Here is the review I wrote of the
Quantya Strada.
Pictures at the bottom.
I learned about Quantya a few months ago while doing research about building my own electric bike. Quantya is a small Swiss company founded by an avid rider as an environmentally friendly alternative to the bikes currently on the market. Since I live not far from their US headquarters in Long Island NY I gave them a call to see if I could take one for a ride. Dario, the American contact, and I talked on the phone and he offered to bring the bike to my house for a demo.
This afternoon Dario arrived in a black Landcruiser with the bike on hitch mounted rack. We introduced ourselves, chatted for a few minuets and he pulled the bike off the truck.
The Strada looks good in the pictures I saw on the internet and looks just as good in person. This is a real production bike with attention paid to every detail. Hydraulic disk brakes, a full headlight/ taillight/ indicator set, and suspension by Marzocchi and Sachs make this a very well outfitted machine.
Since the motor delivers torque so quickly and the bike needs no clutch Dario warned me to be careful starting off and not to turn the key on until I was ready to take off. Apparently several people, in their excitement, have given the throttle a twist before they were ready to ride away and found the bike flying out from under them. I carefully eased on the throttle and pulled out of the driveway.
The ride this bike delivers is awesome. Torque is instant and very strong and pulls the front up easily a twist of the wrist. Comparing the electric performance to gas is hard because of the difference in torque output but with my short ride I put it somewhere in the 250cc class. Dario mentioned that this model, the Strada, is tamed a bit for the street compared to the Track model. Despite the taller gearing the bike feels snappy and very quickly rockets you to the governed speed of 40 mph. The controller delivers smooth acceleration that, with some practice, is very easy to control. The rear linked suspension is firm yet absorbed the bumps I took it over with ease. The narrow “tank” area is well contoured and was easily gripped with the legs. I’m six feet tall and sitting on the seat, I was able to put one foot flat with the other foot resting on the toes.
When asked about the battery life Dario said that their test rider got a minimum of twenty minuets riding full out racing and a max of three and a half hours riding trials. He also mentioned that the bike is governed at 40 mph because speeds over that drastically lover battery life. The controller is reprogrammable for higher speeds but doing so voids the warranty.
Talking after my ride, Dario said that quality is on of Quantya’s highest priorities and I could easily see that in the Strada. Things like the jackshaft that is between the motor and wheel show how carefully the designers thought out the chassis. The jackshaft turns on the same axis that the swing arm pivots on so that the chain can remain tight constantly and so that the force put on the motor output shaft is consistent.
Before I rode the Strada I thought it was going to be a neat toy but not have the performance of a real motorcycle. After riding it I’m convinced that electric machines are capable of delivering nearly everything gas bikes do with the added bonus of being quiet and clean. The largest drawback of this bike it the range. You can’t go for extended trips or fill up out of a buddy’s tank if you run dry. I live in New England where trails are shorter than out west so I think it would serve my purposes just fine until the battery technology catches up.
