Victory Motorcycles To Compete In TT Zero Race

Victory Motorcycles has announced it will enter two electric motorcycles in this year’s TT Zero race on the Isle of Man. The Victory entries rely heavily on the Brammo Empulse RR bikes that Victory inherited when it acquired Brammo motorcycles earlier this year. The Victory effort is a full-on factory campaign and will feature two top tier motorcycle racers — William Dunlop and Lee Johnston.

The Victory race machines will have 150 horsepower and 166 lb-ft of torque. The both have upgraded 17 kWh  batteries, (more than what most plug in hybrids have) new motor controllers and an improved aerodynamic package to help them make it around the challenging 37.7 mile Isle of Man mountain race course as fast as possible.

According to a Victory Motorcycles press release, this will mark the first time the company has entered a European race and its first contest using an electric motorcycle. The motors for the TT Zero machines are made by Parker Hannifin, a highly regarded manufacturer that also worked with Brammo before the sale. The race will take place on Wedesday, June 1oth.

“I’m more than excited to race this prototype at the Isle of Man,” says rider William Dunlop. “Electric powertrains have many advantages, and the Isle of Man is one of the greatest tests in motorcycle racing.” Professional Rider Lee Johnston will be riding the second entry for Victory Racing at the Isle of Man TT. He says “I’m excited to make history by racing the new Victory electric race prototype. It’s thrilling to be part of the emerging electric motorcycle movement.”

If you are not familiar with Parker Hannifin, it may surprise you to learn that it has annual sales of more than $13 billion and is the world’s leading diversified manufacturer of motion and control technologies and systems, providing precision-engineered solutions for a wide variety of mobile, industrial and aerospace markets. The company employs approximately 57,500 people in 50 countries around the world.

Victory Motorcycles will host live updates and feeds from the race on its website and on its Twitter feed, @VictoryBikes. The Isle of Man always provides some of the most exciting motorcycle, automobile and sidecar racing in the world. Be sure to tune in.

Energica Ego Review | A Proper Electric Superbike

Imagine you had the choice between an Italian supermodel and that nice girl next door. Both of them like you, but the girl next door loves shopping at Walmart and it shows. The Italian? Well, you probably think she’s too rich for your blood. But all that goes out the window once you actually ride her, feeling the way her top shelf suspension components hug the curves of your favorite road, and the delicious bite from her 240mm Brembos as you brake hard from her top speed of (governed) 150mph, you know you want her. At any price.

I only had her between my legs for about 17 miles, even though I begged CRP to let me ride the Energica Ego further, and faster. Even at a staggering 568 lbs, she’s easy enough to ride. Even confidence-inspiring, as Asphalt & Rubber also said. Sure, it’s not a bike you’d flick around through tight traffic, but it performed beautifully in the tight twisties known as “The Snake“. Because I’ve primarily been riding Yamaha R1′s the past decade, I felt right at home on the bike. The footpegs were a bit too high for me (I’m 5’11), but it was a nice contrast after scraping pegs on the Zero SR the day before at Laguna Seca.

The Ego is a big bike, and I like big bikes. At 100kw, it’s got twice the motor of the SR, and 143 ft/lbs of torque vs 106 on the Zero. We were forced to sign a contract promising not to wheelie the Ego, or ride recklessly, and I did my best to hold back. We had to stay behind our ride leader the entire time. As you can see in the video, it was a fairly mellow ride:

The Ego is a very smooth ride that definitely corners like it’s on rails. It hold its line perfectly through the twisties, although I would really love to be fast enough to put this bike through its paces in the TT Zero. I rode in sport mode the entire time, with the regen set to “standard” for the first few miles. But the regen was so subtle I switched it to max, and it felt more like a Ducati, with that nice engine braking. It’s easy to switch modes on the fly, and the Ego features 4 settings for riding and 4 for regen.

The Energica Ego also sounds different than any other electric motorcycle. CRP explains the Ego has straight cut final drive gears similar to the drive train of an F1 car. Which would explain the high-pitched whine of the motor. It was novel, and sounds really badass, but I missed the peaceful silence of my Zero FX. Riding in Los Angeles is a bit stressful, so having one less source of noise vying for your attention, even if it’s your own bike, is nice.

The good news is, the Ego isn’t Desmosedici expensive. Just Panigale expensive. Well, the purchase price at least. Maintenance costs are basically $0 compared to a Ducati. CRP is hoping to get this bike to market at $34,000, while the Zero SR as I rode it, with the power tank, has an MSRP of $19,490. The maintenance costs on both of these bikes are practically nonexistent, so total ownership cost is more manageable than it would be for an Italian gas superbike.

That Price Includes Top-Shelf Components

You may recall we toured their factory in 2010, to see where the magic happens. CRP’s main business is 3D printing ultra-light parts for racing vehicles and spacecraft from their patented carbon “ink”, Windform.

This ultralight material enables them to pack more battery power into the Ego- 11.7kWh to be exact. CRP claims 31 miles of range under racing conditions and as much 93 miles of city riding. The TT Zero is 37.73 miles long, so they’re not far from making a bike that can compete there. The bike also features a reverse gear, to make it easier to park. This is nice, since the regen can really make it hard to back up even the 280 lb Zero FX.

Marchesini wheels hold Pirelli Diablo Rosso’s, my personal favorite tire brand. Brembos stop those wheels with a pair of 320mm rotors and 4 piston caliper brakes up front and a 220mm rotor and 2 piston caliper on the rear. In production, there will also be a Bosch ABS system.

This massive beast is exceptionally well handled by fully adjustable Marzocchi 43mm forks and a fully adjustable Ohlins shock. None of which were adjusted specifically for me, and I felt fine on the bike. My videographer said I looked much more comfortable on the Ego than I do on my R1. I felt more comfortable, even though it’s 140 lbs heavier. It’s just so much smoother and easier to manage the power. I thoroughly enjoyed riding this bike, and would certainly consider it as a canyon and trackday bike.

Source: Energica

Harley-Davidson testing electric motorcycles

Would a Harley still be a Harley if it didn’t have that out-of-my-way rumble and those fat, hydrocarbon-belching exhausts?

Motorcycle enthusiasts are about to find out as Harley-Davidson rolls out an electric bike — a sleek, futuristic version that sounds like a jet airplane taking off.

The public will get its first look at handmade demonstration models at an invitation-only event Monday in New York. The company will then take the models on the road for riders to try and provide feedback. Harley will use the information to refine the bike, which might not hit the market for several more years.

Harleys have long been the bad-boy bike of choice with an image associated with motorcycle gangs, even though most riders are middle-aged and middle-class. The new venture is a departure from Harley’s mainstay touring bikes and presents an added risk because currently almost no market for full-size electric motorcycles. The millions of two-wheeled electric vehicles sold each year are almost exclusively scooters and low-powered bikes that appeal to Chinese commuters.

This Wednesday, June 18, 2014 photo shows Harley-Davidson’s new electric motorcycle at the company’s research facility in Wauwatosa, Wis. The company plans to unveil the LiveWire model Monday, June 23, at an invitation-only event in New York. (M.L. Johnson/Associated Press)

But those focused on electric vehicle development say Harley has the marketing power to create demand, and its efforts to lower costs, build charging stations and improve technology will help everyone involved.

“It does validate what we’ve been doing; it adds additional credibility to it. It is certainly going to draw more people’s attention to electric motorcycles. The marketing horsepower of Harley-Davidson is going to be able to do things for us that we can’t do on our own,” said Scot Harden, vice president of global marketing at Zero Motorcycles, the top seller of full-size, high-powered electric bikes.

Zero expects to sell 2,400 electric motorcycles this year, a drop in the bucket compared with the more than 260,000 conventional motorcycles sold last year by Harley.

The new LiveWire won’t make the distinctive “potato-potato-potato” chug that Harley once tried to patent. Its engine is silent, and the turbine-like hum comes from the meshing of gears. But electric motors do provide better handling and rapid acceleration — with the electric Harley able to go from 0 to 60 mph in four seconds. LiveWire’s design places the engine at the bottom of the bike.

“When you ride a motorcycle, it’s the movement of the top of the bike side-to-side that gives you agility in regard to making turns. So, if I put weight low in a motorcycle, I can turn faster. I can drop the bike down and make quicker moves,” said Gary Gauthier, of NextEnergy, a Detroit-based nonprofit with expertise in electric vehicles.

Jeff Richlen, Harley’s lead engineer on LiveWire, put it this way: “Some people may get on it thinking, ‘golf cart,’ and they get off thinking, ‘rocket ship.’”

One hurdle Harley and others have yet to address is the limited range offered by electric motorcycles. Batteries typically must be recharged after about 130 miles, and that can take 30 minutes to an hour.

Harley President Matt Levatich said he expects technology to improve and the company is less interested in immediate demand than long-term potential.

San Jose State University police Capt. Alan Cavallo helped his department buy two Zero motorcycles and said officers have been “super happy” with the quiet, environmentally friendly bikes made nearby in Scotts Valley, California. But he said American riders who like to hit the highway would likely lose patience with the technology as it exists today.

“That’s the deal with the cars; you can’t jump in a Tesla and drive to LA, it won’t make it,” Cavallo said, adding later, “People want the convenience of ‘I pull into a gas station, I pour some gas in my tank and I go.’”

Source: Washington Post

Saroléa Relaunches Itself With Carbon Fiber Electric Motorcycle

After a 50 year hiatus, Belgium’s oldest motorcycle brand Saroléa is making a triumphant return with an electric cafe racer made from carbon fiber. Light, powerful, and sexy in an industria cafe racer sorta way, the Saroléa SP7 introduced itself to the world this past Saturday, and will make its racing debut at the Isle of Man TT Zero later this year.

The unpainted monotube frame is made entirely from carbon fiber, though the SP7 still comes in at 400 pounds. That’s due to a presumably-large battery pack that makes up most of the motorcycle’s body and an electric motor churning out 180 horsepower and 295 ft-lbs of torque. That’s more get-up-and-go than the Mercedes B-Class Electric, which tips the scales at over 3,800 pounds. This setup allows the SP7 to accelerate from 0 to 62 MPH in 2.8 seconds, less time than it probably took you to read this sentence that I deliberately drew out, but you get the picture.

Saroléa ain’t messin’ around, and they’re ready to prove it at the Isle of Man TT Zero in a little over a month’s time. They’ll have plenty of competition from an elite group of electric motorcycle pioneers, and the 2014 edition of the TT Zero already has plenty to recommend it.

The revival of an iconic motorcycle recalling the popular look of cafe racers makes it that much better.

Source: Sarolea via Autoblog Green