Latest Posts:
Asphalt & Rubber
Tag

electric

Browsing
Racing

Officially Official: Brammo Racing at Laguna Seca

By No Comments

Confirming what we already knew, Brammo has officially announced that it will be racing at Laguna Seca in the e-Power Championship in two weeks’ time. Taking to the track with its new Empulse RR race bike that’s based off the new Brammo Empulse, Brammo will be reunited with racing rivals MotoCzysz and Team Agni (the latter has not been independently confirmed).

With the addition of Brammo to the line-up, the FIM’s e-Power Championship race at Laguna Seca is looking like the electric race of the year, as the “Flying Banana” of Lightning Motors, which is currently leading the TTXGP points standings in the US, will race at the event, along with Betti Motors who have been dominating the European rounds of the e-Power Championship.

Keep Reading
By
Bikes

Brammo Empulse – This Changes Everything

By 37 Comments

We’ve been expecting an electric sportbike from Brammo for over a month now, getting our first clues from our Bothan spies last week that the bike’s launch was imminent. Now we can officially say that the Brammo Empulse is the latest creation from the Ashland, Portland based Brammo, Inc. Continuing Brammo’s electric motorcycle offering, the Brammo Empulse represents the first production sportbike to be available by consumers. The Empulse comes in three flavors (Brammo Empulse 6.0, Empulse 8.0, & Empulse 10.0) with differing amounts of on-board power each variant.

With the Empulse 10.0 having a 100 mile range, and costing only $13,995 MSRP, Brammo is offering a potent and affordable package, and when you factor in that federal and state government subsidies that could bring that price down to around $7,000 in some states, you have a motorcycle that could change the way we think about electric streetbikes.

Keep Reading
By
Racing

Outed by Partner Press Release – Brammo Racing at Laguna Seca

By 8 Comments

Confirming what we already knew, Brammo’s plans to race at Laguna Seca just got outed by a press release issued by their partner ESX Motorsports. Discussing the company’s partnership with Brammo, ESX motorsports let it slip that it will be the promoter behind Brammo’s presence at Laguna Seca…as Brammo races at the e-Power Championship race. As a marketing company, you’d think they’d know better than to pre-empt their client’s own press releases.

Keep Reading
By
News

Brammo TTR-based Sportbike Coming

By 8 Comments

Asphalt & Rubber took a lot of flak last month when we speculated about Brammo working on an electric sportbike. Armed with more than a hunch at the time, we have been told from multiple sources that Brammo is set to debut a TTR-based electric sportbike. For added measure, we’ve also been told that Brammo intends to race the bike, which we’d expect will have various configurations, at the e-Power Championship round at Laguna Seca later this month.

Keep Reading
By
Racing

Track Testing with MotoCzysz

By 7 Comments

Over the long weekend, Asphalt & Rubber got the chance to swing by Portland International Raceway for MotoCzysz’s first track test with the 2010 E1pc electric race bike. It’s hard to believe, but this was Michael Czysz’s first time riding his creation on the track. The session was prompted by Czysz’s need to get ready to race the E1pc at the up-coming e-Power Championship race at Laguna Seca. Czysz had hinted to us several months ago that he might pilot the electric race bike at Seca, and now has confirmed that intention to race the bike himself. .

Getting to tag along during the new E1pc’s first actual track test, we got to see how the 2010 MotoCzysz E1pc compared to ICE track bikes while lapping at PIR. Observations, photos, and two videos that prove we need to get a proper camcorder in the A&R office are awaiting you after the jump.

Keep Reading
By
Racing

e-Power Could Rival MotoGP for Grid Size at Seca

By 3 Comments

With the US round of the e-Power Championship closing in upon us in two weeks, news of the grid size has begun to form. We had earlier predicted that the California rounds of the TTXGP and e-Power series would attract the largest field of competitors, when compared to the other races, and we were right. Set to go off on July 25th, with the MotoGP racing weekend at Laguna Seca, the e-Power Championship race at Seca is set to have 15 electric motorcycles or more on its starting line.

Keep Reading
By
News

MIC Launches Electric Vehicle Task Force

By 9 Comments

The Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) has formed a task force to study the issues surrounding electric motorcycles and other vehicle segments in the powersports industry. While the task force’s participants aren’t being named, almost all the major OEM manufacturers are involved, as well as most of the electric motorcycle producers. While the groups hasn’t finalized its priority list of issues, performance standards and consumer education seem to be top-billed action items for the task force, as group looks to create fair comparisons between the budding industry and entreached ICE market.

Keep Reading
By
Racing

Around the Isle of Man with the MotoCzysz E1pc

By 6 Comments

The Isle of Man TT organizers have released some on-board footage of the TT Zero winning 2010 MotoCzysz E1pc. Other than the impressive speed from the electric sportbike, what’s really noticeable about this video is the wind noise. The subject of electric motorcycles lacking the exhaust note normally associated with motorcycles has been hashed out numerous times before, but watching this video reminds us of a comment that Michael Czysz once made to us about how electric motorcycles were like sailboats.

Once you get out to the open water, and turn off your motor it transforms the experience into something else. We imagine that must have crossed rider Mark Miller’s mind at some point…before he quickly had to train his attention on the rapidly approaching street course. Check the video out after the jump.

Keep Reading
By
News

Mission Motors Raises $3.36 Million Round

By 6 Comments

Mission Motors has submitted an SEC Form D filing that shows that the San Francisco based company has raised $3.36 million in a $4.67 million investment round. While Mission Motors won’t comment on the SEC filing, the use of the funds is presumably to go towards bringing production of the Mission One and subsequent Mission motorcycles into reality, as the Mission Motors team gears up to bring its creations to market and establish a production facility.

Keep Reading
By
Bikes

Up-Close with the TT Winning MotoCzysz E1pc

By 1 Comment

Last week we got a leaked photo of the 2010 MotoCzysz E1pc, and knew the bike would be a contender in today’s TT Zero at the Isle of Man. Now that the TT for electrics is over, we can get a closer look at the machine that left the competition behind in the dust. MotoCzysz was a scratch at last year’s TT, and following that mantra the team effectively started-over from scratch for their 2010 effort. Back for 2010, there is of course the familiar MotoCzysz-designed 6X Flex front-end suspension system, but the rest of the bike centers around a revised energy package that’s been refined to engineering simplicity.

We’ve already covered how the central “suitcase” or eDD incorporates space maximizing v-shaped removable battery packs that pop-out with the push of a button. And how the entire 2010 MotoCzysz E1pc involves virtually no wiring, since everything dovetails perfectly together. We’ve also covered how the MotoCzysz D1-10 motor is replacing the three Agni motors from last year’s bike. Running off nearly 500 volts of power, the liquid-cooled IPM motor makes 250lbs•ft of torque, and generates over 100hp. The aerodynamics of the 2010 bike have been completely rethought, and employ a palatable design that achieves the aerodynamic goals to give the team a greater advantage with their limited on-board energy.

All of this is well and good, but it doesn’t mean shit if the bike doesn’t go fast.

Keep Reading
By
Racing

MotoCzysz Wins TT Zero – 96.820 MPH Average

By 12 Comments

Mark Miller took the 2010 MotoCzysz E1pc to victory today at the Isle of Man’s TT Zero race. Miller lapped the MotoCzysz E1pc around the Mountain Course with an average speed of 96.820 MPH and with a time of 23:22.890. Just shy of the 100 MPH average speed barrier, Miller passed through the Sulby speed trap going 135.300 MPH, and topped 140 MPH at one point.

Following Miller was Rob “Bullet” Barber who averaged 89.290 MPH on the streamlined Team Agni machine. James McBride finished on the podium with a 88.653 MPH average on the Man TTX race bike. Jennifer Tinmouth on the second Agni finished 4th, just seven seconds behind McBride.

Keep Reading
By