Does a Heavier Rider Affect the Performance of a Small Electric Motorbike?
Electric motorcycles come in all shapes, sizes, and capacities. Riders do too, and it makes sense that the weight of the rider will have an effect on the performance of an electric motorcycle.
So how does a heavier rider affect the range, acceleration, and top speed of a smaller electric motorcycle?
How We Tested Our Electric Motorbike
Electric vehicles are the future, and electric motorcycles offer a low-cost entry point into the world of road-legal electrified transport.
For this test, we used one of the cheapest electric motorcycles available in the UK. The Keeway E-Zi Mini is a budget-friendly, cheerful, but not especially pretty, stripped-down 50 cc-equivalent electric motorbike.
With its limited range and speed, it’s clearly built for teenagers and students who don’t have far to travel for their studies or jobs and who won’t be using highways.Keewayclaims that it can travel at 28 mph—although some approved dealers give a figure of 30 mph—and its range is said to be up to 40 miles on a single charge. While this great for limited use cases, if you have a larger budget,consider a faster electric motorbikethat will alsohave a bigger battery and more range, which should alsohelp cure your range anxiety.
The model we’re using for the test is usually ridden by a 5'2''-tall 16-year-old who weighs 100 pounds and has a three-mile daily commute, occasionally visiting friends. She only needs to charge the battery once per week and reported a typical range of around 30 miles, with acceleration similar to or better compared to combustion-engined equivalents.
We tested it out with a seasoned 6'4'', 220-pound rider to see how performance was affected by the extra weight.
How Does an Electric Motorcycle Accelerate With a Heavier Rider?
Starting at one end of a suburban street, we accelerated at full throttle along a measured 150-meter stretch. By the end, we had reached 24 mph. This isn’t great, but it’s not terrible either.
A longer ride—again from a standing start on a flat road—saw us hit the Keeway’s top speed of 28 mph in 17 seconds. This is comparable to a 1954 Fisher Volkswagen Beetle.
The bike sprinted away from the lights nicely and reached 20 mph quickly. Anything above 20 mph took some time with our heavier rider, especially uphill.
Our lighter rider hit the top speed within the 150-meter (492-foot) run in an estimated 10 seconds, or around 7 seconds quicker.
Does a Heavier Rider Affect the Top Speed of an Electric Motorbike?
The Keeway E-Zi Mini is restricted to 28 mph, although if the limiter was removed, it could theoretically go faster. We found that the imposed top speed was unaffected by the weight of the rider, at least on a level road.
Your weight does, however, greatly affect how long it will take you to accelerate to that 28-mph top speed. As mentioned earlier, it took the heavier rider almost twice as long to hit top speed on the flat compared to our estimate for the lighter rider.
Uphill, the lighter rider reported little to no drop in acceleration, while our heavyweight’s performance definitely made the bike a nuisance to other motorists.
This can affect your safety on the road as the vehicle isn’t as nippy as it could be, and other road users may become impatient.
Does Your Weight Affect the Range of an Electric Motorbike?
The lighter rider reported an effective range of around 25 to 30 miles, and we expected performance under our heavier rider to be worse.
Starting with a 100% charge on a warm and sunny day, we started from home and rode through a suburban area to a nearby beach located around two miles away, mostly downhill. Arriving by the ice-cream van on the beach, we found that the battery charge level had dropped to 90%. Returning home—mostly uphill—it was down to 63%.
Over mixed-grade roads in a variety of traffic conditions, our heavier rider drained the battery in a little over 10 miles, which by our estimate is less than half of what the lighter rider achieved.
Your Weight Definitely Makes a Difference on an Electric Motorbike
During our test, we found that weight made a difference in almost every aspect of our electric motorbike’s performance. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, and previous experience on 50 cc combustion bikes has given similar results.
While the performance hit to acceleration wasn’t too bad, a range of around ten miles isn’t great for a bike advertised as having a 40-mile range, and it definitely shows that the weight of the rider can have a dramatic effect on the distance you can travel.
If you’re going to be carrying a lot of weight but have your heart set on an electric vehicle for road use, consider an electric car instead.
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