Ryvid Anthem first ride: Testing a budget electric motorcycle that looks like a million bucks
The Ryvid Anthem electric motorcycle is one of the most innovative light electric motorcycles we’ve seen in years. The bike already began taking pre-orders, with deliveries expected next year, and I recently got the chance to test out a pair of Ryvid Anthem prototypes during a trip to LA.
At just $7,800, the Anthem is one of the most affordable highway-capable electric motorcycles on the market. And keep in mind that this is a US-designed and US-assembled bike too, which makes that price even more impressive.
Terms like “budget-level” and “affordable” get thrown around a lot these days, and the concept of an affordable anything will always be relative. A $7.8k price tag would make for an expensive toothbrush or an affordable house, for example. But in the high-dollar electric motorcycle industry, where offerings from major players like LiveWire, Zero Motorcycles and Energica run from $17K-$25K, the Ryvid Anthem is downright budget-friendly at a third of the price.
And yet it still offers pretty much everything an urban rider needs to get around town, commute from the suburbs to the city and back, and even hop on the highway while keeping up with traffic.
Check out my test ride experience in the video below to see the Ryvid Anthem in action.
Ryvid Anthem test ride video
What makes this bike so special?
The Ryvid Anthem is a total rethinking of how a motorcycle should be built.
It lacks a conventional frame and instead uses folded metal to create a lightweight but sturdy box frame.
The frame uses mechanical fasteners instead of welding in as many joints as possible to create a simpler assembly process that directly results in a bike that is easier — and thus less costly — to produce.
It also allowed the designers to create interesting new features, such as adjustable suspension points and head tube angles that can completely change the ride and feel of the bike.
Those types of modifications require tools and time to adjust, but there’s another cool feature that can be adjusted in the middle of the ride. The saddle height can raise and lower by 4 inches (10 cm), thanks to an actuator built into the frame.
Just a push of a button on the handlebars is all it takes to send the seat moving up or down, creating a comfortable position for just about any sized rider. You can even keep the seat higher for cruising and then drop it down at a traffic light for a more comfortable flat-footed stance. It’s a level of customization that has never before been possible in the motorcycle industry.
To see it in action, make sure you watch my first ride video above.
So sure, the bike has a neat design. But what about the performance? Is it going to knock your socks off?
Probably not. But then again, it wasn’t meant to.
This is a commuter bike, after all. It’s not meant to win traffic light races or leave a rubber tire snake on the ground when you take off.
But the performance isn’t half bad either. I knew getting onto the bike that the 13.5 kW (18 hp) peak power wasn’t going to feel anything like the LiveWire and Energica electric motorcycles I’ve tested before. And it didn’t. But it was still plenty powerful off the line. Cruising down PCH toward Long Beach with company founder Dong Tran had us flying off at every green light, well ahead of any cars around us. And that’s exactly what a commuter motorcycle needs — enough power and torque to fly out ahead of traffic, but not so much that you end up with a massively heavy bike.
At around 240 pounds (108 kg), there just isn’t that much bike beneath you. It’s easy to flick around and have fun because it feels like a light little dirt bike, yet it has you cruising the pavement like you were on a much more powerful ride.
There are also two different gear ratios that the bike can be outfitted with. If you need to hit higher speeds, the shorter gear ratio will let you keep flying all the way up to 75 mph (120 km/h).
And it likes it too, preferring those higher speeds to keep the motor in its efficient range. When operated at lower city speeds, that gearing tends to eat through more battery.
If you don’t mind losing 10 or so miles per hour off the top end, the taller gearing option gives you an even torquier ride that flies off the line and tends to be more efficient at city speeds.
That ratio was my preference, but your mileage may vary.
Part of that lightweight design comes from the small battery. It’s just a 4.3 kWh pack, so it’s not going to turn this into a touring bike.
The battery can be charged on the bike using an off-board charger on either a 110V or 220V wall plug (like you’d find in any garage), but the battery can also be removed for charging remotely.
There’s a neat design that includes built-in wheels that let you pivot the battery down and then roll it into your home or apartment. The quick-release battery means that just because you live on the 10th floor with no garage charging options doesn’t mean you can’t own an electric motorcycle. If you’ve got an elevator, you’ve got a way to get your battery into your home or apartment for charging.
By the time batteries in electric motorcycles and scooters reach 2.5 kWh or more, they usually become too heavy to reasonably function as removable batteries. It’s just too much to expect someone to carry. But this novel-wheeled system retains the utility of a removable battery without making the riders lift or carry the 65-pound (30-kg) battery.
As far as range goes, I only took a couple of short rides on the bike, so I can’t say that I’ve done a complete drain from full to empty. But the Ryvid Anthem has a 75-mile range rating in Eco Mode and a 50-mile range in Sport Mode, so you should be able to cover just about any commute. And since the battery is removable, you could theoretically roll it into the office and charge it under your desk.
What’s the ride like?
As a surprisingly peppy bike, the Ryvid Anthem feels like it’s ready to squirt out in traffic whenever you need it to.
The responsive handling of the lightweight bike adds to the confident feel, which is important for a motorcycle that is likely to be many people’s first ride.
With a much more affordable price than most electric motorcycles and all of the benefits that come with e-motos, many new riders are joining the fray these days, thanks to electric drive. Those who didn’t previously see themselves as a biker or that didn’t want to deal with the maintenance of a gas-powered motorcycle are realizing that an electric motorcycle is largely just an overpowered electric bicycle, at least when it comes to control and ownership. And so a bike that is easy to ride is important for these types of new riders.
The Ryvid Anthem feels like the epitome of a first motorcycle. It’s light, and it’s powerful enough to have fun but not so powerful that you’ll immediately get into trouble – it’s got the utility necessary for daily life.
As much fun as I had cruising along the coast, I can see the bike excelling even more in crowded cities. It’d be the perfect bike to slice through traffic in New York City — if you were legally allowed to slice through traffic, that is. When will lane-splitting become more acceptable in the US?!
I can see it being great in Florida where most of the “urban” roads are posted at 50 mph and you need to be able to hit 60 mph just to keep up. And the added benefit of not having a rumbling heat pump between your knees will be nice on hot summer days.
I can see it in the Midwest where it would fit right into suburbia. You could use it as a daily commuter without waking your neighbors by starting a noisy motorcycle engine in the driveway each morning.
And of course, it’s a blast on the California coast where the Ryvid Anthem was born and where I got to test it.
What are the downsides?
Like any bike, there are pros and cons.
As much as I enjoyed the Ryvid Anthem, I can still find its faults.
The belt drive isn’t as quiet as other bikes I’ve ridden, and there’s a bit of a higher pitch whine to it. Part of that might be that the sprockets aren’t their final designs, and I was of course riding prototype bikes. One of the two bikes I rode was louder than the other, and Dong explained that it was related to the sprocket, which wasn’t the ultimate component and would be replaced soon for an improved design.
The bike also doesn’t have the range to ride for as long as I would like. I enjoyed it so much that I would have loved to stay out longer, but I had to keep an eye on the range. Even just 50 miles of range in Sport Mode will leave you wanting more. If you’re riding for your commute, you’ll be time-limited anyway, so it won’t be an issue. But if you’re riding for fun on the weekend, that fun will end sooner than you’ll likely be hoping for.
Some old-school riders may not like the rear brake being on the left-handlebar lever, but that part I actually prefer. I know many guys that have been riding for years and years think of it as a scooter setup, and I get where they’re coming from. But I’ve always found hand brakes to be more comfortable. And without a clutch lever on the left bar anymore, I don’t see any reason to keep a foot brake for the rear. It frees up my feet to keep them squarely on the pegs where I want them, and I have better modulation with my fingers than my toes any day of the week.
Sum it all up for me
All in all, I’m super excited about the future of the Ryvid Anthem. It won’t be here until next summer – at least that’s when the Launch Edition is expected to start making deliveries. But for $7,800, it feels like an awesome deal and worth the wait.
The bike rides well, has plenty of performance for commuter needs, and looks good too. I know that styling is subjective, but I think it’s a fresh take that we haven’t seen before and demonstrates how much electric drive can open up the design constraints of motorcycles.
With so few models available in this price range, the Ryvid Anthem is absolutely going to fulfill an important role in helping bring affordable electric motorcycles to the masses.
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Tesla’s Full Self-Driving computer failure leaves customers in bad situations without many important features and depletes battery packs faster for months.
Last month, Electrek released an exclusive report about Tesla having a major issue with a new version of its onboard “Full Self-Driving computer,” AI4.1, failing due to a short circuit, and Tesla must replace the computers.
We found examples of the issue arising as far back as July. The problem can start quickly, within a few miles on a brand-new car or after a few hundred to a few thousand miles.
When the computer fails, many vehicle features stop working, like active safety features, cameras, and even GPS, navigation, and range estimations.
Tesla’s fix was to replace the computer completely, but sources also mentioned a temporary software fix to enable some of the features in the meantime.
It’s hard to estimate precisely the affected population. At the time of the article, we had received dozens of customer complaints and had sources inside Tesla estimating that, based on service requests, thousands of new Tesla owners are experiencing this issue.
We reported that this should lead to a recall since features like backup cameras are now considered a safety feature and required on new vehicles by NHTSA, but Tesla hasn’t released a service bulletin nor has a notice been posted with NHTSA.
Electrek contacted NHTSA to ask if they were aware of this issue. We will update if we get an answer.
There are now dozens of customer complaints about this specific issue on NHTSA’s Tesla Model Y and Model 3 pages.
Since publishing our original report on this issue last month, dozens of other customers reached out about the problem. They are reporting long wait times to get a new computer as Tesla tells them that it needs more parts, presumably the new computers.
Some showed documents to Electrek that showed they didn’t have an appointment to replace their computers until into February. For some customers, that would mean more than two months with severely handicapped vehicles.
On top of the previously mentioned disabled features, customers have voiced other problems living with their brand-new vehicles without a working computer. The computer appears to get stuck in an “auto-update loop”, which drains the battery faster.
A customer with this issue estimated that his Model 3 is consuming about 5 kWh per day when parked, doing nothing with this computer issue.
Some owners expressed concerns about faster battery degradation and wear on other components because of this issue. It’s also a major issue for people who don’t have home charging yet, and their vehicles are stuck discharging faster with this issue.
Electrek has seen documents showing that Tesla acknowledges that the computer issue is an “internal short.”
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Just over a year after unveiling its flagship solar-electric travel trailer called the Flow, recreational mobility startup Pebble has revealed its updated production-intent design. We got a chance to do a walkthrough of the optimized trailer design, which features several upgrades and some truly intuitive features. Today’s unveiling also marks Pebble’s continuance of Flow pre-orders, but we now have a timeline for when initial deliveries will begin.
Pebble is a California-based startup and one of a few new tech companies attempting to reinvigorate a stale RV segment. The company was founded by Bingrui Yang, who previously led iPhone development at Apple for nine years before leading hardware development for major players in the autonomous robotaxi space, including Cruise and Zoox. Yang described the company in detail in June of 2023:
Pebble was developed to create a hassle-free way to live, work and explore. Consumers have been stuck with the same RV experience for decades. A lot of people want to get into such a lifestyle of freedom but are turned off by the pain points in today’s products. At Pebble, we are automating the hardest parts of the RV experience with the same technologies that power the most advanced automotive innovations, making the whole experience simply effortless and magical. If you know how to use an iPhone, you’ll be comfortable using our product.
That strategy to bring more advanced technologies to the world of RVs and travel trailers culminated in Pebble’s flagship product, Flow. In the summer of 2023, the startup emerged out of stealth mode with $13.6 million in seed funding to help get the Flow into production, teasing brief glimpses of the luxury travel trailer along the way.
The following October, Pebble officially unveiled the Flow to the public, opening pre-orders for an iteration of the travel trailer that started at $109,000. We learned then that the Flow trailer is 300% more aerodynamic than a conventional travel trailer, reducing drag and extending range.
Furthermore, the Flow comes equipped with its own dual-motor active propulsion assist system, which helps it bear the brunt of its load while helping it maximize range and efficiency regardless of whether an ICE or electric vehicle is towing it.
Today, just over 14 months after initially unveiling the pre-production version of the Flow, Pebble has emerged with a production-intent design featuring some welcomed upgrades in its space utilization and some genuinely remarkable functions – all controllable from a single tablet.
Pebble Flow to begin deliveries in first half of 2025
Pebble unveiled its production-intent version of the Flow this morning. According to the company, it was updated with features and optimized design elements based on feedback from its community to improve the overall experience for future owners.
Pebble shared that the community that worked closely with its design and engineering teams to identify key opportunities for improvement consisted of over 3,000 members, including “digital nomads,” young families, retirees, and tech enthusiasts (bummed I didn’t get an invite).
Last month, we took a virtual tour of a production-intent Flow travel trailer and explored several upgrades that make an already unique and innovative electric mobility vehicle even better. For example, Pebble optimized the interior of the production-intent Flow, increasing storage and moving some of the walls to utilize more of the interior. The startup also redesigned the interior cabinets to flip upward rather than down for easier access, especially for vertically challenged people.
The interior also feels much roomier thanks to new side and rear windows that flip open for better airflow and a vast new skylight moved to the front of the trailer above the dinette area. Per Pebble, the revamped Flow exterior now features integrated tail lamps, enhanced aerodynamics, and a more streamlined appearance, including several color variations for early adopters:
During our virtual tour, a few exterior upgrades truly stood out. First, the Flow’s pass-through storage tunnel has been made larger, and Pebble has added a hitch receiver to accommodate accessories like bike racks. However, the new technologies introduced were the most impressive.
For example, Pebble added optional all-terrain levelers through an “InstaCamp” feature that can balance and level out the trailer, no matter where it is parked. The images above show Pebble Flow’s new motorized awning, which can be deployed using the app. Other features include four exterior cameras for better visibility and safety on the road and when parking.
Pebble has also introduced a re-engineered dual-motor drivetrain and a new caster wheel, making the Flow’s Remote Control and Magic Hitch capabilities (arguably the two most remarkable features in the entire trailer) possible and easy to use. What’s perhaps most impressive is how virtually all of the Flow’s features are controllable from a single tablet, as seen here:
From our experience, the most exciting features include the 1.1 kW solar array on the roof, the Magic Hitch capabilities, InstaCamp, and the Remote Control option using the Pebble App. We highly recommend checking out all those core features in action in Pebble’s video below.
The Pebble Flow starts at $109,500, with an option to upgrade to the Magic Pack. This adds the re-vamped dual-motor drivetrain, enabling features like Active Tow Assist, Magic Hitch, and enhanced Remote Control. The Flow configuration with the Magic Pack starts at $135,500.
According to Pebble, Flow production is expected to begin in early 2025, with initial deliveries beginning this spring. These early delivery customers will receive an exclusive Founders Edition of the Pebble Flow, fully loaded with all options and upgrades, plus the opportunity to select a limited-edition color (seen above), all for $175,000.
If you’re interested in a Pebble Flow, you can reserve one with a fully-refundable $500 deposit at pebblelife.com/preorder, and customize it to your liking.
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Genesis is giving its first all-electric vehicle a stylish new design, even more tech, and more in the updated model. The new Genesis GV60 EV is finally here. Check out the first look below.
Genesis reveals the updated new GV60 EV
The GV60 is the first dedicated EV to wear the Genesis badge. Launched in October 2021, the electric SUV helped establish Genesis as a true luxury brand in the EV space.
Four years later, Genesis is revamping it with its first major refresh. The new Genesis GV60 EV gains even more style, tech, and features.
Genesis unveiled the updated GV60 on Monday, showcasing its improved exterior and interior design for the first time. After the refreshed EV was spotted several times last year leading up to its official debut, we had a good idea of what design updates would be included.
One of the most noticeable features is the new front bumper. You can see Genesis fine-tuned the front end with a new bumper and headlamps.
The new GV60 features Genesis’ signature Two Line headlamps with Micro Lens Array (MLA) tech shown on other updated models like the Electrified GV70. The new Electrified GV70 was caught in public last month for the first time, revealing similar design updates.
Genesis infused its new “Athletic Elegance” design theme on the outside, while the luxurious interior features its “Beauty of the White Space” in-cabin experience.
The tech-loaded interior includes a new 27″ connected car Integrated Cockpit (ccIC) infotainment system. Genesis says the new design “eliminates the bezel between the cluster and audio, visual and navigation (AVN) screen.”
In other words, it makes the interior feel more spacious. The sporty new three-spoke steering wheel also enhances the interior. Other signature elements, like the Crystal Sphere, included in the outgoing model remain.
Genesis will reveal prices and additional specs closer to launch. However, like the updated Hyundai IONIQ 5 and Kia EV6, the new Genesis GV60 is expected to feature a bigger battery for more range.
The 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 has an 84 kWh battery that provides an EPA-estimated range of up to 318 miles, compared to the 2024 model, which has a 77.4 kWh battery that offers a range of up to 303 miles.
2025 Genesis GV60 trim |
Range (EPA-est) |
Starting Price* |
| Standard RWD | 294 miles | $52,350 |
| Standard AWD | 264 miles | $55,850 |
| Advanced AWD | 248 miles | $60,900 |
| Performance AWD | 235 miles | $69,900 |
The 2025 Genesis GV60 starts at $52,350. A new AWD trim costs $55,850, $5,000 less than the Advanced AWD model. With up to 294 miles range on the current model, the new Genesis GV60 could get upwards of 300 miles.
Check back for more info soon. Genesis will launch the new model in Korea in Q1 2025, followed by other markets.
What do you think of the new Genesis GV60 design? Would you buy one for just over $50,000? Let us know in the comments below.
Are you ready to check out the electric luxury SUV for yourself? With the 2025 models arriving, Genesis is offering closeout prices on the 2024 lineup while they are still in stock. You can use our link to find offers on 2024 and 2025 Genesis GV60 models at a dealer near you today.
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