I've been into motorcycles since before I was a teenager and have been an avid street rider of cruisers, long distance touring bikes, sport bikes, and smaller "standards" for more than three decades.
However, after riding a can am and extrapolating from that experience I fully anticipate that the elio will be nothing like riding a motorcycle. The can am felt more like a snow mobile than a motorcycle. The front end plowed and I found that to corner with any speed I had to get off the seat and lean much more significantly than I would have on a motorcycle. Steering on the can am was similar in that it has a bar but you couldn't counter steer like you do on a bike and so steering input was heavy and slow.
On a more positive note, the elio has a lower center of gravity, a wider front end, and a longer wheelbase that I truly believe will fix a lot of the issues that the can am has. The elio is also front wheel drive so it should pull through corners instead of pushing like the can am and all that should reduce a lot of that plowing I didn't like about the can am.
Looking into the cockpit, the elio with its steering wheel and reclining seat will be more car like than being perched on any motorcycle even if that motorcycle had a backrest. The instruments, environment, etc. will also be more reminiscent of a car than even the most well appointed touring bike. Even getting in and out of the car is nothing like riding a motorcycle.
So why do motorcyclists seem to be drawn to it???
My theory is that we are drawn to it not because it is a bike but because it has some of the same things that a bike gives us. For some that is cheap transportation, for others it is the chance to propel yourself down the road in something other than a boring cage, and for others it is because they are adrenaline junkies that are lusting after riding next to the ground and staring at the pontoon wheels
After seeing the Elio framework... The Elio will be the most aptly described "cage" I've ever driven!
