The SONDORS Metacycle first ride: Does this low-cost electric motorcycle meet the hype?
I waited for this day for nearly two years, biding my time until I would finally get a chance to throw a leg over the SONDORS Metacycle electric motorcycle and ride off into the sunset with the twist of a wrist.
I never quite got that sunset, but an overcast LA morning was the next best thing I could wrangle up on short notice. The SONDORS team let me take out an early production Metacycle to get a sense of how the bike rides and whether or not it lives up to the long-building hype.
Where did the bike come from?
Just a quick refresher to set the stage: SONDORS is an electric bicycle company that unveiled a sexy-looking $5,000 electric motorcycle set to drastically expand the brand’s market reach. The bike claimed impressive specs including an 80 mph (130 km/h) top speed and an 80 mile (130 km) range to match.
The project ended up running a bit long in the production cycle, rolling out nearly a year after the earliest promised delivery date.
Over that time, the specs and appearance started to change too. The sexy silvery polished aluminum frame turned into a gray painted frame. The bike had less-than-elegant plastic bits added all over, including necessary DOT parts, like a rear fender to hold the license plate, larger (and more legal) lights and signals, etc. The SONDORS Metacycle somehow gained around 100 pounds (45 kg) from its target weight. The quick release battery turned into a slow-release battery that requires a tool. And the price walked up from $5,000 to $6,500.
So yeah, there were a lot of changes along the way: Some were for legal reasons. Some were for comfort reasons (like a plusher padded seat). And some were likely cost savings measures. I can’t imagine how many hours went into polishing that prototype’s shiny aluminum frame. It surely wasn’t cost-effective for mass production.
After all of that, the bikes finally started rolling out to early reservation holders, or at least those folks who were living in Southern California.
And that’s where I come in. I may not live in Southern California, but while passing through, I got to borrow one of these early bikes for the morning, and here I am to tell you about it.
Make sure you check out my video below if you want to see the bike in action.
Love the one you’re with
I’d have loved to ride the original SONDORS Metacycle from all those beautiful product shots we saw in early 2021. But that’s not the bike that is getting delivered these days. That bike now exists only in the thoughts and memories of those who drooled over it many months ago. So all I can do is tell you how the real-world SONDORS Metacycle looks, feels, and rides.
For anyone that laid down a cool five G’s last year and is getting a somewhat different bike than they expected, that’s definitely a bummer, and I feel your pain. But what I can tell you is that the bike you’re getting is still a fun ride. And it’s still an awesome little commuter bike.
With SONDORS’s background in electric bicycles, it’s no surprise that the company’s first electric motorcycle is a commuter-spec bike. It’s not overly powerful, and it’s not overly sporty. But that doesn’t mean it can’t offer a fun ride.
The bike feels much lighter than its reportedly more than 300 pound (136 kg) curb weight. It spits right out in front of traffic when the light turns green, which is exactly what I want in a commuter bike.
I don’t need to beat a Ducati off the line. I just need to beat that distracted SUV driver texting her boyfriend while juggling a latte in the other hand.
With so much of the bike’s weight mounted down south with that low-slung battery and rear hub motor, the bike is quick to lean and quicker to stand back up, making for a nimble ride in traffic. And the SONDORS Metacycle is so easy to ride that it feels like a great starter bike. It’s basically a sexy scooter. Someone who has spent years on electric bicycles but has no motorcycle experience could hop on it and feel at home. In one ride, they’d probably be comfortable with it, though riding at highway speeds for someone only used to going 30 mph (48 km/h) on an electric bicycle can sometimes take a bit longer to get used to.
But for so many e-bike riders that have toyed with the idea of upgrading to an electric motorcycle, the Metacycle is probably one of the best candidates I’ve ridden in terms of easing that transition by blurring the line between e-bike, e-moped, and e-moto.
The 14.5 kW peak rated motor puts out 20 horsepower, which is sufficient for this type of commuter riding but isn’t going to leave you slipping off that narrow seat. Speaking of which, I was expecting the seat to be an issue, but I found it to be surprisingly comfortable. I’m not a big guy myself, and I don’t have an American-sized rear end, so perhaps that’s part of it, but I felt like I could sit on that bike for hours without an issue. The hour or so I spent on it was perfectly comfortable.
The only uncomfortable part of the bike to me was how my ankles tended to rub on the wide battery case. By changing my stance a bit, I could mostly get away from it, but I think if the battery had stayed as slim as it looked in the original prototype photos, then that issue would have been avoided entirely.
Other than that though, the bike felt quite comfortable and confidence inspiring. In fact, the SONDORS Metacycle largely feels like a scaled up electric bicycle, which makes sense based on the company’s roots. You’re in a more upright riding position that gives you a better view of the road and the cars around you. It’s not a little City Slicker electric motorcycle, but it’s also not a big Energica either.
The bike even had some cool features that I’ve never seen anywhere else. That glove box with the wireless charger is a really cool feature that likely came out of SONDORS never having designed a motorcycle before and not being limited by what people think of as conventional motorcycle features. It’s easier to think outside of the box when you’ve never seen the box before.
I did notice that occasionally I’d hit a big bump and my phone would jump around a bit, stopping and then starting the wireless charging if it didn’t quite land back in the correct spot. But as long as I stayed away from major potholes, it wasn’t too much of an issue.
And speaking of those potholes, the bike’s suspension was also decent. It’s not super plush, and you do have a pile of unsprung weight in the rear wheel, but then again, this isn’t a performance bike. For cruising around town and hitting the freeway, the suspension was more than adequate.
What are the disadvantages of the SONDORS Metacycle?
As much as I enjoyed the ride, there were several areas that seemed a bit limiting to me.
First was the range. With just a 4,000 Wh battery, you’re not going to be going too terribly far. They claim a maximum range of 80 miles (130 km), but that’s likely only possible at electric bicycle speeds.
Here’s a little tip for you and a quick way you can suss out whether or not e-bike or e-motorcycle ranges are BS. Use these two numbers: 25 Wh/mile and 50 Wh/mile. The former is the efficiency of an average e-bike on throttle only at around 20-25 mph. The latter is the same figure for a light electric motorcycle or seated electric scooter (think Vespa-style) at around 30 mph.
So if you’re sticking to absolute city speeds, you can take an e-scooter or light e-moto’s battery capacity in watt-hours and divide it by 50 Wh/mile. In this case, that’s 4,000 Wh divided by 50 Wh/mi, giving us 80 miles. Bam. There you go. So if you’re super gentle on the throttle and you don’t exceed 30 mph, you might be able to just eke out that 80 miles of range from the SONDORS Metacycle. But good luck staying at those speeds.
During my riding, I had an extrapolated range of around 40-45 miles (64-72 km), though that was with plenty of highway riding and ample use of the sport mode button (more on that in a moment). As a commuter bike, that’s probably fine for most people.
If you need to take a highway and you have a commute of less than 20 miles (32 km), or double that if you can charge at work, then the bike can work for you. But the SONDORS Metacycle is not a long-range motorcycle by any stretch of the imagination.
Oh, and one more thing about the battery. The display uses one of those 10-segment battery bar icons instead of displaying a battery percentage. That may be fine for some people, but my engineering background makes me super uncomfortable with that fuzzy approximation. I’d rather see battery voltage if I could, but if not, then at least give me a battery percentage readout. I don’t need five significant figures, but I’d rather know I have 28% battery charge than just that it’s somewhere between 20-30%. Don’t do the analysis for me with battery bars; just tell me exactly what I have left!
Actually, one more thing about the battery. The fact that you can’t remove the battery using some type of quick release anymore, which was part of the original design, is also a bummer for those that wanted to carry it into their home or apartment for charging each night. That was a huge feature that somehow got left by the wayside. For those that planned to bring the battery inside an apartment to charge, going through a two-minute procedure that includes unbolting several bolts in an aluminum housing each day just isn’t realistic.
Now let’s talk about that top speed. Yes, the bike can hit 80 mph (130 km/h), at least assuming the speedometer is accurate. But it can’t sustain it.
I always assumed that 80 mph top speed from the marketing was going to be a constant top speed. But the SONDORS Metacycle actually tops out somewhere between 60-70 mph (96-112 km/h) during normal cruising. There’s a turbo button that engages Sport Mode for about a minute or so and lets you get up to 80 mph. That makes it good for passing or other maneuvers where you’d want all of your power and speed on tap. But once that minute is up, you’ve got to wait a bit before you can use the turbo button again. It’s like a power-up in a video game that has a recharge period.
If you never take roads that require going over 65 mph or so, then this won’t even be an issue to you. But if you were counting on that 80 mph top speed to always be there, then you’re in for a rude awakening.
Lastly, as much as I enjoyed the ride, it felt like there was just something missing. It’s hard to put my finger on it, but the bike didn’t seem to have the same passion that I feel on other electric motorcycles I ride. I know that’s an annoyingly vague sentence, but to be fair, it’s an annoyingly vague feeling. I don’t know quite how to describe what’s missing or why it feels that way. Maybe it’s the muted scooter-style performance. Maybe it’s the lack of a belt drive to give some type of sound feedback. Maybe it’s that its so easy to ride that you almost feel like you’re on an electric bicycle. I’m not quite sure. I’m not saying it’s not fun. It’s absolutely an enjoyable ride! But it just doesn’t have that passion to it that I feel on other bikes.
Part of that feeling may be that I went into this with the wrong frame of mind. I had been on a LiveWire One and an Energica Eva Ribelle in the few days before riding the Metacycle. Those two flagship electric motorcycles have several times the power of the Metacycle and are completely different beasts. When you hop on the Metacycle, you have to remember what it is and what it isn’t. It’s a fun and engaging ride, but you should expect performance more in line with a good, peppy scooter. It’s not a flagship electric motorcycle, and it was never meant to compete with those bikes.
Would I buy the SONDORS Metacycle?
Yes, definitely. Despite the list of disadvantages and even at its now higher $6,500 price, I still think the SONDORS Metacycle is worth it.
There are downsides, sure. Until they release some type of storage box for that center cavity, you can’t really carry anything on it that doesn’t fit in the TI-84 calculator-sized glove box. And even though they talked about releasing pillion pegs at some point, it doesn’t seem like a bike that is going to be comfortable for two riders. And of course, it’s not a long-range bike.
But even despite its shortcomings, it’s great at what it is designed to do. This is a commuter electric motorcycle, through and through, and it has to be judged through that lens. I’d rather ride the Metacycle any day of the week, experiencing the world around me, than be commuting in a car watching the world go by like a rerun on TV.
It feels so light and so easy to ride. I mean it when I say that it’s probably the best electric motorcycle out there right now for easing an e-bike rider looking to enter into the world of e-motorcycles. It’s a transition bike.
It’s got some stiff competition on the horizon though. Bikes like the Ryvid Anthem and the CSC RX1E are a few thousand bucks more expensive but offer their own compelling cases. And with the SONDORS current order books looking like it might take a year or more to fulfill outstanding reservations, those other bikes could be preparing to eat the Metacycle’s lunch sooner rather than later.
But assuming SONDORS can deliver, then I think the Metacycle is definitely going to have its place in the light electric motorcycle market.
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Global renewable developer and energy giant RWE has halted its US offshore wind operations “for the time being” because of the “political environment” the Trump administration has created.
RWE, Germany’s biggest electricity producer, said in March that it had dialed back its US offshore wind activities. But now, CEO Marcus Krebber said in a speech transcript, which he’ll deliver at the company’s Annual General Meeting in Essen on April 30, that its US offshore wind business is now closed (but it wasn’t all bad news):
In the US, where we have stopped our offshore activities for the time being, our business in onshore wind, solar energy, and battery storage has so far been developing very dynamically. At the start of this year, we reached an important milestone when our US generation capacity hit the 10 gigawatt mark. The construction of a further 4 gigawatts is secured.
He went on to say that renewables have created regional value and jobs, but that the company remains “cautious given the political developments.” RWE has introduced more stringent requirements for future US investments:
All necessary federal permits must be in place. Tax credits must be safe harbored and all relevant tariff risks mitigated. In addition, onshore wind and solar projects must have secured offtake at the time of the investment decision. Only if these conditions are met will further investments be possible, given the political environment.
About half of RWE’s installed renewable capacity is in the US, where it’s the third-largest renewable energy company through its subsidiary, RWE Clean Energy. RWE holds the rights to develop US offshore wind projects in New York, Louisiana, and California.
RWE paid $1.1 billion for the New York lease area in 2022, where it’s meant to develop the 3 gigawatt (GW) Community Offshore Wind with the UK’s National Grid. Community Offshore Wind was projected to come online in the early 2030s and expected to power more than a million homes.
The developer paid $5.6 billion for the Louisiana lease in the Gulf of Mexico in 2023 as the lone bidder for development rights, and the Canopy Offshore Wind project off Northern California was not expected to be completed for another decade.
Read more: Trump admin halts $5 billion NY offshore wind project mid-build
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It’s that time of year again, time for events across the country to show off electric vehicles at Drive Electric Earth Month.
Drive Electric Earth Month is an offshoot of Drive Electric Week, a long-running annual tradition hosting meetups mostly in the US, but also occasionally in other countries. It started as Drive Electric Earth Day, but since not every event can happen on the same day, they went ahead and extended it to encompass “Earth Month” events that happen across the month of April. It’s all organized by Plug In America, the Sierra Club, the Electric Vehicle Association, EV Hybrid Noire, and Drive Electric USA.
Events consist of general Earth Day-style community celebrations, EV Ride & Drives where you can test drive several EVs in one place, and opportunities to talk to EV owners and ask them questions about what it’s like to live with an EV, away from the pressure of a dealership.
This month, there are 158 events registered across the US and 1 in Mexico (including one online webinar about things to consider when purchasing an EV).
Events have been happening all month, but the biggest weekend is this upcoming one, APril 26-27.
One really neat event was the Asheville event, which showcased the resiliency of EVs in an area devastated by Hurricane Helene, which was made more severe by climate change. That event was attended by the Rivian R1T which famously got dragged 100 feet submerged in mud and came out running fine.
But the bulk of the events happened on the weekends surrounding Earth Day, April 22, so there were several last weekend and will be even more this upcoming weekend.
There are plenty of events in the big cities where you’d expect, but Plug In America wanted to highlight a few of the events in smaller places around the country. Here’s a sampling of upcoming events:
- Big Island EV – Cruise and Picnic in Waimea, HI on April 26, 10am-1pm – EV drivers will congregate in various places around the Big Island (Kona, Waimea, Waikoloa and Hilo), then drive up Saddle Road to the Gil Kahele Recreation Area on Mauna Kea for a potluck and a chance to talk about the experience of owning EVs on the Big Island.
- Santa Barbara Earth Day 2025 and Green Car Show in Santa Barbara, CA on April 26-27, 11am-8pm – This is part of Santa Barbara’s Earth Day celebration, which routinely attracts 30,000 participants and is one of the longest-running Earth Day celebrations on the planet. The Green Car Show includes ride & drives and an “Owners Corner” where owners can showcase their EVs and attendees can check them out and ask questions.
- Earth Day’25 – EV’s role in a sustainable future in Queretaro City, Mexico on April 26, 9am-4pm – The sole Mexican event, this is a combined in-person/online seminar at the Querétaro Institute of Technology.
- Norman Earth Day Festival in Norman, OK on April 27, 12-5pm – Another municipal Earth Day festival, with hands-on activities for kids to learn about the environment. A portion of the parking lot reserved for an EV car show for EV owners who pre-register to show off their vehicles.
- Oregon Electric Vehicle Association Test Drive & Information Expo in Portland, OR on April 27, 10am-4pm – This one is at Daimler Truck’s North American HQ, and will have several EVs for test drives, owner displays (including DIY gas-to-EV conversions), and keynote presentations by EV experts. They’ll even have a 1914 Detroit Electric EV available for test rides!
- And, we at Electrek want to give a shoutout to Rove’s EV Drive Days in Santa Ana 10am-3pm April 28 – ROVE is the company behind the “full-service” EV charging concept that we’ve talked about several times here on Electrek, and we like what they’re doing for EV charging. They’ve hosted a few community events, and this is their contribution to Earth Month.
Each event has a different assortment of activities (e.g. test drives won’t be available at every event, generally just the larger ones attended by local dealerships), so be sure to check the events page to see what the plan is for your local event.
These events have offered a great way to connect with owners and see the newest electric vehicle tech, and even get a chance to do test rides and drives in person. Attendees got to hear unfiltered information from actual owners about the benefits and trials of owning EVs, allowing for longer and more genuine (and often more knowledgeable) conversations than one might normally encounter at a dealership.
And if you’re an owner – you can show off your car and answer those questions for interested onlookers.
To view all the events and see what’s happening in your area, you can check out the list of events or the events map. You can also sign up to volunteer at your local events, and if you plan to show off your electric car, you can RSVP on each event page and list the vehicle that you plan to show (or see what other vehicles have already registered).
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