By Sabrina Giacomini, RideApart
Mount Olympus is getting crowded.
I’ll say this: while Curtiss Motorcycles
has some good intentions by swapping their ginormous V-twin for an
electric V-unit, there’s been a lot of talk, but not a lot of doing. Not
to say that the team isn’t hard at work on their new direction and
products, but we have yet to see anything tangible roll out of the
company’s shop. We can’t say they don’t have ideas though! After
introducing the literal king of the Mountain and his wife, it’s time for
the god of the Underworld to get his namesake bike. Introducing the
Curtiss Hades.
To say the company is pretty creative with its designs is a serious
understatement. Whether you like what you see or not, you have to admit
that it’s pretty efficient at getting the company recognized. When you
see the picture of the Zeus pop up somewhere (or at least the latest
iteration of), you almost instantly recognize it.
It all started with the Zeus—that changed looks a number of times since it was introduced last year, including the new Radial V8—and then his consort, the Hera,
that emulated the original Curtiss’ V8 engine. Now, the Hades is taking
an entirely different approach to design. Have a good long look and
tell me what you see. Now let’s all say it together: a pistol.
You
don’t see it? Let me walk you through it: the saddle is the hammer, the
anchor point for the swingarm looks like the cylinder, the frame is
reminiscent of the barrel and the electric motor looks like a bullet.
The work is that of designer JT Nesbitt, former Confederate Motorcycles
designer and contributor of ours.
Of course, as this is only an
exploratory design, we only get “estimated” performance numbers. It
looks like Zeus may be king, but Hades packs more electric power! In
fact, according to the information the company has shared, the Hades is
expected to run on a16.8 kWh battery which would allow the bike to
produce 217 horsepower and 147 lb-ft of torque.
Just like the
Zeus, the Hades is expected to hit production in 2020—no mention of the
Hera ever making it off the drawing board. Also like the Zeus, pricing
for the god of the Underworld is set at a staggering $75,000.
