Electric Motorcycle Hits The Racing Circuit

electric-motorcycle-hits-the-race-track

Check out that beefy electric motor hanging out where the swing arm connects to the body of this motorcycle. It’s the muscle that makes this recently completed electric motorcycle ready to race.

[Jackson Edwards] has been hard at work building this from the ground up. His goal was to make it competitive with production line motorcycles and his most recent test runs are pointing to success. The film shows off a couple of problems with the rear suspension. This actually led to him dumping the bike on a turn. He was unharmed but the control panel on the handlebars was unfortunately trashed. A bit of work fixed the handling and he was able to ride with confidence. We’re struck by how quiet the thing is as it tears past the camera at the very beginning of the video.

Sure, we’ve seen other electric motorcycles before. Those were all conversions from gas. Designing from the ground up really opened up a lot of choices not possible with a retrofit. Make sure to dig through all the posts on his blog to get the full picture.

28 thoughts on “Electric Motorcycle Hits The Racing Circuit

  1. That is awesome! I’d imagine the rider had a lot of adjusting to do. Electric motors are instant torque, unlike gas counterparts that need RPM to get loose.

  2. Hmm, with a retrofit I would assume the handling part of the bike would be dialled in, more or less. Assuming that the center of gravity and mass could be retained. Is it me or does this bike look a bit ‘long’?

      1. I understand it’s not a refit. But my point was that a refit might be a way to avoid the handling problems an completely new and untested design might bring. That’s all.

    1. There’s a lot more info on the bike on the endless-sphere forum on several different threads. His username is Farfle. I’m posting links elsewhere on this page

  3. Surely the most interesting thing if you look back in his blog is the design, machine and assembly of his own custom designed motor?
    How did that not make the front page?
    Truely is from the ground up !!!

  4. The swing arm seems too long and too flexible.
    Interesting to appearantly choose to make the swing arm pivot coincident with the motor shaft… that would keep the chain from tightening with suspension travel, which would be a good thing.
    I just can’t help but think it has way too much flex.

  5. Very interesting putting the motor inline with the swingarm pivot. I understand that this means there’s no change in chain tension with suspension compression, but most production bikes intentionally have the front sprocket below the swingarm pivot to reduce rear suspension squat under power.

  6. Being an avid sport bike rider I really like the idea of electric. They’re no 230mph monsters like my race bike but look like a ton of fun. This motard definitely looks a bit stretched out for running on a trackx probably why he’s having so much trouble with the suspension and low-sides.

  7. Always blows my mind that people will spend all that time and money on a project then not spend $20 on a tripod to show the world what they made. (Troll) Awesome bike!

  8. Interesting. Good for him to take such an eco-friendly initiative. I work at a Temecula winery and we’ve been hoping to transfer all of our vehicles to electric, I’ll have to show my co-workers this cool video.

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