How’s this jobbie? It’s a 3-wheeled electric utility vehicle imported by the guys at South African Motorcycles. And it’s cheaper than we imagined it should be, we had it for more than a month to use on the plot and all sorts… and to be quite frank… IT’S BRILLIANT!
You see, Glenn’s leg is still healing, so clambering on and off a bike is not an option, but… with the step-through design, he was able to hop in/on and go. So there was much abuse of it at home, from loading the food for the dawgs and the fowls, to quickly nipping up to the gate to grab deliveries and loading of firewood for the matric farewell bonfire.
It’s not roadworthy, but we did spot him and his son Tristan trundling along the side of the road with a gas bottle loaded for refill. There’s a fold out seat in the back, so a passenger fits quite happily and comfortably. And it was really funny, the Foley boys and their gas bottles also loaded a little sound box and the “Charge of the light brigade” blared out as they steamed along. But it does have lights and indicators, so everyone will see where you need to go.
It’s fully automatic, with three speed settings, slow, slightly faster and even more slightly faster…
Seriously, max is 23 KPH but we did see 25KPH on a serious downhill. You don’t want a machine like this to be fast, the rider needs to feel safe, especially on a plot or smallholding.
This was proved when we took it along to Oxbow Lodge near Bronkhorstspruit.
- The maintenance team loaded 4 x 20 liters of paint and a passenger to a site they are working on. Lugging these from the delivery vehicle , carried on some poor souls shoulders is not only uncomfortable and could hurt said bearer, but it also takes a lot of time, loading the 100kg load onto the trike and scooting quietly along the resorts garden paths cut down on time and possible injuries and increased productivity.
- We asked the housekeeping team what they needed, they loaded up the linen and took it off to the laundry. It was narrow enough to cruise down the passages with two people up front and a full load on the back. Usually they use a dedicated wheelie bin to move the laundry. The Elec-Trike was quieter, faster and easier on the house keeping crews back and legs.
- The gardening team then went off to the nursery and loaded trees and plants that needed planting. All in silence, not bothering the lodge residents even a little bit. The senior groundsman, then wandered off looking for his guys mowing the lawn in a field, loaded them up and took them off to the next field. This saved a lot of time trudging along between fields and increased productivity significantly.
- We did notice the security foot patrolman watching all of this lot happening with quite a bit of longing eyes….
It did undergo a proper test here:
Running around on the plot over a week or two, we never charged it up. Not constant use, just general mooching, and when friends and kids arrived, they were taken off for a little spin. And, even after the Foleys 20km, hour long jaunt it still had around 50% battery capacity and we only charged it up when we took it off to OxBow lodge.
The litmus was when Glenn and Tee took the long road.
In terms of battery life at full tilt, in full power, fully loaded Glenn and Tristan did a solid hour of riding, roughly 20 KM’s with all of the little detours to dodge any nosy traffic officials.
“We stuck to lots of roads, but we know lots of little shortcuts across open ground. We even had to negotiate a little ditch at one point and the trike pulled through surprisingly easily. The suspension is firm, the passenger was jolted a bit on the bigger bumps, but hey, it’s not priced for Ohlins. Power wise, torque is excellent, two riders and some parts and a gas cylinder, a 200 odd kilogram load… no problem. We had to set the drum brakes up, but they were adequate for this one. She gets up to speed quite quickly and stays there.”
“A big bonus is the fact that it’s as narrow as the width of the bars, so we had a great time, (illegally), easing into the traffic to get across the roads, all the while smiling as people literally hung out of their windows to take a gawk.”
And here’s a thing:
“The fanciest superbike on the planet does not pull the crowd that this bike did. So many informal traders and general workers just stopped to have a chat and to find out more about it. In a burgeoning informal economy like in the townships, a trike like this, to us anyway, makes so much sense.”
The same goes for warehouses, construction sites, security estates, conference and wedding venues, holiday resorts, in parking lots or…. well just about anything really.
We do like it.
Seriously, it’s a lot of fun to ride and such a practical little workhorse and… best of all, it’s so easy to ride, anyone can learn to ride it.
When it’s empty, it’s a bit flighty, you can lift a rear wheel on the corners, but loaded, it’s solid and really stable.
Best of all, it costs nothing to fill, just a handy plug point so that you can charge the battery pack. And us being fully off-grid, it really did cost nothing to keep it fuelled/charged up – absolute zero cents per kilometre on fuel.
Retail R18499.00
At your big Boy dealer.
