Off the Grid

Ultraviolette's latest bike laughs at convention and tackles trails with a grin

- By Manaal Mahatme Photographs Kaizad Adil Darukhanawala

Some two-wheelers are so outlandish that even the idea feels like fiction... until one's parked right in front of you. Who would have imagined we'd be in a world with ADV scooters, three-wheeled motorcycles, 200-bhp crossovers and supermoto-based tourers? Yet time and again, these 'rebels' break free from the moulds we've built for two-wheelers — and that's exactly what makes them irresistible. They're uncharted, audacious, impossible to ignore. And joining this list is an adventure-capable electric motorcycle — the Ultraviolette X-47. Seeing it in the flesh brought a wide grin to my face. It looked unmistakably Ultraviolette, yet so different from the F77s. The compact headlight remained but now wore a flyscreen on top and an ADV-style beak below. Even the taillight wasn't new, but it sat proudly in a unique cast-aluminium subframe. And the wheels? Same size as before, but now wrapped in dual-purpose tyres.

Of course, just bolting on knuckle guards, dual-purpose tyres and some 'tough-boy' styling wasn't going to cut it. Ultraviolette reworked the F77 frame by relaxing the rake angle by a degree, added long-travel suspension, a new steel box-section swingarm and revised the final drive. The result? A menacing-looking motorcycle that had me instinctively drawing parallels with a certain Italian supermoto-tourer. You can guess what happened next.

Developing a true crossover is tough. It's supposed to combine road manners and long-distance comfort without compromising much off-road. Build one with 40 bhp and a 207-kg kerb weight and it gets even tougher — or so I presumed. But somehow, these young guns at UV nailed it.