THE TRUTH about the Verge TS Pro! 11,000km Owners Review by Marc Travels (Part 1)

THE TRUTH about the Verge TS Pro! 11,000km Owners Review by Marc Travels (Part 1)

[Music] Welcome everybody. Spencer here from Verge Motorcycles at the Verge Motorcycles factory. In fact, in our little makeshift coffee shop and conversation center, we’ll call it for now. Uh I’m obviously not alone. I’m joined by Mark Travels. Oh yeah. [Music] We’re going to have a little chat, find out about his travels on the Verge TS. I imagine a lot of you have been following it on YouTube. Um, so we’re going to ask him loads of questions about the journey, about his experiences, and also of course about the TS Pro. So, without that said, let’s just get straight into it. So, let’s let’s start from the very top. You know, what kind of what kind of attracted you to Verge motorcycles and the TS? And how did this all get started? And what was the motivation for it? So I actually well I found out about the bike I think it was like 2 years ago when I first saw it on the internet somewhere. I was like oh my god what what is this? I am the rush. I’m the roaring zen and graceful beast leaving the past in the dust. Come with me right into the frame. like what’s interesting uh that looks awesome and uh but I was already on my world journey so like I didn’t really think about other bikes or like uh getting another bike. Um but then like I came back to Europe and uh a few months back I came back I had to ship my bike my old bike to from Malaysia to Berlin because it was broken. Uh so I came back and then uh I had this invitation to the ABR festival like one of the biggest festivals in the UK just to do a talk and like to talk about my journey and stuff but I didn’t have a motorcycle to to go there and I really I didn’t want to fly there like the which is suck you know to go without a bike to motorcycle festival. So I reached out to Virtual Motorcycles and then uh yeah you guys actually replied that was cool and uh yeah and then like what like a month later I like I already said on the bike that was pretty cool the weather I must say like I had just a few rainy days on my whole like two and a half year world journey so I’m always quite lucky but yeah uh like I had situation where then was really brutal Like like there’s one famous clip on the internet where I drove my old bike like through a river because I had to. There was no other way. The road just turned into a river of mud and it’s just like I had to go through. Uh that was quite crazy. Like I’m pretty happy I didn’t have to do that again. I can speak from my motorcycle experience. I’ve not experienced that in the UK. So, uh, yeah, I mean the roads in the UK, that was actually quite the test for the bike, I would say, because the roads are like say having traveled all of Europe basically on motorcycles, like I’ve been probably to every country in Europe, uh, on different motorcycles obviously. Uh, I must say and I don’t want to offend anybody but the roads in the UK must be among the worst roads in the whole of Europe. It’s just the quality of the roads it’s it’s just super bumpy. I I forgot that I was so spoiled in Thailand. Buttery smooth roads everywhere. tell us about your riding experience touring on electric motorcycle and also some some highlights and things you’ve noticed especially about the Europe um the time you’ve had here. Tell us a little bit more about that. Well, I mean sure. I mean it’s a whole different thing obviously like if you have like a BMW GS you know like and it goes 500 kilometer on one tank you know I mean that’s obviously more convenient than like going 200 km and then having to fill up your bike right so that’s obvious that said like always depends on what kind of bike you’re riding obviously if you ride on a bike like that I mean and I’m well aware of that like a port motorcycle is not really made for touring and for traveling and probably I will be the only person in the world that will tour like cross countries on on the bike like this like like very few would do it. So obviously you can’t you can’t sit on that bike for 500 kilometer without having a break. A [ __ ] so lucky. Oh my god. [Music] Yeah, for me it was now in Europe it was like I would go like 100 kilometer or 150 kilometers anywhere and I wouldn’t like need a break, you know, like and I would just go instead of a gas station I would just go to like a charging station and like here in Europe they’re freaking everywhere. Like everywhere. Like I know people don’t realize and people think like oh no there’s no charging infrastructure there’s nothing but in fact once you have it on your radar you start seeing them everywhere like just the moment you have to start looking for them they are there everywhere and you have these apps that show you every charging station like within like I don’t know like where wherever you are. Uh so now with this bike it was actually like this another thing like people think like you have to plan like every day you have to plan really like I don’t plan anything ever like never like even when I went around the world I never plan anything like go with the flow in the morning like it would be actually really like that sometimes it would be like I don’t even know where to go now like I don’t even know like oh [ __ ] where do I go so and then sometimes it would even help me to like oh there’s a charging station oh maybe that will be my first stop right like okay So yeah, let’s let’s do that and then I’ll figure out on the way where I want to go, what I want to do. So because I didn’t really have like a time frame or like a specific like I only have two weeks for this trip. So for me it’s a bit different anyway. Uh so yeah, but with this bike it was like I would just go drive it down to like 20% or something like that and I would just open the app. It’s like oh where’s the charging station? Oh there like 5 km from you or like 10 km from you. That was actually like a real game changer to me. Uh because there’s a difference between AC chargers and DC chargers, which is like the AC charging, the level two chargers. They were like sure they were relevant when the cars started, you know, and they all had this type two and like like they would all basically slow charge, you know, or just this three-phase charge. But um now that every car charges with DC charging like the old charging station will slowly disappear because nobody will use them anymore. That’s the the big problem and I saw that already coming like when I was in Asia with the other bike. Um so it was quite the relief for me to just see okay whatever church it is here like I can access anything. So and that was really kind of cool. Plus, you don’t have to bring an extra cable because true in Europe is the case like people steal cables and stuff like just cut them off. Uh, so that’s a thing that is not a thing in Asia. Nobody does that. Like they don’t steal stuff like that’s right. People That’s for the next conversation on podcast to talk about theft in these countries. So that’s the thing like anyway like but with these big charging stations you always have a cable and you can just take it plug it in and then it just starts up and and what kind of experience do you have of those chargers? Were they were they just in the middle of nowhere or were they with other places? Like what was on your trip? What was like one that stood out like a charging location? Well, on this trip on the verge, like I had this one thing in in France. It was so funny. Like it was in the middle of nowhere a charging station and then next to the charging station was like a automated pizza shop like a like there was no people. Like you could just go up there, type into the display, I want a margarita or whatever, and then just like right next to the Was it like a microwave or was it like an oven? No, it was like a big house. Like you couldn’t see in there. Look at that. That’s pretty cool. A 24-hour pizza station. That’s pretty cool. Like it was there was no window. It was just a house and then with like a display and then you just like any pizza comes out. I I haven’t seen one of those. Maybe some of our French uh followers can comment in the in the comments below like about where these places are cuz I wouldn’t mind trying one of those. Yeah. I mean I like I like that. Um and now and like on all these major tourist attractions they have a charging station like in the UK, Ireland, everywhere like they have and did you try like a varied did you stick to one brand? Did you try Tesla ones? Like what kind of experience? should have actually tried Tesla once just for trying it out, but I never really got to it like because like I wouldn’t look for a specific one because I then at some point I kind of knew okay every charging station works and then it would be nice if they have like like a lot of them have now the uh cashless payment. Do you just have like sure they all have like they all bit different like some of them you have to plug in first, some of them you have to pay first and then plug in. Yeah, I have to figure that out. But look, usually you just hold your phone there, grab it, plug it in, start charging. Like, it’s just a game. I remember when I started like three years ago, like it was just you had to install a freaking app for every [ __ ] charger. Like that was just like what what are you doing? Like it’s good to know that chargers are like catching up with our actual needs. Yeah. No, no, it evolved like it evolved 100%. Like the three years I was gone now and coming back now, something changed really. But that but also I can access different charging stations now. So but yeah back then there was no cashless. They all wanted you had to like give your father’s birth name whatever like and everything. It’s really name your third dog whatever like I didn’t like you know data collection and whatever but now I think they regulated now in the EU that you have to be able to pay with card just everywhere just at like at the gas station right it makes sense. So charging has been a breeze. Yeah. Not really a It was a short but intense experience of Europe. But then you’re on the UK. Yeah. So you obviously went to, if you’ve watched the videos, uh you went to Wales, you went to Scotland, you went to Ireland, you went to England. You pretty much got around quite a lot, more than what most British riders would see. Probably probably. And then it was like because like you know like for me that is always like an interest in like charging and all this like it was always like an interesting topic in for my videos and stuff. Now with this bike still interesting but also a little because it always works like you know like and then you’re like okay maybe it’s a bit boring. So I did like I tried to make it bit interesting for me as well and like I for example like I wanted to do the NC500 the north coast 500 in Scotland which famous very famous like in every like like many bikers also in the UK like they like dream of doing that many didn’t even do it yet. So uh I was like okay I want to do that. Interesting for you guys if it’s even possible on the electric bike it should be. So here, that’s the NC500. It starts in inveness and goes all around here. I haven’t uh put everything in there yet. If all goes well in 24 hours, I’ll be back in inveness. And then I did it the whole thing in 24 hours. [Applause] So, and then I set myself the goal of like, oh, I want to do it in 24 hours, like 500 miles in 24 hours with sightseeing and like with charging. Like I mean, obviously you can do the NC500. Yeah. And no, but yeah, I mean I almost did it in 24 hours. like I think without filming because I filmed the whole thing obviously like with flying drones and all this stuff like so I did it in I think it was 27 hours like I started in Invenesse and then being back in Invenesse but technically the North Coast 500 basically would have ended in Apple Cross because like then you just go back to Invenesse another 40 miles like and there’s no scenic there’s no north coast route like so you did the Mark travels additional Yeah, because I wanted to go to circle, right? So full circle, I wanted to start again, stop at where I started, but if just the north coast 500, I basically did in 24 hours. But obviously there was also charging involved, you know, and uh I I charge at really cool places like very scenic places because like I said, they put them now anywhere and it’s yeah, it’s not a big deal anymore. people in Europe actually don’t really need to worry about charging anymore or finding places to charge. And to be honest, I also did that like I did some ride outs with friends that I met on the road, you know, like and we did stuff like just just going around the place just they they would show me their house roots, you know, like more local kind of local kind of riding, you know, where I just would plug in at night the bike and then just just to start in the morning with a fresh full tank and then we did like 100 miles, 120 miles and then we were done anyway with riding and I would be back home and plug it in again. I didn’t even have to worry about charging the bike really. So, and I reckon that is what most people with a bike like that going to do. They’re going to do that. They go out for a ride with the mates, you know. Sounds like you had like a really varied experience of not only doing, you know, the popular NC500s. We actually met up with people who know you through your YouTube channel and through friendships, experienced things locally, too. Yes, absolutely. And that was actually the coolest thing ever because also, you know, like I could also show people the bike that really have nothing to do with electric bikes, but that was actually the coolest experience. What kind of reactions did you get? Oh, w that’s that’s the motor, you know. Yeah. Yeah. It started now. Yeah, it has started now. It’s on now. It’s on. Yeah. Brenda Vir motorcycles is from uh Finland. It’s cool, right? Fantastic. Everybody loves this bike. That’s another aspect of this bike in particular. Like it’s like a big conversation starter. Like wherever I park up like people just come like it it goes deep cuz you see it and it’s like right it looks different. Yeah. And then you go onto the motor and then you go into the it’s electric and then I imagine you go down a million different rabbit holes with people. Yeah. Every time I stopped, basically I would explain that’s the motor. Well, I always did that, right? But that’s the motor and that’s and people like what how does it work and like how like the first questions I would always get is like what’s the range and how fast can it go? Is that electric? That’s electric. Yeah. It’s got big electric 1,00 Newton me torque. Wow. 137 horsepower. How fast we got it? Well, they cut it off at 127 mph. You can’t You can’t override that. You can, of course, you can override everything. There’s always a way. [Music] So, of all of that, give us one of the highlights for you of the whole trip. Well, like for me like a personal highlight was when I went to Jono Gro because three years ago that was my kind of my first electric bike achievement is driving it from Germany, my home, like driving my other electric bike to Jono Gro. Uh just to like basically see if it works and then start the big journey to Asia on on on the bike. And now I went back on this bike and it kind of felt like full circle. Yeah. Reminiscing bit of even though it was a different bike but like it was also electric bike. So, and that was for me it was kind of a like that was a highlight definitely for me and also doing the whole wild Atlantic way in Ireland was also an achievement for me because I haven’t done that last time. Uh so that was quite cool and just to see how how easy it works you know like and also I was traveling with with a friend you know on a regular motorcycle and there was not really an issue you know because people always like afraid oh what if I ride in a group and blah blah blah does it even work with other people and it’s like yeah I mean of course it works and when you travel with your mates right they will not like leave you hanging just because you have like otherwise they’re probably not your mates yeah you probably need to find new mates you know like so they will be okay with you’re charging your bike like 20 minutes. Um I mean and I think in like 10 years, 20 years from now, nobody will even talk about it anymore because there will be like also the way of charging will improve, battery technology will be improved, you know. I mean people have to realize this is now the start you know with electric bikes you know could have been different because this is not new technology like they had electric motorcycle like a 100 year ago you know like just a different Porsche’s first car was electric you know yeah I mean they they just decided to go a different route because there’s probably more money in it various ways so so uh well but still now we’re just at the beginning from from the shift you know like just developing making electric motorcycles the same way the normal regular motorcycles have been for like I don’t know 80 years or whatever you know and just it just takes time you know and because I do these videos online and like social media and stuff like that like I get a lot of direct feedback you know from from people and the thing is like people are always very very hard on the electric bike I feel like which I don’t understand because like every regular bike breaks and has faults and has like it’s just normal, right? But the moment something goes wrong here or like something doesn’t work the way like it should be right away, you know, like people are always just like, “Oh, this sucks.” you know this, you know, I would never like my favorite comment on YouTube is like and this is why I would never buy an electric like whatever happens like the tiniest thing like this kind of comment would always come and it’s like dude man like in in 10 years like you will not even like think about all this stuff. If you’re into motorcycles and you don’t mind so much bumpy roads like you should definitely check out the UK. Like I’ve been there I mean I always love the UK. Like I’ve been to UK plenty of times before even motorcycle traveling. So I always love the UK and I’m always a bit sad going again, you know. Uh so I’ll definitely come back for sure. Even more endorsements for the UK. Love it. I’m sure we’ll have to tag the Wales Scotland in England travel boards. Yeah. And also like I got to go like in on a helicopter ride in Wales. How much is a helicopter like that? Ah, it’s a lot. That’s a lot. More than a house. More than a house. Section here in there. And then you pull this one. We had this beautiful flight over Wales, you know, and it for me it felt almost like being back in the like the big mountains, you know, in Asia or somewhere like in the Himalayas or whatever. It’s just cool to not see like houses or whatever. I’m probably going to get grilled in the comments, but I’ve never actually been to the Pico Lake District, so I’m going to get I’m going to get grilled in the You have to do more riding. Yeah, we can we can add that to the amount of things that Spencer says that people laugh at from Mark’s videos as well with Snatch is a great mechanic is also well experienced. True. So, let’s let’s move on to actually V. I I’ll call it V the bike because I felt like I have to give it a name, you know, because like many people give their bikes a name. I never really did that before, but now with the videos and because I like my old bike, I gave her a name and like it’s like, okay, probably good thing to do. So when we mentioned V, we’re mentioning the TS Pro. So [Music] on to the sort of, you know, specifics about the motorcycle. Give me give me your top three things that, you know, you really liked and you really enjoyed. So, um, obviously like I said before, like the sheer power of the bike and the acceleration is just like something you haven’t got on any other bike. Oh, oh my god, the acceleration is just crazy. quite a few electric bikes and he also had a little spin on on V and he he said the same thing like he’s like that’s probably unlike everything I ever been on before. Any mortal can you struggle to hold on you know? Yeah. It’s like and if you’re going going fast and you open it a bit more it’s like oh Jesus. And when you say unlike is it like is it the punch of it? Is it just that it keeps going? Like what about the Yeah. Most people say it feels like a punch in the gut, right? Like I would say like it starts quite smooth off, but like the moment the thing is like the moment you’re already riding, right? And you be probably at like 50 km an hour or like even 100 km an hour, you you twist the throttle and it just goes again like it has that same punch again. And that’s just like like no other bike has that. That’s I think that’s probably the coolest thing about the bike other than the looks. Like like I personally like the looks a lot. I know it’s probably polarizing and like there’s probably people that hate the looks, but for me personally like I look at the bike and I said that in the first the first time we met, right? I was like just I just want to look at it a little bit longer just along with the request for red. Yeah, I wanted I wanted the red because I just think it’s the coolest color. But they seeing now all the other other colors is like there would be like two or three colors that I would also like probably. Uh while the other like the main other thing is the the DC fast charging which is like is so important after this. Okay guys, that was surprisingly easy. Like it worked with the cashless payment. That is so cool. That wasn’t a thing three years ago when I started. And now that I have DC charging, this bike charges so fast. That is cool. Like if you put out a bike now that like a serious bike which people can actually use like a regular uh IC bike like then it would have to have DC charging in my opinion because it’s just the easiest, right? Like I never had this before that I would just like not think about nothing. I just like go whenever it’s like 20% or even 10% I would be like okay now it’s time to charge and I just look plug it in half an hour be back on the road. Sometimes I would even charge much longer because I would just do stuff or like have lunch you know you don’t eat lunch in half an hour when you go to a restaurant like you’ll be there an hour for sure. So uh so I would have reliability was good with DC there’s a lot of people that talk about you know Yes. But and I didn’t know how it’s going to be like so because like obviously I haven’t done it before on the DC chargers but like every DC charger work and I have every charging stop I have uh documented like like something people complain about in my videos. That’s just all but but I’m for me it’s like just important to show like the reality of it. Like I could leave all these charging stops out but I feel like it would be like okay so but that’s just how part of it right so so but that way I also have documented every charge so and people can say oh he’s just making this up blah blah blah but like no everywhere I go like I’ll plug it in it work sometimes it doesn’t work at the first time because like but that is mostly because they set up these charging stations differently and then you have to have a workflow kind of to activate them. So, which I didn’t know. So, uh so yeah, but eventually I always got it to work. So, uh and that’s that’s the coolest thing. We got power acceleration PC charging and then give us another one. Uh okay, two more things. I have Okay, go on. We’ll give you the tour. So, the I like the the the regeneration of the power from from the motor. Like I love that the bike just like breaks automatically like with the regen. I I got so used to it that when I turn it off for some reason because I’m in a different mode or whatever, I then miss it when I go into the twisties and stuff because you don’t really have to use your your rear brake or front brake anymore because the bike does everything like just release the throttle and just break and to recharge the battery, but it would just also break and it would when you use it like it’s just such a cool feeling to do these twisties with that. So, I I really enjoy that. And would you adjust the level on that or would you stick in one mode or did you have different modes for different settings like what? At the beginning I would say like I would always leave it in beast mode like because like I want to have the power but it’s just which is like true. I kind of want to have this power but I noticed that like well like it has four different modes, right? And uh in the beast mode the um the regen is very strong. It’s on full. It’s on max. It’s on max. So it would like and that’s great when you do like fast twisty roads and really go for it. So but it it doesn’t feel so nice when you just go through the city or like when you just do like a normal because it’s quite hectic like because you feel it. So but then you put it in like zen mode for example which I also like. So and then you just because it’s on low the region you just glide more you know. So that’s I enjoy that when I do longer stretches. Well, I did my own custom mode where I have the full power but the region I put it on medium. So I have like bit of both worlds uh so to speak. Um so yeah, but like the longer I rode it, the more I was like changing the modes, you know, and just like adapted to whatever situation I almost changing it with your mood like you know if you wanted to get away I would be in zen mode. [Music] And then I would change it at the moment like I would go and find a good road and would change it up and it’s like it’s like launching a rocket a little bit. So yeah. Uh so and the the other thing is uh what I really liked is uh the motor and how like and and how easily to like people saw it in video, right? We had this problem with the with the with the motor like there was a was a fault with the sensor which can obviously happen. Okay, that’s a problem now. Okay guys, that’s now a serious problem. But it’s not turning on. And it’s starting to rain now and it doesn’t do nothing anymore. [ __ ] hell. Any bike has a problem at some point, right? Any bike. And that’s just how it is, right? And what I loved about this, what we did is uh and you do that not just for me, right? Like you would do that for your customers now as well. So the the thing is like usually you go to repair shop and then you have to figure out the problem and then you know you have to wait and what I really loved it is that that you could guys just came and you just swapped out the whole unit and just send me back on the road like within 24 hours. So I just got a call from Verge and they’re sending out a service technician and he will be here by tonight. So that’s pretty amazing. So yeah, V they have these service vans like all over Europe. I mean not everywhere is just is a startup. Uh but this is what they do for their customers. So if there’s a problem, they see the guy in the van and he drives out to the customer and they fix the bike. I think that’s pretty amazing. [Music] Guys, the bike is done and he’s coming back and I can go. And this is now a brand new motor. This guy was not even out for like four or five hours. Feels like a brand new bike. It’s so cool, man. I’m so happy. I’m so happy that I can go now. I For me, that was just like a game changer. Like I mean, you can just do that, right? you send out a service unit and it’s like, “Okay, bring ring the customer back on the road like as soon as possible and then deal with the problem like and just fix it and then swap it out again.” Our service uh provider then just tested it and diagnosed it. Yes, it was a sensor fault because Mark was on the road and outgoing and obviously he doesn’t live in the UK. We thought it was just damage limitation. Let’s swap out the motor, put a new motor in there, and then he can get off on his travels while we take the motor back to our factories, fix it up, and then we’ll eventually rotate it now back in. So, we have service motors and then our customer obviously motors. So, just ease of access because of the modularity, it took our servicemen like no time at all versus it was like two hours gone in his van and was like, “Okay.” And then he came back and was like, “Okay.” Because I didn’t know what was happening. Uh, and I was like, “Yeah, you can and like full disclosure, obviously Mark’s been in, you know, connection with us and we’re doing this collaboration together.” But the diagnosis was this is going to take more than enough, more than the time to keep you from doing what you’re doing. So, we give you the same service we would give to all any other customers is that let’s change this out. Let’s go fix it. And then when the time comes to replace it back, we will because all of our motors are the same and they’re all interchangeable. That’s the thing like you can just like and you don’t feel a difference, right? And that’s I mean I think that’s the coolest thing ever. Like that it blew my mind at that point. It blew my mind because I also didn’t know that was even possible, you know, because I had this issue when I was with my other bike in Asia. Like I also had a motor problem that because this happens, you know. So, but apparently that was not so easy to do. Just do that uh to just change it out or whatever. So yeah, I was really impressed with that. So that would be also on the one of the things the good things [Music]

We sat down with Marc Travels at our factory after his 5,000+ mile journey across the UK and Europe on the Verge TS Pro.

What did we talk about:
• Why did Marc choose the Verge TS Pro?
• How were the roads in the UK?
• What is it like touring on an electric motorcycle?
• Did Marc have problems charging the bike?
• What are the best things about the Verge TS Pro?

Marc Travels is a global moto-adventurer and content creator who’s taken the Verge TS Pro from the Alps to the Isle of Man, sharing every twist and turn with his audience.

Verge is redefining what electric performance means — and Marc shared with us what long-distance EV riding actually is.

Watch part one now.

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