A Conversation With the Confederate Motorcycle’s Owner Ernest Lee.
I recently had the chance to sit down and chat with Ernest Lee of Confederate Motorcycles. We talked all things Confederate, but one thing that stood out to me was that he said the new Hellcat motorcycle may come out this year. I’m all for a 2020 release date for the new Hellcat
The new Hellcat Concept bike last got press back in 2018. The new concept for the next Hellcat (pictured above) looks good. The company turned to Harley-Davidson for help this time around.
Certifying ABS and Other Electronic Systems Is Expensive for Confederate
Lee said that he used the Harley-Davidson FXDR as the basis for the new bike.
“That’s kind of an easy bike to design because I’m using an existing bike and all of their certification compliance,” he said. “And that’s the first time Confederate has actually done that.“
Because of this, Lee said he could see the bike coming out later this year, though he stressed he didn’t have a specific date or timeline in mind.
In our conversation, he said he wanted the bike to have modern ABS and other features and that hit would be cost-prohibitive for Confederate to self-certify that stuff.
“I can’t afford to put all of that on that stuff on the bike myself,” he said. “It’s expensive. ABS would cost me about $120,00 on a model, and that’s only good on that model, so if I change the weight or something, I have to re-certify.”
Lee wouldn’t put a date on the release, but he did say his team was continuing to work on the Hellcat and he also said a new Wraith was in the works as well, though he was kind of tight-lipped on that bike.
I’ll be looking forward to seeing the Hellcat. The concept images look great and I’d expect the bike to look a lot like the concept bike.
