Many motocross tracks planned for Quantya

There used to be lots of motocross parks in Europe where you could ride your dirt bike around banked turns and over carefully crafted jumps to your heart's content. In recent years, though,the issue of noise pollution has really taken the air out of the knobby-tire fun. With the advent of clean and quiet electric bikes like those from Quantya, those days may be coming back. Hans Eder, businessman and motocross trainer, thinks that "Quantya Parks" are about to become really popular and has plans to open somewhere between 50 and 70 of the tracks in Germany and Austria. That's a lot of parks!

One of the first Quantya parks has already opened in the Bavarian town of Siegsdorf and because of the lack of noise, town officials allowed it to be built beside some tennis courts close to a residential area. Would-be riders don't need to bring their own wheels to take on the challenging track. They can be rented onsite for €15 ($22) per 15 minutes and if folks like them as much as we did when we took it for a test drive, you better bring some serious plastic. But you don't have to go all the way to Europe to enjoy a Quantya. According to Quantya's American website, the bikes are now shipping to the U.S. and Canada.

[Source: Spiegel Online]

Sweet Electric Motorcycle

Scheduled to ship later this summer, the Electric Motorsport GPR-S will cost about eight grand, recharge in 90 minutes, and have a range of about 60 miles, which seems like plenty for an urban commuter. The picture below shows it sans faring, but there are plenty of good shots of it fully clothed over on the Electric Motorsport site, and I liked the looks of the Super Motard too. The idea of an electric motorcycle is pretty cool, and since EVs don't have emissions, and bikes don't have any safety requirements, it makes sense that companies could make just one model for anywhere in the world, so hopefully, we'll start seeing lots of them on the roads.