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Pineapple “Leather”, plastic linen seed: Tarform, founded in Brooklyn, aims to become popular with its retro-futuristic racing café.
By Susan Carpenter
Metal. Rubber. Leather. When it comes to motorcycles, the fabrics used to make them are as fundamental as the pleasure of driving them.
Pineapple, flaxseed and seaweed? They look more like the ingredients of a vegan salad than a two-wheeled vehicle, but a new Brooklyn start-up hopes to replace that.
Your call is Tarform. What Tesla has done to integrate emission-free transportation into the mainstream, Tarform hopes to do so for 0 debris, through recyclable electric construction motorcycles made from herbal fabrics that can biodegrade.
“The concept to create tomorrow’s motorcycle,” said Taras Kravchuk, founder of Tarform and New Yorkers passing through Stockholm. If he were to build a motorcycle with sustainability in mind, he said, “What would be the principles?” Electrical, but also with the least damage to our environment. »»
Instead of using polyvinyl chloride, Tarform manufactures its vegan leather seats with pineapple, mango, corn or other herbal fibers. Flaxseed replaces plastic in its appearance panels. And the pigments that stain the frame are derived from algae based on herbs that from poisonous paints. Its aluminium frame is, of course, recyclable. And its battery is replaceable as the generation improves.
Available later this year as a customizable Founder Edition style starting at $42,000, the Tarform Luna will enter production next year with a $24,000 version. The company already has 1,500 orders, adding 54 for the home founder editions to be built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
“Today we are designing things for obsolescence,” Kravchuk said. “In the 1960s, we used fair materials. That’s why the old motorcycles of that time still last if you take care of them.”
Classic and enduring elegance also contributes to this. Beauty is its own form of sustainability; nobody to throw anything beautiful.
It was a possible encounter with a 1972 Triumph Bonneville that encouraged Mr. Kravchuk to launch Tarform and build his retro-futuristic racing café. He ran a design firm during the day and ripped off his own motorcycles at night when one of his clients, the Belstaff motorcycle apparel company, asked him to customize a motorcycle for his Los Angeles store. This motorcycle led to other customs for Belstaff outlets around the world and Mr. Kravchuk realized that the structure of individual motorcycles was tedious.
“I covered myself in oil and enjoyed it, but I thought, “This is definitely a dying world, ” he said. “Looking at what Tesla has done in the automotive industry, it has absolutely replaced people’s belief of what the car is and what the blank generation is.”
He began his studies on electric bikes with the concept of creating a logo that exclusive models. He hired an engineer, applied for investors, and, in October 2018, had a prototype in operation.
“For a very small amount of money, they had built an incredibly beautiful motorcycle with an electric driving experience,” said Karl Alomar, a spouse of M13, a venture capital firm in Santa Monica, California.
M13, which has invested in SpaceX, Lyft, Bird and other mobility generation companies, gave Tarform $300,000 last year after Alomar saw the prototype in the user and the reaction he put online.
“They weren’t knights, young and wealthy encouraged through the generation and design facet of the flow of loose money to be able to buy those luxury items,” Alomar said. “This has led us to begin to think that there is an opportunity to create a very giant luxury logo focused on ecological thinking and the ability to create true high-end beauty.”
Many electric brands are suing the same audience, adding Harley-Davidson, which brought its first ElectricArray the LiveWire, in 2019, and Zero Motorcycles, the 12-year-old California-based company that has noticed interest in its electric double. last year.
“We are very committed to the opportunity to expand with electric motorcycles,” said Andrew Leisner, senior vice president of Bonnier Motorcycle Group. The company published Cycle World and Motorcyclist magazines and last year introduced the Cycle Volta for two-wheeled electric vehicles.
“The classic baby boom motorcyclist doesn’t think at all of the motorcycles that burn fuel and rubber, nor the durability or biological nature of the parts that accompany the bike. But it is very vital for Generation Y and even more vital to Generation Z.” Leisner said. “Sustainability will be a more sensible precedent for the generation entering the workforce right now.”
This generation is already transforming the motorcycle industry as baby boomers age outdoors, replaced by younger cyclists and more women. Nearly 70% of Generation Y motorcyclists are interested in electric motorcycles, according to the 2018 Motorcycle Industry Council asset survey. Women, who account for 20% of motorcyclists, account for 40% of electric motorcycle owners.
Like electric cars, battery-powered motorcycles account for about 1% of the national new vehicle market, however, the segment is expected to grow as batteries decrease and their overall value decreases. Lately they charge about 50% more than their gas counterparts, but are expected to succeed in value parity until 2025.
Brammo, High Motors, Mission Motorcycles. The more than 12 years have been plagued by failed electric motorcycle starts, but Kravchuk bets that a new generation of motorcycle buyers will need products based on durability rather than convenience.
Modular design plays an important role. Like many electric motorcycles, the Tarform is limited by existing battery technology. For now, the Tarform can carry approximately 90 miles.
“If a new battery comes out in 3 years with a much higher power density, you can simply replace the battery and get 50 to 100% longer life,” Kravchuk said. “It makes a lot more sense than constantly pushing new models and pushing other people to get rid of anything that’s perfectly usable.”
The land, after all, has little to offer.
“There’s a lot of interest in renewal right now because we have a limited amount of resources,” said Martin Thuo, assistant professor of science and tissue engineering at Iowa State University.
Old-fashioned engineering (extracting resources, grinding them, melting them and getting them into shape) is the answer. “It’s very expensive, it consumes a lot of energy and unsustainable,” Thuo said. “The minerals we’ve used lately, nature took thousands of years to gather them. We have that time.”
Plant-derived uses like Tarform, Thuo said, are a component of a drive toward fabrics that can be replenished or replenished more quickly, with much less damage to the planet.
“Science and generation are guided through the demands of society,” he said. “With another seven billion people in global growth, we have no choice.”
Mr. Kravchuk buys many of his biological portions of motorcycles from his fellow start-ups in the most remote corners of the world, adding Thailand and Italy, with the conviction that it is the company’s duty, not the consumer,’ to be so sustainable. as much as possible.
“People are tired of being constantly told to buy, to recycle, to be green. At the end of the day, they don’t know what to do,” he said. “What is ultimately the long-lasting maximum is what is not thrown away.”
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