We know Can-Am has at least two more platforms to place its ingenious liquid-cooled electric motorcycle powertrain into. The shape these platforms will take remains to be seen. But we've just found a patent that could show us what the next motorcycle from the Canadian manufacturer will look like.
The problem is, we can't decide what the hell it's supposed to be.
After making quite a few squinty faces and tilting my head to the side like my dog, Jack, I came to the conclusion that I think this looks most like the chassis of a flat tracker. When compared to the Pulse, the rake looks steeper, while the controls seem lower and more toward the front of the bike. Finally, the handlebars look wide and angled slightly, like you'd see on a flat tracker or some off-road bikes.
There was also some logical thinking apart from what I was seeing. The bike is clearly a naked, but then so is the Pulse, so I didn't see many other options than a flat tracker or a retro naked.
But, two people can look at the same picture and see very different things, as RideApart's Executive Editor, Jonathon Klein, said, "To me, it looks more like a Ducati Streetfighter than a flat-track-like motorcycle. It's forward-raked, has clip-ons, and seems very urban and hooligan-focused. I also could be wrong, which sometimes happens. But not often..."
As the team dove deeper into the patent, the questions became less about what class of motorcycle this is and more about whether or not it's AWD.
A part of the patent states, "In some embodiments, the at least one cooling plate is configured and arranged for receiving loads from at least two of: the at least one front wheel, the at least one rear wheel, the straddle seat, and the steering assembly." It also states that this patent contains "at least one front wheel rotationally connected to the battery pack housing" and "at least one rear wheel rotationally connected to the battery pack housing".
From the wording of the patent, I think it's more likely that the front wheel can also be used to regenerate the battery instead of being used as an AWD system. But I could be completely wrong about this, in fact, I'm probably 55/45 on whether I know what the wording means at all.
So help us out.
Firstly, what type of motorcycle do you see when you look at the images from this patent? And secondly, can anyone work out what Can-Am is planning for the front wheel from the patent copy? The floor is yours.
