Lana Del Rey isn't the first name you probably think of when we say "celebrity motorcyclists" and you'd be right. She isn't a motorcyclist per se. But her recent performance at Coachella, which made headlines for her entrance, means we're gonna talk about what went down.
For those not in the cool kids club (that'd be us) and didn't see, or weren't at, the famous festival, Lana's performance started with her and her dancers coming into the venue atop a fleet of motorcycles. Specifically, Ryvid Anthems, the small electric motorcycles from the California startup.
The scene was pretty damn cool, from what I've been able to see now, but according to Ryvid, it almost didn't happen.
"For starters, the Fire Marshal wouldn’t allow conventional combustion engines to be used on safety grounds," says Ryvid, adding, "They also stipulated the bikes couldn’t be ridden at more than 5mph. In fact, they needed assurances that the motorcycles couldn’t exceed that speed." To that end, Lana's team turned to Ryvid in order to complete the "dramatic entrance by arriving on the back of a motorcycle."
Now, it's easy to see how the team circumvented the combustion engine being not allowed, as Ryvid's bikes are fully electric. But because they are electric also provided Lana's team with getting by the 5mph speed limit, as Ryvid's engineers were able to artificially reduce the bikes' top speeds via a new speed controller they added.
Lana and her backup dancers then left the venue aboard the bikes too.
What I find most interesting about the whole affair, however, was the adaptability that an EV motorcycle offers. Because you can just change a few lines of code to limit top speed, adjust torque levels, etc, it truly represents a new era of motorcycling.
And that's backed up after recently talking with stunt rider Aaron Colton, who built a stunt bike out of an old Alta motorcycle because where he wanted to film wouldn't allow for a combustion engine. Same thing with Dust.Moto's Alpha playbike.
It opens up areas that would've been closed to motorcyclists, though I doubt you could just bring your own to Coachella...
