It's not all about performance.
When you take a step back and look at the pioneers of artisanal vehicle manufacturing you might think of companies like Singer, AMG, or Zeigler Bailey. A commonality between these truely different companies is their distinct approach to the design process and their ability to uniquely establish the balance between form and function whilst also meeting customer demands.
Similarly, we spend great amounts of time designing the appearance and feeling of our custom built bikes just as much as we endeavour to increase the power and handling performance. Juggling budget limitations and customer input can make it difficult to transform a bike to reach it's peak potential, however for this project we transcended those limitations and created a bike that we found truely satisfies our dynamic spectrum of wants and needs.
This is how we found that balance.
Frame Powdercoating
The first conversation for most commission built clients is regarding the colour. Through our workshop we offer a complete Surron powder coating service using colours available from suppliers like Dulux and Prismatic Powders.
When we do basic schemes like grey and white, we prefer to use Dulux powders as they're more commonly available and cost efficient. However, for special projects like this, we tend to use offerings from the Prismatic Powder range which can deliver a more pearlescent and three dimensional finish for our premium builds.
Standard practise for powder coating a Surron frame at home or through our workshop includes tearing the bike down to it's bare frame including the removal of all bearings and hardware - then we chemically strip the frame for 24-48hrs to remove surface enamel and any residue - then the frame is professionally coated off-site and allowed to properly cool and cure before being carefully reassembled by our techs.
The powder used for this project is: Ultra Illusion Green by Prismatic Powders.
Cockpit & Rider Controls
The vast majority of interaction with these vehicles is through our hands, feet and eyes, so it's important we can satisfy the needs of these senses in the finished product. The grips, brakes, lever feel, switches, pegs and rider position are all equally as important to master when tailoring a bike to a custom specification, so through multiple iterations we landed on this cockpit configuration which we felt suited the cockpit's needs to look and perform as well as possible for the rider.
The result: a beautifully tidy and functional set of rider controls.
Hope Tech V4 brakes have exceptional brake modulation and reliability
Hope Direct Mount Stem for clean looks and trustworthy strength
Renthal 35mm Fatbars suit rider position and enhanced durability
Warp9 Light Button for simple and clean light control
Real Carbon Fibre Key cover and Battery cover
Brakes, Wheels & Tyres
Regardless of what you got under the hood, or battery cover, your wheels and tyres are your only contact points connecting you to the ground, so it's best to choose a setup that's suited for your unique riding style and terrain. For the kind of hard/medium pack trail riding we'll be doing with this bike we needed something knobby and hard-wearing.
In this case, we're sitting on a sample set of PRD 16/19" rims wrapped in a Pirelli Scorpion MX32 90/100 16 rear tyre and Dunlop MX53F 70/100 19 front.
For the brakes, we're running a PRD 250mm rotor kit to best deal with the added heat of steep, long descents on the trails as well as the added weight of the chunky 16" rear tyre.
To gain the torque necessary for nimble trail riding on a stock power system, we also added a 54T Sprocket and Chain kit to increase the low-end power.
Suspension
Since we've disregarded the budget for this build, we went ahead and installed our new top-of-the line RFloXa Suspension products, including their latest and greatest Hawk 31 Max front fork and RAB53RV rear shock.
Initial impressions whilst installing these forks was overwhelmingly positive! Installation was simple and they made it easier with the included bottom bearing on the forks. The overall quality of these components is remarkable, especially on the CNC milled, widened triple clamps and adjustment knobs for the rebound and preload.
Once we got both the suspension installed and tuned the performance was standout compared to previous competitors like FastAce and KKE. The range of adjustability makes them suitable for a huge range of rider weights and we can't wait to continue beating on them on the trails.
The RAB53RV rear shock also blew us away with it's dampening and smooth range of travel. From the first 100KM of hard off-road riding on this bike the rear end has never skipped a beat and hardly bottoms out during riding. What a huge upgrade over stock.
Also important to note is that the Hawk 31 Max forks have a 17MM wider triple clamp to accomodate for wider front tyres!
Seat Cover
As always, we choose from our exclusive range of Guts Gripper Seat Covers for all of our builds leaving the Panther workshop. Not only do Guts have the best name in Moto Seat Covers, but Ridepanther is the Exclusive dealer in Australia for all of your E-Moto covers for brands like Stark, Surron, Talaria, Eride and more.
In this case we installed a Black/Black Gripper seat cover for Light Bee
Also pictured above is a real carbon fibre mudguard, carbon look centre shaft cover, titanium centre shaft axle, RAB53RV rear shock & sample PRD Triangles and linkages.
Total Cost
By referencing our website the calculated cost comes to ~$15,000 AUD for all parts and labour required. Since this is a showcase bike which will be used for marketing intensive purposes the cost is not an issue, however it is possible to create a similar performing bike without spending this much.
Although this particular bike is not for sale, we are currently open for commissions to Australian residents who wish to customise their Surron or similar Ebike through our Armadale workshop.
To get in touch please contact us.
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