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Talk about a long tease. More than a year after it put out its five-minute teaser video, Curtiss released its nearly 45-minute documentary on the design and creation of The 1, its $83,333 electric motorcycle that will supposedly serve as the platform for the company's next act.
In case you're drawing a blank, Curtiss is the reincarnation of the former Confederate motorcycle company. Five years ago, the company announced plans to rename itself and shift from internal combusion to electric bikes.
Curtiss is not your ordinary motorcycle company. While I can't prove it, I suspect it leads the world in the ratio of publicity received to motorcycles produced, having built fewer than a couple thousand in its 30-year history but gaining lots of attention for its polarizing designs. Plus, I can't think of another motorcycle company that has quoted both Oscar Wilde and Huey P. Long in a promotional video.
The Curtiss guys are also distinguished by self-confidence. In the video, J.T. Nesbitt says he intends The 1 to be a vehicle that's still in use hundreds of years from now. If you imagine trying to do your daily commute in a horsedrawn buggy from the 1820s, you get an idea of what a tall order that is. A few years ago I wrote about how Chambers was threatening "a hard knock out punch" to Harley-Davidson, a company that at the time had well over 6,000 times as much net income as Curtiss. Also, in the video, the word "perfect" is also used multiple times.
Now maybe you're thinking that The 1, given its price tag and style, isn't really meant for you. And you'd probably be right. The company once described the market for its expensive, highly styled electric motorcycles as "the California deca-millionaire with a favorable impression of EV technology." It estimated there were at least 100,000 such individuals, but odds are you are not one of them. Don't feel bad. I'm right there with you. The phrase "California deca-millionaire" describes me perfectly except for the California, deca, and millionaire parts.
Another motorcycle website recently asked, "Is this the best looking electric motorcycle today?" The majority of the readers who commented thought not. Still, it does have some innovative measures, and you won't see anything else like it down at your local neighborhood motorcycle dealership. So if you want to know more, here's the full story, as told by Curtiss.
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