World speed record broken
By an electric motorcycle with just one gear!Though the electric motorcycle still represents a tiny proportion of the new bike market at the moment, they generating a lot of buzz.
Not long after taking out fourth place in the TTXGP at the Isle of Man earlier in the year, Mission Motor's 'One' prototype clocked an average speed of around 240km/h (150.059mph) on the Bonneville Speedway salt flats in Utah, breaking the world record.
The world's fastest electric bike, the Mission One prototype, was designed by a bloke named Yves Behar together with his company fuseproject and will evolve into a production model electric road bike being readied for 2010.
Built in San Francisco, California, the zero emission motorbikes are powered by lithium-ion batteries which provide a claimed range of 150 miles, which is about 240 kilometres.
The production Mission One motorcycle is expected to recharge to full capacity in two hours, which compares well with the electric scooter the Bikesales Network tested earlier in the year from the now defunct Vectrix.
With an average speed of 240km/h, the Mission One prototype, ridden by the company's product-manager-cum-test-rider Jeremy Cleland, reached speeds of up to 262km/h (163mph) – pretty quick for a battery-operated contraption.
"The Mission One is just an incredible motorcycle," beamed Jeremy Cleland, Mission Motors' test rider and product manager.
"This is a bike that can rip up the track at Infineon Raceway, do power wheelies at 80mph, and then come out here to Bonneville and dismantle the prior electric world speed record.
"It pulls hard all the way from zero on up to 161mph, all in one gear, with incredible torque. It's a riding experience like no other," continued Cleland.
"The important thing to understand is this is not a one-off race vehicle, this is a production prototype. It is the same bike that we raced at the Isle of Man and features the same powertrain that we will be delivering to our customers in 2010."
Just 300 Mission One electric sports bikes will be built for the 2010 model year, most of which will be sold in the US.
Mission Motors says the first 50 will be Premier Limited Edition models.
Tags
Please see our Editorial Guidelines & Code of Ethics (including for more information about sponsored content and paid events). The information published on this website is of a general nature only and doesn’t consider your particular circumstances or needs.
