Got a Dead Motorcycle? Beachman Wants to Turn It Electric
Every biker knows the one. The old bike that's been sat in the garage for years because the engine is knackered and fixing it costs more than the thing is worth.
Beachman reckons it has a solution for bikes like that: turn them electric. And if it works, it could be a better option than watching another old friend slowly disappear under a pile of garage junk.
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From Broken Honda to Electric Restomod
Beachman is best known for its made-in-Canada minimalist electric café racers, but its latest project takes the company in a totally different direction.
Its new Special Vehicles Division is for bikes that have reached the point where fixing them just doesn't make financial sense anymore. The idea isn't to take a perfectly good classic and rip out its engine. Beachman wants the bikes that are already broken, unloved and probably one trip to the breakers away from disappearing for good.
The first customer build is a 1974 Honda CB500 Four with a blown engine and destroyed clutch.
Their approach makes sense. They didn't just chuck a motor in the old frame and hope for the best. Beachman 3D-scanned the chassis so it could work out where the battery and all the other electric gubbins needed to go without ruining the bike's balance and overall identity.
The old Honda now has a 14.4kWh battery sitting where the engine and gearbox used to live. There's also a digital dash, new seat and revised bodywork, but the basic character of the old Honda remains.
Beachman hasn't released the motor output or range figures yet. It says the CB500 is capable of highway speeds, but that's about all we're getting for now. The owner plans to use it for trips from the city out to a farm, which, frankly, sounds like exactly the sort of job an old electric Honda could be good at.
Obviously we'd like to know the rest of the numbers. 14.4kWh is a decent power house for a motorcycle, but it doesn't tell us how heavy this thing is, how far it'll go or whether it actually feels good to ride.
Beachman says conversions start at $10,000, with the donor motorcycle supplied by the customer.
This isn't the company's first go at electric conversions. It has previously converted everything from Kawasaki KZ400s and KZ200s to a Volkswagen Thing and Alfa Romeo Spyder.
This isn't a new idea, either. We've already seen Retrokit turn classic Vespas electric. The difference here is the starting point. Beachman isn't asking you to sacrifice a running classic. It's specifically looking for bikes that are already in trouble. That old motorcycle buried in the garage. The one you want to sort out, but it's probably too far gone to bother.
The BCB Take
Let's be honest, there are plenty of reasons to hate the idea of electrifying an old motorcycle. Purists will point out that a Honda Four without its four-cylinder engine isn't really a Honda Four anymore. The purists have a point.
But here's the thing: is an old motorcycle with a dead engine actually the perfect candidate for electrification? Or should you be fixing it rather than converting it?
If that engine is already blown, the clutch is destroyed and the alternative is watching the thing rot in a shed, why not give it another life?
We've seen electric conversions give old scooters and motorcycles another shot at life. Beachman's approach takes that one step further: start with the bikes that nobody else wants to save.
But $10,000 isn't pocket money. There are plenty of old bikes where you'd be better off finding another engine and getting your hands dirty. But this isn't really about saving money. It's about saving a bike.
Hopefully Beachman can make one of these things properly good to ride. Because an electric drivetrain shouldn't feel like a consolation prize. It should feel like the bike got a second life.
Ride safe, folks.
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