The Chinese trading website Alibaba is known for its huge selection of affordable light electric vehicles. An American vlogger decided to put a dirt bike worth the equivalent of 700 euros to the test. By replacing the standard battery with a heavy-duty custom package, he transformed the modest vehicle into an absurdly fast machine.
For the price of an expensive city bike in the Netherlands, you can score a complete electric dirt bike on Alibaba. The Valtinsu EM22 is offered in China for about 700 euros converted. Standard features include a 60-volt battery and a brushless motor of 2500 watts.
On paper, that’s good for a top speed of 50 kilometers per hour. American YouTube channel MrCentralDriver, which specializes in converting light EVs, saw in the budget motor a perfect basis for an extreme tuning project.
Speed record due to heavy battery upgrade
The YouTuber removed the standard battery and factory electronics. Instead, he mounted a much heavier 72-volt battery pack with a 30-amp-hour capacity, combined with a new, heavier controller that can handle spikes of up to 200 amps.
The impact on performance is huge. During a test ride on public roads, the light dirt bike accelerates so violently that the front wheel barely stays on the ground. The digital speedometer on his phone eventually ticks up speeds of 110 kilometers per hour.
The footage shows the fascinating possibilities of electric tuning, but also exposes the technical limits of a vehicle in this price category. The YouTuber himself notes during the drive that the EM22’s original wiring is very thinly sized for the enormous power now flowing through it, which can lead to overheating under prolonged load. The light disc brakes also appear to get hot and lose braking power after a few hard braking sessions from high speed.
In the Netherlands, the vehicle falls under motorcycles
Although the performance in the American video looks impressive, the reality for the Dutch consumer considering ordering such a motorcycle is substantially different. A vehicle with a throttle, a power of 2500 watts and a construction speed of 50 kilometers per hour (and after tuning even 110 km/h) does not fall under electric bicycles or mopeds by Dutch law at all. This vehicle is simply classified by the RDW as a motorcycle. This means that the driver must hold a valid A license.
But that doesn’t get you there. To drive this on public roads, a European Certificate of Conformity (CoC) is required, followed by an RDW inspection to obtain a motorcycle license plate.
Cheap import models through platforms like Alibaba almost never have this European type approval. This means that these dirt bikes in the Netherlands may only be used on your own, closed private property. Anyone who does ride them on public roads is uninsured and risks confiscation by the police.
Image source: Google AI Studio
