Maeving: Classic Motorcycle Style. Modern Innovation

Maeving are a motorcycle manufacturer based in Coventry, England and are the first manufacturer of electric motorcycles in Britain. Seb tells us about the company’s inception; “My co-founder and I met at university and we became best mates there. We actually decided, within about six months of meeting each other, that we wanted to start a business. We wanted to make sure that it was doing something. To solve a problem that we cared about - for us, that was climate change. The plan was to go and make a little bit of headway in respective careers, me and marketing him and finance and then to quit and to embark upon this journey of starting a company. We started looking at the ways in which we might contribute positively to climate change. The electrification of transport was in some ways a more accessible area than some of the more complex challenges like carbon sequestering, for example.”

The new Maeving RMS1 is the company’s most powerful electric motorbike so far. “It is really the big brother to the RM1. And it's got twice the power, a higher top speed of 70 miles per hour. And so naturally it, whilst it's still focused on urban transport primarily, it is really built for those people whose commutes, whose journeys take them outside the city center, who might need to go on A-roads, or brief motorway spells. You know, it's usually three times faster than using public transport. But if I'm honest, the most compelling reason for getting an electric motorbike, for me, is because it is fun. It turns commuting, which is something that people usually absolutely hate, into a genuinely enjoyable part of your day, every day.”

Maeving's design inspiration from the 1920s and the café racer era of the 1960s and 70s, reflecting British motorcycle heritage. “You may or may not notice that the kind of eras of design that we really champion is the 20s, but then also the 60s and 70s, the famous kind of cafe racer era of James Dean and Steve McQueen, that is probably the kind of pin up for British motorcycles. The thing that defines them is that really stripped back design. No plastic all around the bike. You've got the exposed metal work. It's just the frame, the tank. You'll also notice there's not a big LCD screen on the front. We've got a good old traditional analog speedo. And we painstakingly converted the digital signal into an analog one so that you could have that. For us, it's about being at one with everything around you and not having technology bombard you.

Maeving’s electric bikes have removeable batteries, meaning you never need to worry about planning where to charge, because you can literally ‘refuel’ wherever there is power. “…you can take this battery out and charge it at a standard socket, as you would do your phone. That basically overcomes the biggest challenge for EV adoption, which is poor charging infrastructure. This kind of range anxiety that everyone talks about, it's not really about how many miles a particular vehicle can go. It's about how infrequent the opportunity to charge is and how long it takes to charge. If you can take the batteries out and charge them at a standard socket, it basically turns every 13-amp socket into a charging port. So that's the whole game changer. You can either take the batteries out and charge them at a standard socket, so that's great if you live in a small flat.”

Brian Thompson from PTC explains how CREO's advanced surfacing capabilities enhance the aesthetic and mechanical design of Maeving motorcycles. “Motorcycles are an interesting product, because they're inherently highly complex mechanical things, and to make them lightweight, particularly for an electric bike, the nature of the mechanical aspect of the design needs to be exposed. You have this interesting challenge to mix beautiful aesthetic design with something that's inherently mechanical. This is where Creo is particularly strong. It gives engineers and industrial designers full control over the way surfaces are developed. And it provides tremendous strength, both for the folks that are interested in making the bike handle well and be as light as possible, as well as for the folks on the team that are interested in making the bike as beautiful as it can as it's going down the road, so it appeals to consumers as it's going by.”

Thanks to Brian for his insight and our guest Seb Inglis for taking us into the world of motorcycles and our producer, Helen Lennard for the insightful demo.

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This is an 18Sixty production for PTC. Executive producer is Jacqui Cook. Sound design and editing by Rema Mukena. Location recording by Helen Lennard. And music by Rowan Bishop.