Muji has made automobiles earlier than: The Muji Car 1000 from 2001 was the product of a collaboration with Nissan. The restricted launch of 1,000 badgeless Nissan Marches was spartanly geared up, supplied solely in “marble white” and obtainable solely on-line as an train to check the corporate’s net advertising methods.

Muji has a historical past of making easy two-wheelers, too—its 1982 H-Type bike shares the pared-back design aesthetic used as inspiration for this MS01. In a manner, this new moped takes Honda again to its roots by creating easy mobility options for the lots, to try to recapture a few of that Super Cub magic.

Raw Aesthetics = Raw Experiences

When the bike arrived at my home, it got here with no directions or steerage on learn how to use it. This is the place the purity begins to shine by means of: By stripping again the tech and generally arduous app-linking of different mopeds, you’ll be able to simply climb on and get going. That’s precisely what I did, and I used to be rapidly whizzing across the streets close to my dwelling in Shanghai.

Hewn from one stable piece of aluminum alloy, the straightforward handlebars, missing adornment or its opponents’ typical tentacles of wires, really feel stable and, most of all, give me confidence within the driving capabilities of the moped. There is a fundamental, small LCD framed on the middle of the handlebars that shows my battery vary, journey info, and drive mode. Yet on approaching the primary nook from my home, I seen there are not any indicators or wing mirrors. Without them the driving is stored so simple as potential, however feels a bit of worrying on a morning commute in a metropolis of 24 million individuals.

Most electrical mopeds just like the NIU have small wheels, however the MS01 comes with massive, 17-inch tubeless wheels, with disc brakes on the entrance and rear. Push off the kickstand, flip the deal with, and also you’re off—quickly at first because of its 400-W motor, after which with the ability rapidly petering out after about 15 kilometers per hour, up till its restricted prime velocity of 25 kilometers per hour (an admittedly pedestrian 15 mph). I simply beat different mopeds off the road, however quickly ran out of puff. This is all to preserve battery—a detachable lithium affair rated at 48 V/20 Ah—which has a spread of as much as 65 kilometers (40 miles) and may simply final per week on a easy city commute.

I seen no rattles or shakes of the plastic trim, which is frequent on different cheaper opponents’ mopeds. Most of all, although, everybody checked out me. The clear black body in opposition to the pure white of the physique actually stood out in opposition to the ocean of garish, low-cost plastic and lead-acid-battery-powered mopeds.

Hidden underneath the seat is its single shock absorber, which helps to melt the blows from the bumpy roads. Each time I accelerated easily previous 15 kilometers per hour, although, there was an incessant beeping sound each 5 seconds, prone to remind me to remain at cruise velocity. It did nothing greater than irritate and spoiled the driving expertise considerably.