NEW Electric Honda CRF-E2 Motorcycle Released! Their first E Dirt Bike = Best Pit Bike too

Today we're going to take a look at some new electric motorcycle news from American Honda, something our industry is heavily divided on, and it's not just when it comes to motorcycles, but power sports in general. So hopefully we can keep the conversations down in the comments section somewhat simple. But anyways, Honda just announced their first electric dirt bike, the CRF E2. Well technically we can't say their because it's not officially a Honda, but we'll dive more into that shortly. Now how does the CRF E2 fit in Honda's current dirt bike lineup? This bike puts you right in between the CRF50F and the CRF110F models with an adjustable seat height that ranges from 24.8 to 25.5 inches. So it's leaning closer to the 110 in overall size, but it packs 12 inch wheels front and back instead of the usual setups like on the 110, where you have a larger 14 inch wheel up front. When it comes to pricing you're looking at 2,950 bucks, so it's definitely not on the cheap side. But if you compare it against the electric bikes from KTM and Husqvarna, it's almost half their price. But you have to keep in mind, at least from what I've seen so far, this isn't marketed as a race bike to compete against their current offerings. Now when it comes to suspension, you've got a 33 millimeter non-adjustable conventional fork with 3.9 inches of travel, and in the rear you have a DNM shock that offers you rebound and preload adjustability with 8.3 inches of travel. Long story short, the front is comparable to the 110, but the rear brings in more than twice the travel with adding in adjustability, so it definitely gets some points there when comparing spec sheets. It's aluminum twin spar frame helps keep the weight down, which is definitely where it shines when comparing against the 50 and 110, as this bike tips the scales at only 106 pounds, which is 4 pounds less than the 50, and 64 pounds less than the 110. Disc brakes front and rear instead of drums, so again more points for the electric bike. Now how about the meat and potatoes? It's performance. Well it's horsepower figures won't excite you, but check out those torque numbers. Pair the weight savings up with those performance numbers out of its brushless 48 volt motor, and this thing sounds like it could be a rocket ship. You've got two drive modes, stage one which tops out at 10 miles per hour, and stage two that tops out at 20 miles per hour, and to adjust those power modes you've got a little lcd display on the left side of the bars to cycle through them. It also displays your speedometer and odometer as well as your average and max speeds too. Plus it also helps you keep tabs on your battery levels, and speaking of batteries, that's one of its party tricks as it has a swappable lithium-ion battery, so if you're not happy with having to wait four hours for it to charge up with the included charger or the two and a half hour time frame with the optional quick charger that they don't have a price listed for at this time, just drop a thousand bucks for an additional battery and you're good to go. But how about run times on that battery, Kevin? Well they claim it's two hours in ideal conditions with a full charge. What exactly is ideal? Is that with the kid just putting around on it in less than an hour with someone ripping on it? And how much does a kid's weight play a role in those numbers when comparing a 50 pound kid versus someone at its max capacity of 99 pounds? Those are just some of the many questions I'm interested in finding out more information on. It will be sold exclusively by Honda Power Sports dealers, but it's not a Honda which is definitely going to confuse a lot of people when they see Honda badging all over it. It's actually manufactured by Greenger Power Sports, formerly known as Greenger Motors. They're based out of Ontario, California, and this isn't their first rodeo as they've been selling electric scooters and motorcycles for a few years now. And after digging around, it looks like they have some ex-employees of Suzuki on board to help them take this to the next level, as well as a slew of their own patents in the back. Now you may be asking yourself, their website only shows one model now. I was curious about that too, so I used my time machine to dig through their old website and none of those models on the now dead GreengerMotors.com site are on the new Power Sports domain. A quick DM later to Greenger, and I was told those models are being phased out as they move their focus in the U.S. to motorcycles. Now how about parts? They've got some listed on their website. Most don't have prices just yet, but my local dealer plans to stock parts for them. And if your local dealer plans on selling these bikes, they better stock parts or people aren't going to take this bike seriously. One of the best things about buying a Honda is having access to parts so easily. But anyways, how about a warranty? It comes with a 12-month, 3,000-mile warranty, and I reached out to Greenger to see how that would work as technically, this isn't a Honda, so Honda techs won't be trained on how to properly repair these bikes right off the bat. Their response was that you can either work with the dealer you purchased the unit from or direct with Greenger, and depending on the claim, they may be able to ship the parts needed directly to you. It will all depend on what needs to be handled, and that's another thing I'm interested in seeing, just how it plays out. The partnership with Honda is interesting to say the least, just how involved were they with this project? Honda Inc. did deal with Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Yamaha back in 2021 to help pave the way for swappable battery packs, and we wrote about Honda's patents on some of this tech dating back to 2018 over on hondaprokevin.com. So how does all this play into it with Greenger? American Honda isn't offering them currently, but in Japan, Honda has been toying around with electric models for some time now, and like I mentioned in a past video on the topic, they are planning to ramp up their effort on electric models, and by 2024, we'll start to see them dropping even more new models. So what does all of this mean when it comes to the relationship with Greenger and American Honda? I don't know, but it's another thing I'm super curious about and wish I could be a fly on the wall for some of those meetings. Now what are my thoughts on it all? Well, it depends on how I look at it. Personally, I don't care for electric when it comes to toys we play with for fun, because to me a huge part of that fun is hearing an engine and exhaust note. That's part of the overall experience, and different engines have different characteristics to them. With electric, there is no character. Yes, they can be stupid fast, but that's it. There's no emotion, and a huge part of that overall experience for some of us is that noise. It's music to our ears. Now everyone is different and likes different things, but tell me, what sounds more fun? This? Or this? Again, we all look at things differently, so there's no right or wrong, and in some instances, electric makes more sense than a combustion engine. So there are definitely situations where one will be better than the next. I just don't want to see them start to try and phase out our gas engines at the end of the day like they are planning to when it comes to the automobile side of things. Getting the whole electric vs gasoline side of things out of the way, what do I think about this bike? First off, I think it looks awesome, and that's a step in the right direction. I know looks don't help how it rides, but you're crazy if you say looks don't matter at the end of the day. I wish they would have thrown a proper rear brake on it instead of the handlebar mounted setup like on a scooter. While I can see some benefits of it being there, if you're swapping back and forth from this to a normal bike, it could make for some mistakes when you think you're pulling the clutch, but you grab a handful of brake instead. Another thing I'm curious about in the owner's manual, it says for the safety of your vehicle, the wading depth under normal driving is less than four inches. Just how sensitive are they? They also list the ideal storage temps between 50 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Is it really going to be that big of a deal if it's stored in temps well above or below that on a regular basis? Just a few of the million questions I have, but I'll have my hands on one soon and will hopefully be able to answer those questions and a lot more in the future video where we do more of a deep dive on this bike. Now aside from kids using this as that's what it was built for, the first thing that came to mind because I'm a big pit bike fan and love doing dumb stuff with my friends on them, was how much fun this could be during those late night shenanigans where you're trying to be quiet, but that excitement went out the window quickly when I saw the 20 mile per hour top speed. I'll be honest, I'm dumb when it comes to electric units and how much you can hack their speed controllers, but you've got to think that's a possibility. Would it be as much fun as ripping around on the pit bikes we have now? In my opinion, no. Nothing will beat the sound of an engine screaming, but sometimes we do need to be quiet to have fun and this would fit the bill. Plus, check out those torque numbers and if we can remove all of the limiters on it, can we say wheelie monster? Now I could ramble on a lot more about all of this, but this was supposed to be a quick two to three minute video and we've blown right past that, so I'm curious. What do you guys think about it all? What are your thoughts on this not being a Honda built product, but instead a licensing deal? Are you for electric or against it? And if you're against it, would you be fine with electric models coming to market if there was a guarantee that our combustion engines we all love weren't on the chopping block? I think that's what turns a lot of people off on these, but let me know what you guys think about it below in the comments section and I'll be joining in on the conversation too. Thanks as always for watching and supporting all of this. I really appreciate it and we'll see you in the next one.