I have seen a fair few years on this planet and being a motorcyclist, I have seen my fair share of motorcycles as well. The world is ever-changing and so, I have seen everything, from small changes to titanic shifts in motorcycles and motorcycling. There’s another one coming and whether it materializes or not depends on a few things that we’ll discuss in the piece. The participants will be ICE motorcycles and electric motorcycles, the motorcycles in the xBhp Garage and a disruption I chanced upon a little while ago- the Ultraviolette F77 Mach 2.

As a manufacturer, Ultraviolette has more than a few challenges and I am not even talking about being a new organization. You see, ICE motorcycles let us breathe, hear, and feel power. That is what we motorcyclists have lived by and have come to expect from our machines. Just think about the trauma of switching from 2-strokes to 4 and compared to the ICE to EV shift, that was nothing. Motorcycles that sound like a hair dryer on a good day, have no heartbeat, and smell like a pair of tyres at best… what chance do electric motorcycles have at surviving a world filled with obsessively opinionated self-proclaimed purists of the petrolhead world? 

There are a lot of other challenges as well but as we have seen in the real world and in fiction, there’s usually a point where everything changes- Space Jump tech in The Book of Foundation by Isaac Asimov or the Epstein Drive in The Expanse, a brilliant sci-fi series. The breakthrough in EV technology will come around but can we hold on till then? Will this change survive in the face of other changes coming our way? Let us discuss. 

The first thing associated with electric motorcycles and electric vehicles generally is range anxiety. It is not something unique to electric motorcycles though. In the Green Lantern universe, when a Lantern’s willpower wanes, they must recharge their ring by reciting the iconic oath and drawing energy from the Central Power Battery on the planet Oa. Back to the real world, the ICEs have to fuel up as well. With electric motorcycles, it is just not that easy. 

Two things cause this range anxiety associated with electric motorcycles; nascent battery technology and the lack of charging stations. I believe the true breakthrough in EVs will happen when someone designs a small form factor, high power, and lightweight battery system. Solid state batteries perhaps. Until then, we have to contend with the lack of charging stations. That is being addressed as well. I just hope it does not turn into the mess that overcrowded CNG stations are. 

Another significant challenge for Ultraviolette is going to be the competition. The big-4 from Japan and other manufacturers have the means and the resources to come out with a motorcycle as good as the F77 Mach 2 whenever they want. With their legacy, resources, experience, and distribution network, they can do in a year what took Ultraviolette nearly half a decade. This is natural for a new organization, a new player in the market. It is not insensitive but the truth.

Another problem with electric vehicles is that they are not serving the purpose they are being adopted for in the first place. They are far from being green and eco-friendly at the moment because the majority of the electricity they require is still being generated by burning fossil fuels. Trash that is not in front of your house still exists, you know. What do we do then? Well, the Kawasaki Hybrid 7 HEV is interesting. You can read about it elsewhere in this issue but the point here is, something might just replace EVs which will put brands like Ultraviolette in a tough spot. It might not happen in the immediate future but there’s a chance it might. 

These issues that I have discussed are not associated with Ultraviolette but that is just the state of things at the moment. It all looks pretty bleak at the moment, does it not? It is not though. To be honest, there are a lot of good things that Ultraviolette has going for them and the first one is the motorcycle itself- F77 Mach 2. It is already in its second generation, signified by the Mach 2 moniker, which means the Ultraviolette is going to stand behind what they have built with so many years of love and passion. 

Starting with the looks, I am a fan of the F77’s design. In the Indian market where form taking precedence over function is rather common. People’s opinions about the overdesigned OLA motorcycles and the not-so-radical Hero Maverick are good examples of that. Personally, I like radical and outlandish designs but that is just me. Not everyone is going to go for it. In this regard, the F77 has done everything quite well. 

When I first saw the F77, it blew me away. I thought it was a motorcycle from the stable of some European manufacturer. It looks insane and conceived right here in India. The front 3/4th is as good as the rear. Attention to detail is plenty. Minimal stickering, great paint quality and a terrific choice of colours; all in all, a stunning execution of the idea behind the motorcycle. The lack of graphics gives it a clean look and the decals used are just the right amount. 

The front fork tower covers stand out and I have been told that they’re not just for show but help with the aerodynamics. The micro winglets are a nice touch. The only thing I believe could have been better was the rear. It is not bad but does not go up to the level of the front and sides. A thicker rear tyre could have helped and no, with 100 Nm torque, I don’t think it would have made things worse to the point where it was a deterrent. 

Another thing that adds to the appeal of the F77 is Ultraviolette’s theme around the motorcycle. It seeps into their communications, the website, and even the showrooms. Inspired by the world of fighter planes, their showrooms are called hangars and their meetups are called sorties. I love this kind of a thing and it is a great play at the superficial and subliminal level. Associating your product with some of the fastest and most precise machines in the world is quite a way to go about it. Even the founders like themselves being called Iceman and Maverick.

Looks alone will not help the F77 Mach 2 coast along though. It needs to have performance to back itself up and even more so when it is projected as a performance motorcycle, a serious claim. The numbers check out though. A 10.3 kWh battery pack (on the Recon variant), just a smidge over 40 horses and 100 Nm of torque. A claimed 0-100 km/h time of 7.7 seconds and a top speed of 155 km/h. I’d say that is pretty feisty. 

The subtly different displays in the three modes on offer.

In terms of the all-important range, it does quite well. 323 km is claimed in the Glide mode in Indian conditions. Even when ridden really hard in the Ballistic mode, it can still do a very respectable 170 km. Braking hardware is also good with a 320mm disc at the front and a 230mm one at the rear with dual-channel ABS. The manufacturer is ByBre. Tyres are MRFs, 110-section at the front and 150 at the rear. Overall, it all seems pretty good on paper and thankfully, in the real world as well. 

I have ridden a few electric motorcycles like the Harley-Davidson LiveWire, Zero SR/S, and Energica Esse Esse 9+. In terms of the ride and the feel, the F77 Mach 2 is right up there with them which is high praise. The wheelbase is 1,340mm which is on the shorter side and dynamically, this is the theme. The rake is sharp which when combined with the wheelbase makes the F77 Mach 2 a surprisingly nimble motorcycle on the move. It weighs 207 kg and it shows when you are taking it off the stand and yet, it is surprisingly good in the corners. The 800mm seat height makes it quite accessible for all kinds of riders and the ergonomics are also well-balanced.  

One important thing I’d like to discuss is regenerative braking or regen. In simple terms, it is a way to put some charge back into the battery when you slow down. It also mimics the engine braking on an ICE motorcycle but while it is mostly a fixed characteristic on an ICE motorcycle, electric vehicles (at least some good ones) offer a range of modes that alter regen. 

With the F77 Mach 2, you get 10 levels of it. It does take some practice though. With enough of that, you can use level 10 regen in the city and modulate the motorcycle without even using the brakes for the most part. Always have your fingers ready on the brake lever if you try it though. On the highways, I do not recommend it at all. While The F77 Mach 2 has a built-in collision warning signal beacon when using regen braking, it is a tad risky at highway speeds. 

Regen aside, the bulk of the charging has to come from the wall outlet. The battery pack is the largest of any electric two-wheeler in India and it has an IP67 enclosure with safety a priority on both the hardware and the software level. I am also proud to say that all this has been done by Ultraviolette in-house. It can be charged with a standard charger that takes 5 hours for 20% to 80%. It can also be charged with the optional boost charger (INR 27,000) which brings down the charging time to 2.5 hours for 20% to 80%. 

About charging on the go, as of today there are around 40 Ultraviolette Supernova charging stations in India. But they are mostly in South and Central-West India. Ultraviolette plans to establish more of these on popular motorcycling routes to further alleviate the range anxiety. They are also tying up with HPCL stations for an even more robust charging network. So things are looking up in this regard as well. 

Back to the topic at hand, the Ultraviolette F77 Mach 2 is loaded in terms of electronics as well. It has an ECU that captures 3,000 data points every second. This data is used for many things such as the 9-axis IMU which has an accelerometer, a gyrometer and a magnetometer for GPS and location services. Thanks to all that, the motorcycle has multiple levels of traction control, dynamic regen, hill-hold assist, park assist and so on. All of these are tied up with the Violette AI phone app which further strengthens the electronic and connectivity aspects of the motorcycle.

Another interesting bit is the DSC system of the F77 Mach 2. It activates ABS when dynamic regen is activated so ABS works even when you are not actuating the brakes. I am also hopeful that it’ll get more stuff like cornering ABS in the future, probably as OTA updates. Then there are more ease-of-life features such as a tyre pressure monitoring system. Our motorcycles are akin to gadgets nowadays and whether it is for good or bad, I leave it to you. 

Overall, the Ultraviolette F77 Mach 2 has left me impressed. Though I miss the clutch and gear engagement, it is still a motorcycle that one can enjoy. It rides very well and the performance is exciting. The instant torque is not novel anymore but it is fun nonetheless. It handles very well too and can go around corners quite quickly. A slight downside to that is the stiff suspension but then again, it is projected as a performance motorcycle. In terms of riding modes, it has 3; Glide, Combat, and Ballistic. I had the most fun in Ballistic with the regen set to 5. 

So a fantastic motorcycle from a relatively new brand that is doing all it can to make the F77 Mach 2 as enticing to riders as they can… Ultraviolette is giving out all the right signals. Despite doing everything in-house, they’re already at the second iteration of the F77 where things have gotten better and if their roadmap is to be believed, they are going to keep getting better. They are also working hard to set up a robust charging network. 

To have more people put faith in their hard work, Ultraviolette is also offering warranty schemes that are unheard of. For around INR 40k extra, you can get an 8 years/8 lakh km warranty. It sounds really nice but people seldom keep motorcycles for that long. Even then, it is a great initiative that mostly goes on to show the faith they have in their product. So most of the challenges that Ultraviolette is up against, they are meeting head-on. 

For more widespread success though, things need to happen externally as well. Advancements in battery tech are the foremost. A solid-state battery could have made the F77 Mach 2 significantly lighter which would have impacted both the performance and the range positively. Then again, those things are in the future and what looms over everything in the future is uncertainty. But with Ultraviolette showing off the F99, dubbed India’s first superbike, they seem to be quite certain about their future and where they want to go. And backing up a homegrown brand, I do not think we’ll have any qualms about tagging along.

Here are some closeups of the Ultraviolette Mach 2 Recon.