we saw patents for new electric two-wheeler technology… Then they announced plans to go 100% electric by 2035, but wheeled out a lackluster Ninja 300 gas/electric hybrid… Finally they fooled us all by promising three new electric motorcycles in 2022, but when EICMA 2021 came around, they had nothing to share. Well, Kawasaki has finally shown their hand, and nothing could have prepared us for this.
Why Kawasaki’s Electric Goat Is A Game Changer
While its seemingly lackluster performance, unique chassis, and futuristic styling may not strike you as a windfall for the future of electric motorcycles, trust us, you’re missing the big picture. Two short years from now, every major manufacturer in the electric motorcycle game will be wheeling out their own goat platform to try to keep up with Big Green. Let’s break down the reasons why the Kawasaki Bex will be crushingly influential.
1: Unmatched Off-Road Performance
If you’ve ever watched a round of hard enduro, one of the most brutal off-road motorcycle competitions on the planet, you know there’s one place even the best two-wheelers in the world struggle: Steep climbs. See, unlike internal combustion motorcycles or even their electric equivalents, the hill-climbing prowess of goats has been well documented for decades. All goats are climbers, but none so impressive as the Kawasaki Bex’s namesake, the Ibex. If there’s any doubt in your mind, just watch this clip of an ibex scaling a vertical stone wall from our friends at BBC:
2: Goats Are Easier To Learn To Ride
Electric motorcycles are already the perfect platform for new riders looking to get into two-wheeled living: With no clutch to master and no gears to shift, learning to ride an electric motorcycle is about as easy as riding a bike. Unfortunately, one obstacle still stands in the way of every new rider: Balance. With Kawasaki’s new electric goat platform, learning to ride has never been easier.
That’s because rather than chasing the novelty of self-balancing technology or even adding that always-controversial third wheel to their platform, Kawasaki has gone back to the drawing board entirely and taken inspiration from mother nature herself. The result is a revolutionary new chassis that sits on four independent hooves rather than relying on the unpredictable nature of the wheel at all. As you’ll see in the leaked video below, this not only enables the Kawasaki Bex to go forward and backward, but also allows the rider to move side to side to skirt around challenging obstacles or make parking on busy city streets easier than ever.
3: Goats Are Exempt From Government Regulations
The ever-changing political landscape makes the future of motorcycle ownership feel uncertain to say the least. Electric mandates have rolled out of every major country over the past five years, and government regulations on power, performance modifications, and taxation are just around the corner. With the new goat platform, Kawasaki has found an ingenious way to skirt all the above for an essentially “future-proof” electric motorcycle. In fact, one of the only known legal regulations surrounding goat ownership is keeping them properly confined and out of your neighbor’s hair, which is rarely (if ever) an issue for the people who ride them.
4: Goats Are Incredibly Reliable And Notoriously Low Maintenance
One of the major selling points of electric motorcycles over their internal combustion equivalents has always been maintenance, but for many of us, the reliability and longevity of electric bikes is still largely unknown. Goats don’t have that problem. Did you know that the average goat owner gets between 15 and 18 years of worry-free service out of a goat? And when we say worry-free, we mean worry-free. There’s not a single documented case of a goat needing an oil change, tune-up, or expensive dealer service on record. Not one.
You’ll also be surprised to learn that although goats often feature 100 or more unique moving parts in their construction, your average goat goes its entire life without needing to service or replace a single one of them. Take my money, already!
5: Abraham Lincoln Supports The Platform
Yea. You read it right. Abraham Lincoln. As in Honest-Abe, whom you may recognize from the five-dollar bill.
In the world of motorcycles, getting a presidential endorsement is pretty rare, especially from a president as influential as Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was known for a few things, most notably the Emancipation Proclamation and his role in the American Civil War, but did you know he was also an outspoken advocate of the goat platform?
In fact, Lincoln kept two naturally aspirated goats in the White House at all times (electric adoption was at an all-time low during his time in office), and even let his son, Tad Lincoln, ride them around the White House from time to time. Don’t believe us? Look it up.
