EV Enduro Bike Kalk OR is One Tasty Slice of Cake Motorcycles

Imagine this for a second. It's Saturday afternoon, and the gang is out for some dirt runs in the desert. After a couple of hours of riding, you guys settle down for a meal and a water break. You guys are all hanging out, enjoying the shade, when without warning, a huge cloud of dust rolls in, very much like the one you guys kicked up when you rolled into this spot.

Once the dust clears you all are staring at four riders on some very rudimentary bikes. They sit there staring at you while you stare at them, revving engines in silence. After a few awkward seconds they ride off with no sound. Everyone looks around dumbfounded, and one guy grabs his bike and shoots after the gang. After ten minutes he comes back on one of the steeds seen earlier. CAAAKE!!! He exclaims.

The subject matter here is Cake electric motorcycles. This particular slice of the so-called Cake is called Kalk OR. It’s the first of their designs and the one that is meant to showcase what this company can achieve.

To start, this bike is considered a trail/enduro or freeriding bike but boasts this title while running under electric power. That’s right, she’s an EV.

Unlike most EVs, she comes in with a dry weight of only 114.6 lbs (52 kg). With her standard battery only another 37.4 lbs (17 kg) are tacked on. 152 pounds! That’s it. And with that she can offer over four hours of range depending on riding conditions.

But how? Let's find out. We already know that the OR is ultra-light, but what about the rest of her? This is really where she starts to shine.

Her battery is a 18650 lithium battery pack that crunches in 51.8V at 50Ah and 2.6kwh. This powers everything electrical on the bike, but mainly the motor. This is an 11-kW motor with 42 Nm of peak torque on the shaft and 280 Nm at the wheel. Enough to get some pretty good airtime if you find that perfect ramp and will keep you searching for it at over 50 mph (80 kph). Oh, and if you run out of power, not to worry, you’ll get another round at riding with an 80% charge level that happens in only one and a half hours. For a full 100% charge 2.5 hours is all that’s needed.

The dashboard and controller allow the rider to select one of three modes. Explore mode offers a four-plus battery range, but with a speed cap at 30 mph (45kph). Excite mode offers a bit more speed and a bit more torque but will leave you with a drained battery in 1-2 hours. The final mode, Excel, is a track and race mode. This opens her up on all wires, as she has no cylinders, and with max speed and torque you’ll fly around for an hour or so.

Suspension for your landings is taken care of by Ohlins. The front fork is a 25-degree upside downer with 38mm stanchion tubes and 204mm of travel, all on air and oil springs, while the rear is also Ohlins 205 mm TTX22 with Cake internals and spring.

Stopping power and control is offered by four piston calipers, alloy levers and 220 mm/ 3.2mm stainless steel rotors.

Now why would anyone go out and buy anything else other than this? I no longer want a Kuberg or a Platzhirsch. Give me one of these. What do you mean it’s over15 thousand US!?

Sure, she may seem a bit steep, but when we think about what it is we’re getting for that price, she feels totally worth it.