First Ride: The All-Electric Verge TS Pro Superbike Is Heavy on Performance but Light on Premium Touches

The screams of motorcycle engines echo constantly off the hills of Malibu in Southern California. Vintage cruisers, modern cafe racers, and superbikes all swarm the canyons every day of the week. But a quiet revolution may soon alter that sonic landscape as the silent performance of electrification rolls over the industry. One of the most unique electric concepts renders many preconceived notions about traditional motorcycle design and engineering obsolete. This paradigm shift comes in the form of the Verge TS Pro.

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A Finland-based manufacturer, Verge Motorcycles debuted the TS model in 2019 with an innovative rear-wheel design featuring a hubless motor that allows for 885 ft lbs of torque. We recently met with Verge to learn exactly how the hubless tech works, test ride an early TS Pro, and discover how putting a motorcycle’s engine on the rear wheel impacts riding dynamics—for better or worse.

The list of pros for electric motorcycles definitely fits into a futuristic vision of commuting, with silent operation that keeps neighbors happy, fewer moving parts or fluids to leak, no gears to grind, and no shifter/clutch wear to make stop-and-go traffic miserable. The Verge TS seems designed to optimize city riding in those regards, but in Malibu’s canyons, the suspension setup proved key for a bike that weighs in at 540 pounds.

But how does the perplexing engineering work? Essentially, the hubless portion houses electromagnets, which, when energized, force magnets built into the carbon-fiber wheel to spin up, thereby powering the bike forward. The wheel itself rotates on two large bearings, so using such a system significantly reduces driveline losses that occur with a chain, belt, or driveshaft.

Our tester version of the TS Pro has “only” 737 ft lbs of torque available in so-called Beast mode. Before pulling away, we switch over to Zen mode via the touchscreen atop what would have been a gas tank on a traditional motorcycle. On this machine, however, the “tank” actually houses a charge port that makes this bike compatible with Tesla Superchargers. More importantly, though, is that the motor’s location at the rear wheel allows Verge to mount the heavy battery much lower in the chassis.

The TS Pro’s battery pack weighs about 220 pounds but allows for an estimated range of up to 217 miles (a base TS is estimated for 155 miles, while a TS Ultra can purportedly manage 233 miles). Using a DC fast charge, the bike is claimed to reach 80 percent capacity in 35 minutes for the Pro, 55 minutes for the base, and 25 minutes for the Ultra.

Even in Zen mode, the TS Pro accelerates just as quickly as the most radical superbikes. Yet the low-slung center of gravity matters far more than power stats or zero-to-60 mph acceleration times (in this case, 3.5 seconds), because only the slightest shift in rider weight is needed to tilt the tires over for harder cornering than any 540-pound bike should be able to handle. It’s easy to get acclimated to the torque delivery and weight soon enough, and we recommend switching into Beast mode to experience the full power output. Doing so while underway requires clicking through ride modes on a small thumb button rather than the large touchscreen, a reasonable nod toward safety that, unfortunately, also feels a bit cheap.

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In Beast mode, you will feel like you’re on a cruise missile—but instead of the rocket’s roar, you will only hear wind buffeting your helmet. Regenerative braking works in concert with a four-piston Brembo front caliper and a rear caliper that Verge developed in house. Proprietary traction- and wheelie-control programs also contribute to a sense of confidence, despite the walloping punch available with any slight twist of the wrist.

The bike might look straight out of the movie Tron , but the design does come with a serious tradeoff: The rear motor now adds a lot of unsprung weight, and Verge declined to share an exact number of pounds gained versus a more traditional swingarm and wheel combo. Using Öhlins components for the forks and rear damper tames some of that mass, but you will still notice plenty of cracks in the road and wavy undulations that you would not feel while riding an internal-combustion bike.

Eventually, we set up the customizable My Mode to turn the regenerative braking all the way up and cap the power output to 450 ft lbs of torque. Here, throttle response actually improves because, in Beast mode, Verge intentionally requires harder twists of the wrist before unleashing power delivery. The stronger regen and still-substantial torque combine to create a bit of an on-off switch while leaning into a corner, with a nasty lurching tendency that can sap confidence, so you may find yourself using the rear-brake lever to smooth out the transition through curves.

For tamer riding, a set of forward-mounted foot pegs allows for a more relaxed posture. But rather than a dual persona, the TS might be even better if focused on either its sporty potential or role as a daily commuter, instead of both. Did we miss the sounds and smells of a thumping Ducati twin or a screaming Aprilia V4? Of course. And there is a noticeable lack of premium touchpoints for the TS Pro, which starts at just less than $30,000 (the Ultra variant starts at close to $50,000).

Verge likely hopes that early adopters will fall in love with the unique look of the rear wheel and advanced tech rather than focus on the absence of tactile refinement. To this end, Verge will offer test rides out of a new store in the Westfield Century City mall in Los Angeles. The wait time for pre-orders in the U.S. will likely be around nine months.

Click here for more photos of the Verge TS Pro electric motorcycle.

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