Cake Ösa+ review: a two-wheeled Unimog from Sweden Reviews 2023 - Top Gear

A Cake review? What is this, The Great British Bake Off?

No soggy bottoms, crème anglaise or Prue Leith here. Rather, one of the most bewildering, intriguing, and practical things with two wheels on Planet Earth: the Cake Ösa+.

The what?

Good question, as the Ösa+ is remarkably hard to define. But just like your maths homework, if we start at the beginning and break it down we’ll get there.

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I’ve got my graph paper and pencil. Hit me.

Cake is a Swedish electric motorbike firm on a mission to create light, quiet, and clean two-wheeled machines. Unsurprisingly, being Swedish, they’re effortlessly cool and have product names that all sound like flat-pack furniture. Take the Bukk, an electric enduro you can ride to work. Åik, a 200-mile e-bike. The nimble Makka, a moped built in partnership with Polestar. And then there’s the most complex to pigeonhole of them all: Ösa.

Who is Ösa?

A carpenter. We’re not joking. One of Cake’s main principles is to not conform to the normal motorbike rules; be it design or intention. Rather, it prefers to think outside the box and prioritise function over form. But also answer questions no one has ever really asked. Like “what would a carpenter’s dream motorbike look like?”

Well, that’s exactly what happened when Ösa, a carpenter and close friend of Cake's founder, Stefan Ytterborn (he of POC helmet fame) asked exactly that very question. So, being industrious people, Stefan and his team at Cake scratched their heads, then their chins, and went about making a stunning two-tone and silent sci-fi scooter-cum-bike that’s more practical than you’d ever imagine. Then named it in Ösa’s honour.

It does look really quite cool.

Blending simplicity with futuristic tendencies, Cake’s team has produced a prominent, confident, and visually clean piece of design. But also an immensely practical and utilitarian product at the same time. The main frame is a single, straight, flat plank of forged aluminium creating a beam structure to attach pretty much anything you can think of to it via a quick-release clamp system.

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The modularity starts with the basics, like a seat for the rider and an optional pillion saddle. You can then upgrade to front and rear cargo baskets ranging from small to hilariously massive, flat panel carriers, lumber carriers, a workbench, a small DC-to-AC inverter, a trailer hitch and factory cargo trailer, and even a heat-pump-equipped warm or cold box, which can be used to deliver refrigerated or hot foods. The Cake could change Uber Eats forever.

What’s it like to ride?

It’s a piece of cake, if you’ll please pardon the pun. Falling into a weird limbo land between a jumped up e-bike and a slow electric motorbike, the Cake is simpler to ride than a bicycle as no pedalling is required.

You fire it up keylessly, punching a code into the bar-mounted mini-tablet monochrome TFT screen, choose one of three ride modes (which juggle power against range), twist and go… all the way to 56 mph (meaning you require an A1 licence in the UK and an M1 licence in the USA).

The controls are super simple too. You’ve got powerful (yet tricky to modulate) brakes under you fingertips: back wheel on your left (which is good for skids) and front on your right (if you want to go over the handlebars). You can also dial up the regen braking while freewheeling via the TFT screen to keep some charge flowing back to the battery when you’re off power, too. With the battery (more on that later) mounted mid-ship, all the weight is down low, meaning you can manoeuvre around with hilarious agility. And with all that torque and low weight (87kg) you can surprise a lot of people with your performance.

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Is it made for on or off-road? I can’t work it out…

Simple answer, both. As you can see, the materials are lovely with a lot of brushed aluminium and ritzy paint. But everything has been treated to be industrial strength, hard-wearing and rugged. So with wads of effortless, instant torque you silently whizz around urban streets with ease. Saying that, you can feel vulnerable on faster roads with bigger traffic.

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However, with chunky off-road, semi-knobby tyres that are mud and snow rated, you’re encouraged to stay away from the traffic and go off-road. The suspension (120mm of travel up front and an adjustable 260mm rear shock), low centre of gravity and sheer pluckiness of the bike means it can get you places you never thought possible. And being so short and light, with great torque and traction (and also a bash plate that wants to be hit), you silently ride off-road with your clamped-on boxes full of confidence.

What’s its range?

Well, it depends what battery you get. There are two versions of Ösa, the Flex and +. The Flex is the lighter, slower, moped version, which has a top speed of 28mph and range of 57 miles courtesy of a 2.5kWh battery. Ösa+ is the more motorcycle competitor with a bigger 3.5kWh battery and a top speed nearer 60mph. Range is up to 68 miles if you’re mindful of how you’re twisting the throttle.

Both batteries charge the same. Annoyingly, there is no support for any type of public electric vehicle charging. So you have to charge at home via the transformer/controller unit, which is chunky and there’s no built-in storage on the Ösa to carry it. Meaning you’ll have to return home to charge each time, effectively halving your theoretical max range.

Being Velcro’d in to the chassis, you can remove the battery to take it wherever you want if you don’t have accessible power. But it’s a weighty lump to lug around. Once plugged in you’re looking at two hours to 80 per cent and three to 100. It also has a built-in 5V outlet (phones, tablets and other small electronic devices) and 12V outlet (computers, speakers and other medium duty electronic devices) so it’s effectively a big power bank too.

How much does it cost?

Ah. Here’s the bit that’ll make you clench your teeth. The Ösa Flex starts at £7,540 with the more powerful Ösa+ starting at £9,270. That’s before you add any attachments and options. Get ticky with your top boxes, trailers, screen guards, surf racks etc and you can spec them north of £15,000. But being a modern mobility firm, Cake does offer a subscription service to rent Ösa models for £420-£480 a month. That’s still expensive, as what you could buy in the bike world (and car world) for that amount is rather significant.

But its price still hasn’t stopped us wanting one badly. The Ösa is the most practical Swiss Army Knife of a bike that we’ve ever seen. Its approach on endless configurability and useability can only be matched by the mighty Unimog – another one of life’s great vehicles that look like toys but are actually tools. And there’s no denying the idea and execution by Cake is fantastic. We just wish it was more affordable.

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