Latest news with #Beachman
Top Gear
23-07-2025
- Automotive
- Top Gear
This is an old-school café racer with new-school power and a $4.8k price tag
Bikes Beachman's '64' is a vintage motorbike that champions simplicity Skip 12 photos in the image carousel and continue reading understands there are those of you out there who enjoy merrily freewheeling around on machines that feature only two wheels. Where are the other two! What have you done with them! Anyway, for those that enjoy such things, may we present a rather merry new machine with only two wheels! It's called the '64, and it's made by a company called Beachman. Yes, the '64 represents the decade this machine draws its aesthetic inspiration from; those 'iconic' Sixties café racers that even non-fans of machines that feature only two wheels can get behind. Advertisement - Page continues below Just looks so damn cool. Quietly cool, too, because it's a vintage racer filled with a very new school power source – electricity. Inside that body sits a 2.88kWh lithium battery capable of up to 55 miles of range, or the option of a 3.6kWh unit unlocking up to 70 miles of range. Both versions gets regenerative braking and the ability to hose in 80 per cent of battery power in three hours. Three hours spent staring at the thing. Did we say it looks so damn cool? You might like Admittedly it's not massively fast, but then it's not that sort of bike. 'E-Bike' mode allows a top speed of 20mph, 'Moped' unlocks a 30mph vmax, while 'Off-Road' allows a heady 45mph 'off the beaten path'. Yes, it's technically a moped, so suffice to say you will not be chasing down speed records in one of these things. Beachman instead urges you to 'slow down, reconnect and savour every mile'. Speed isn't the only burden it's been shorn of – Beachman has removed 'unnecessary tech', opting instead for 'elegant simplicity'. So no, there's probably not an app. Advertisement - Page continues below There is a 'performance tuned frame' and 'strategic weight distribution', and Beachman reckons the '64 offers 'impressive handling and on-road presence'. 'The '64 is engineered to deliver an exhilarating experience without overwhelming complexity,' it said. You know that thing about having more fun in a slow car than a fast one? Probably a bit of that in here. 'We've taken everything we love about vintage design, added real comfort and performance, and delivered a product that changes what people should expect from an electric bike,' said Beachman boss Ben Taylor. 'We're not just adding to the e-bike category, we believe that we are elevating it.' Prices start from just $4,800, and Beachman can upgrade the performance and terrain capabilities to whatever you desire. If indeed, you desire merrily freewheeling around on machines that feature only two wheels. Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Look out for your regular round-up of news, reviews and offers in your inbox. Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox.
Toronto Star
04-05-2025
- Automotive
- Toronto Star
Do you know what a VW Squareback is? Would you expect it to be … electric?
You can't tell what's the most unique about Steve Payne's 1972 VW Squareback from its appearance. Granted, it's a fairly rare car and has a cool retro patina, but what makes it truly unusual is that it's fully electric. Payne's a partner in Beachman, with Ben Taylor, a Toronto company that builds café racer e-bikes and offers electrified conversions of motorcycles and cars. His interest in vintage cars and motorcycles started long before the company's inception and his interest in electrifying them.
Hamilton Spectator
04-05-2025
- Automotive
- Hamilton Spectator
Do you know what a VW Squareback is? Would you expect it to be … electric?
You can't tell what's the most unique about Steve Payne's 1972 VW Squareback from its appearance. Granted, it's a fairly rare car and has a cool retro patina, but what makes it truly unusual is that it's fully electric. Payne's a partner in Beachman , with Ben Taylor, a Toronto company that builds café racer e-bikes and offers electrified conversions of motorcycles and cars. His interest in vintage cars and motorcycles started long before the company's inception and his interest in electrifying them. 'I'm a VW guy by nature and have owned Bugs and buses from the '60s on. This car is a 1972 Type 3 that was only made for a couple of years. It was basically a barn find. Someone parked it at an airbase and left it for 20 years. The patina is atypical for these cars. Normally, the floors rust off, but with this one, the rust started on the roof from snow. It's really, really solid underneath. Someone bought it and was going to make it a project, then lost interest. I watched the ad sit on Marketplace for months. It had a hefty price, and I finally called the guy, said this was my price and I'd take it. That was a year and a half ago. It had the original motor with automatic transmission, but was non-running. It was an early fuel-injection motor, but it would have cost $500 for basic parts just to make it run, and the transmission was pretty anemic. I sold the original engine and transmission to another VW fan for half of what I paid for the car. I had a motor for a 2012 Gen One Nissan Leaf (an all-electric car produced since 2010) and as fortune had it, the early Leaf motors are easily configurable to weird spaces. The VW's original pancake motor was under the trunk and hidden away. All the Leaf components fit perfectly. It's entirely electric, with a custom subframe and CV axles for direct drive to the rear wheels. I went to school to become a motorcycle mechanic in my early 20s, but couldn't find an apprenticeship. I went into a completely different career and became an audio editor in the TV industry, but kept working on bikes on the side. I always had a motorcycle I was tinkering on. Before my wife and I had kids (ages eight and 10), I came across an ad for a Bug. I knew nothing about them, but I showed the ad to my wife and she said, 'Go get it!' I drove to London, Ontario, bought it and drove it home, and it broke down the second I got into my driveway. I didn't have a clue about the multitude of problems they had, but it put me in the world of air-cooled classic VWs and I met guy in my neighbourhood who had three or four VW buses. Then I started looking for a bus, found a cheap on that had been abandoned and have had five or six over time, including one I have now. I did my first electric car conversion before I did bikes. I bought a '72 Bug and it ran fine, but I enjoy a challenge. Lithium batteries were around then, but completely unattainable cost-wise, so conversions were being done with marine batteries. I found a starter airplane engine and went to Costco and bought a bunch of 12-volt batteries and wired them up. There were no YouTube videos then, so I'd go on online forums and learned things along the way. I converted the Bug, drove it for a year, then sold it. It was worth more with the original gas motor, so I converted it back. Driving the Squareback is an unbelievably cool experience. It's rear-wheel drive and has a 14Kw battery pack instead of the original 24Kw, as the VW is inherently a lighter car. It's becoming my favourite car ever. It's so peppy, responsive, it drives great. I'll let people take it around the block and they are shocked when they push on the gas. It pushes you back, but won't break your neck. I make sure the horn works, as people don't hear you backing up in parking lots. It's unassuming, and the dashboard looks original. Other than one little screen with the battery status, you wouldn't know it has any upgrades. I can top it up at any Level 2 charging station and I have a Level 1 station at home. It has a range of 100 kilometres, but it was never supposed to be a range car or one I wanted to take on the highway, even though I could. Like the e-bikes we build, it's meant to be an in-town car. It's my daily driver for three seasons. I put it away in cold season to protect it from salt. It's my guinea pig, my prototype for car conversions. I've had a 1978 VW bus for 10 years and it's the best minivan ever. I put a Subaru gas engine in it to make it more reliable, and I have a Model S Tesla small drive unit earmarked for it. My other car is a '87 Porsche 924 that fell into my lap. It had no engine, no transmission but the body was good, so it was crying out, 'Come on! Turn me electric!,' so I have a 2019 110 kW Leaf motor for it that will be rear-mounted. One of my kids has earmarked the bus as his future vehicle and the other wants the Porsche. But the Squareback will always be around. Now different cars are showing up at our shop for conversions and figuring out the conversions is good for the brain. It's like a giant jigsaw puzzle.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Dothan 15-year-old set to graduate high school
DOTHAN, Ala. (WDHN) — Dothan high schoolers who will walk across the stage this May will be joined by a standout student. That student is 15-year-old Darinda Beacham. According to Dothan City Schools, Beacham transferred to Dothan High School from a homeschool program with advanced English, math, and science credits. She had already completed core courses for the ninth, tenth, and eleventh grades. While focusing on her twelfth-grade coursework, Beachman also earned her college and career readiness requirements in business. Beachman will graduate from DCS with a 3.5 GPA. 'I plan to go to college in the fall. I am excited, maybe a little scared, and happy all at the same time,' Beacham said in a release from DCS. DCS says Beachman plans to enter the medical field. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
