Right now in this country, cost and practicality are the two biggest barriers to electric vehicle ownership. So while there’s an increased willingness to make more sustainable decisions around how we move around our cities, the size of the pool of potential electric bike owners is more or less decided by the distance of their commute and the depth of their pockets. This makes what 39-year-old Michelle Nazarri is doing with her two-model range of Australian-made commuters as courageous as it is clever.
Because not only are the Fonz-branded machines utterly customisable in all the conventional ways we’ve come to expect, but the motor, the controller, the power pack and the charging infrastructure can all be customised to suit both your budget and individual needs.
I’m riding the NKD, which is the flagship nakedbike that sits alongside the less-expensive scooter called Arthur (see sidebar). Other than getting your head around the NKD’s unique and polarising styling, the first thing you’re struck by as you approach the NKD is the surprisingly high build quality. Take the ’bar-end indicators and shmick borderless mirrors which use chiselled aluminium instead of a glass insert, for example. Both are part of the firm’s extensive list of options, but certainly not things I expected to see on a sub- $15k
