Moto Parilla to enter the electric bike market? By Ben Purvis
The Moto Parilla name could be set to return to motorcycles in the near future after designs emerged showing an electric roadster that closely matches the design cues of the exotic e-bicycles that the company currently sells.
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Parilla was one of a huge number of motorcycle brands to emerge in Italy in the wake of WW2, ploughing on for a couple of decades before it collapsed in 1967. However, the name has since returned on a range of e-bikes designed by Alessandro Tartarini's White Design and Engineering in Italy. Tartarini was the man behind the radical Italjet Dragster scooter in the 1990s, and a decade ago designed a range of motorcycles and e-bikes that were originally intended to wear the Caterham name, one that is best known for its long-running line of lightweight British sportscars.
Those machines didn't reach production, but the same e-bike designs are now being offered under the Moto Parilla name, sporting Tartarini's distinctive chassis design with a fat central chassis tube that's pierced by two large, transverse holes. Tartarini's company is also behind the new electric motorcycle design seen here, which shares the same styling cue, but is clearly a step above the e-bikes that Parilla currently sells.
The distinctive design features a battery pack that's slung beneath the distinctive upper frame, while the motor is mounted inside the rear wheel hub. Hub-motor designs are usually limited to relatively low performance electric bikes - it's a compact, lightweight and low-cost layout, but having the motor's weight inside the rear wheel isn't ideal when it comes to higher speeds and handling.
There's no word yet on whether these drawings will become a production machine, but since battery-powered e-bicycles have all but replaced conventional mopeds in the powered two-wheeler market, it makes sense for their manufacturers to look towards larger, faster motorcycles in order to hold onto their customers.
