Kawasaki Elektrode Electric Balance Bike Designs Leak Ahead of Reveal
Full details will be revealed June 7
Last week, Kawasaki dropped a teaser for a new electric two-wheeler, and we uncovered evidence that the teaser is for an electric balance bike called the Elektrode. Kawasaki is set to reveal the Elektrode on June 7 alongside some side-by-side models, but we’ve already got an idea what the balance bike will look like.
Japan’s intellectual property office has published designs for a balance bike from Kawasaki, and though it doesn’t say it outright, the designs we can only assume will be for the Elektrode. The designs were filed by Kawasaki on April 28, 2021, and officially registered this month.
The design filings indicate the balance bike is a Kawasaki creation and not from a manufacturer like the Stacyc, which produces balance bikes for its owner, Harley-Davidson, and under license for KTM, Husqvarna, and GasGas.
A description accompanying the filing (translated from Japanese) reads: “this article is an electric motorcycle. A battery is stored inside the body frame between the front and rear wheels, and a motor is located in the center of the rear wheels.”
The design filing only protects the parts of the illustrations shown in grayscale, with dashed lines illustrating other components such as the hub motor mentioned in the description. The battery appears to take up most of the main frame, as the drawing below shows what we assume are screw holes for accessing the power source.
The handlebars are not part of the design, but we presume there will be a throttle grip and switchgear on the production model. The sketches also show two hand levers for controlling the brakes. A bicycle-style rim brake is shown on the rear wheel and while there’s no matching brake on the front wheel, we can see mounting points for one on the fork.
The saddle looks like a standard bicycle seat and post, which should make it easy to adjust the height to suit young riders of varying ages.
On the front end of the frame, the designs show a number plate that draws a connection to Kawasaki’s KX models. We can probably expect a green color scheme and graphics resembling Kawasaki’s dirt bikes.
The design filing does not provide any clues about the battery capacity or how much power the motor produces. We’ll have to wait for the June 7 announcement for official details as well as pricing for the Kawasaki Elektrode balance bike.
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Dennis has been a part of the Motorcycle.com team since 2008, and through his tenure, has developed a firm grasp of industry trends, and a solid sense of what's to come. A bloodhound when it comes to tracking information on new motorcycles, if there's a new model on the horizon, you'll probably hear about it from him first.
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Does "balance bike" mean it's for toddlers? How about an electric Big Wheel for some drifting fun?
This is so odd to me. Balance bikes are for very young kids to learn the concept of two wheels. They motivate those bikes with their feet. There are no pegs. Pegs would only get in the way. I think adding an electric motor and pegs defeats the purpose.