Finnish electric motorcycle startup Verge Motorcycles has been turning heads with its design since at least 2019. As you may or may not recall, it was at EICMA 2019 that a little company called RMK Vehicles announced its name change to Verge—and more importantly, also announced that it was about to make the leap from a concept to a production bike.
In 2021, it bagged a Red Dot Design award and also opened preorders to customers. The company went on to bring its flagship model, the TS Ultra, to the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. That model's claimed range is up to 233 miles on a single charge.
At this point, it’s important to point out that electric vehicle ranges in general can differ wildly based on multiple factors. Also, companies can make any claims that they want. Relatedly, real world testing may or may not agree with those claims in the future. It’s also worth noting that Verge also announced intentions to come to the US during its CES 2023 launch. At the time of writing, a US launch hasn’t happened yet—but there are still a couple of months left on the calendar.
Gallery: Verge Mika Häkkinen Signature Edition
All of that said, the Verge Motorcycles design party piece is, of course, that hubless rear wheel-mounted motor design. It’s undeniably interesting to look at, although plenty of people remain skeptical about how it rides as a practical matter. It looks cool, but how does it function?
While we don’t have the answer to that question just yet, Verge has given us the answer to another important question. Like many OEMs, it posts helpful videos demonstrating various facets of how to take care of a given vehicle on its YouTube channel. On September 20, 2023, it posted a handy video that’s under three minutes long, demonstrating step-by-step how a Verge TS Pro owner can change their rear tire.
That’s a good question, and it provides a little bit of insight into how this bike is constructed, as well. With most other bikes, removing the rear wheel from axle and swingarm is relatively straightforward. From there, you can remove the tire from the wheel and go about your business.
The Verge TS Pro has that funky, electric donut-shaped motor that mounts inside the rim of the rear wheel, though. While that obviously means that it has a special rear wheel—the question remains, how does everything come together? Also, how did Verge choose to package it? With some designs, you can tell that the design took precedence over accessibility—but thankfully, that doesn’t appear to be the case here.
According to this video, the process is relatively straightforward, if a bit different than what all of us might be used to. Once you’ve jacked up the rear end of the bike and made sure everything is level and secure, it’s a simple matter of removing the license plate holder and removing the left side of the swingarm before you can unscrew the rear wheel from the motor. Verge helpfully lists all the tools you’ll need to do this, along with what sizes of each tool (where applicable) are required.
From there, you’ll need to unscrew all 20 of the screws that hold the rim and the electric motor together. After that, Verge says, it’s a simple whack of a dead blow hammer to the right side of the wheel, which should then dislodge the rim from the motor. You can then slide the rim and tire unit off the motor, which will stay attached to the bike.
The new tire will still need to be mounted and balanced on the rear wheel, which aren’t things that Verge covers in this video. You’ll need to do the process in reverse, with blue thread lock, to put the rear wheel and new tire back in place. Here, Verge also provides all the tightening torques you’ll need to ensure that it’s reassembled correctly.
Now, of course, we don’t have a Verge TS Pro to try this process along with the video and remark on how easy it is to follow in real life. Still, it’s fascinating to see a practical how-to video about changing the rear wheel on something that probably looks as close to a real-life Tron bike as we’ll ever see in production.
