By Jeff Glucker
Today we’re looking at another electric bike. This one comes to us from UBCO, a New Zealand company looking to make strides in the mobility space with its 2×2 utility bike. The UBCO 2×2 is smartly designed and works well for its intended use; helping ranchers on farms, military use, and as a general stout runabout town machine. How does it do when pushed? Well… we’ve got a very long video here for you to find out.
I take the UBCO 2×2 up part of the Maple Springs Truck Trail. It doesn’t love the climb, as the motors soon become a bit hot. But the rest of the ride is great, and I can see this machine excelling when used as intended. It’s well built, stout, useful, and smartly designed. And I can’t wait to see more offerings from UBCO in the future.
Kinda cool, depending on the price. It’s been a long time since I’ve dirt-biked, but I never felt like I ever needed power to the front wheel. But, maybe it’s because I never had it. Is 2×2 really much of an advantage?
Probably better to split load duty between two motors rather than force one to move it all around? Also, it makes it like an electric Rokon which is pretty sweet.
If a Rokon 2×2 won’t do the job, there’s always the 3×3.
http://www.rokonworld.com/3×3.gif
At some point when you run out of traction it would have to be like 4×4 vs 2wd. Electric would have to be an advantage because the weight penalty wouldn’t be as much as a mechanical drive.
I’m glad it doesn’t have pedals so there is no pretence of it being an e-bike (the local trails groups can verge on flame wars over that). I like the Honda Ruckus style esthetic and it looks like good clean fun, unless you ride through a mud puddle.
I was thinking that had it had pedals, Jeff might have made it farther up that hill.
Does it have a stamped chassis number so it can be registered as a moped and get number plates in places where that matters?
Vehicle Identification Number. It is stamped on the right-hand side of the frame head tube according to the owner’s manual.
Right hand is almost always the front brake on a motorcycle. Having a rear brake for your left hand is a bit weird, though. I can’t think of another instance of a rear brake on the left hand lever.
If I have 2 brake levers, I’d sort of expect them to follow bicycle convention (right rear, left front) just as you did.
The left hand is usually the rear brake on most powered bikes (well scooters mainly) that don’t have gears or clutch.
That way you can ‘lock’ the throttle in place with your right hand and modulate the rear brake with your left to give more control when maneuvering in tight situations.
It confused me when I recently got back on a pushbike. I nearly sent myself arse over tip when I got the levers mixed up and locked the front wheel.