The future of electric vehicles is starting to happen with a deal between Lightning Motorcycles and battery maker Enevate. Lightning has a long history of making fast and powerful electric motorcycles. Their partnership with Enevate makes Lightning one of the first companies to offer a Silicon-based EV battery. The new…
I want the electric motorcycle industry to succeed if only because of the need to electrify every type of vehicle. My work has circled around the electric motorcycle industry for some time, and as a result I’ve met most of the movers in this industry. Having talked with Richard Hatfield,…
The state of electric motorcycles were improved greatly during the years of active racing action. Ten and one half years ago the TTXGP kicked off the era of modern electric motorcycle racing with a one-lap race on the Isle of Man during TT Week 2009. That race garnered a bunch…
Today during TT Week, Mugen’s riders Michael Rutter and John McGuinness took both the #1 and #2 positions, with Michael Rutter breaking the 120 miles/hr lap speed threshold and setting a new TT Zero lap record. Along the way John McGuinness had a fantastic speed at the Sulby Speed Trap,…
Back in 2014 Harley-Davidson got a lot of attention by daring to show an electric motorcycle prototype, called Project LiveWire. Today at the EICMA show in Milan Italy, Harley-Davidson unveiled the production-ready 2020 LiveWire due for shipping in 2019. The LiveWire bike shown in 2014 was a big yawn in…
John McGuinness and Bruce Anstey both broke the TT ZERO lap record today in the 2015 TT ZERO, held under perfect weather. Of the six finishers, five broke the ton (lap speed over 100 miles/hr) and three of them finished with greater than 110 miles/hr lap speed, demonstrating the rapidity of…
Ahead of tomorrows TT ZERO race, the final 2015 TT ZERO qualifying was held today. Thanks to Mugen not participating today, the grid had only seven bikes with the Victory Motorcycle bikes coming in fastest with a 110 miles/hr lap for Lee Johnston, and a 108 miles/hr lap for Guy…
Today, in the first qualifying round for the 2015 TT ZERO, John McGuinness unofficially broke the TT ZERO lap record with a 118.056 miles/hr lap speed. He of course set the official lap record last year at about 117 miles/hr riding the 2015 Mugen Shinden electric motorcycle. Given that his…
Over the next few days, the TT ZERO race will have several activities leading up to the TT ZERO race on Wednesday morning (Isle of Man time). Today they have a practice round, and a couple qualifying rounds are scheduled over the weekend. There’s also been some social media chatter the…
The 2015 TT ZERO electric motorcycle race is coming up — the electric companion race to all the gas bike racing during the famous Isle of Man Tourist Trophy week. A new face is having a go at the TT ZERO, Victory Motorcycles, a subsidiary of Polaris Industries. Polaris recently bought out…
Yesterday I posted a very long (nearly 10000 words) piece summarizing the TTXGP’s history. It took over 24 hours of effort to sift through all my old news reporting and pictures, to construct the summary. All that work for a dead electric motorcycle racing series may sound like I’ve lost my…
Back in 2009, three electric motorcycle racing events formed the basis of several years of electric motorcycle racing. I was privileged enough to attend two of the 2009 events, and form a relationship with the TTXGP series that let me attend several years of electric motorcycle racing events in North America…
Last night Lightning Motorcycles fulfilled a long-held promise of selling the Lightning electric superbike to paying customers. The company has raced with production-intent-prototype-bikes in events since 2010 setting a number of records. After every one, Lightning CEO Richard Hatfield promised their bikes were now on sale – a promise that’s…
Last week at the Vetter Fuel Economy Challenge in Utah, Terry Hershner became the first electric motorcycle rider to win the challenge. With new modifications to his 2012 Zero S electric motorcycle, he easily finished the 172 mile route, at 2/3rds the cost of the closest finisher. In the fuel…
The Killacycle Racing Team just set a new speed record in their class (three wheeled streamlined electric motorcycles) and for the first time in history an electric vehicle had the fastest speed at the Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials event. I don’t know much beyond a couple postings from the Killacycle…
