"The times they are a changin", but just how fast that change takes place is the question. Stories in the press about electric motorcycles are more frequent these days. Articles about electric dirt bikes, Best Buy selling electric street bikes and a new FIM sanctioned roadracing series for electric motorcycles in 2010 have appeared in print and on the internet.The story that got the most play was about the first race at the Isle of Man TT for zero-emission bikes called the TTXGP. The race attracted sixty different teams when it was first announced, but in the end only sixteen bikes came to the Island to compete. The Pro Class was won by the Agni team who put their bike together in two months with a budget of $30,000. That compared favorably with other teams that had spent years and millions of dollars to get their bikes to the starting line.
Mission Motors is an American team that finished fourth in the pro class at the TTXGP with a speed of 74.091 MPH. A speed that was just over thirteen mph slower than the winning team. Even the Agni bike was over forty mph slower than the fastest gas powered bikes at the TT, but the TTXGP was hailed as an environmental breakthrough. The Mission team would have preferred winning to finishing fourth, but their long term goal is to produce an electric sportbike for the street.
With the TTXGP being just one step toward reaching their ultimate goal the San Francisco based Mission team moved on to the Bonneville Salt Flats to break the land speed record for electric bikes. Using the same bike that they rode at the Isle of Man the team set a new record at the salt flats with an average speed of 150.059 mph over two runs with a high speed of 161 mph in one of the runs.
Mission Motors is serious about putting their bikes on the street. The bikes they race are production prototypes, and they say that they are on-schedule to reach their goal of selling 300 street legal electric bikes by the end of 2010. If they’re able to reach that goal the times may be changing faster than we think.
Mission Motors Bonneville Salt Flats Video
