The Craftmans Shop > PowerSports

A new era for Electric Bike racing on the Isle of Man

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Manxmodder:
Thanks Guys, for the input and please keep the updates coming.

 This technology is getting to the really interesting stage where it is emerging from it's fumbling infancy into a really exciting mainstream field where I believe the advance curve is going to get really steep over the next few years.

I also want to make other MadModders aware that Manx Radio TT live race coverage is available online throughout TT race week and covers all races.

Below are a couple of images of the Honda RCE concept which was first shown at the Tokyo Motor show in late 2011.

Honda haven't showed their hand as yet,but they do have a strong developmental partnership with Mugen and I imagine it won't be to long before Honda unveil a top class racer carrying their own badge.

Cheers, OZ.

OzzyRob:
I'd never looked at the "dry weight" of the elctric bikes before.....up around the same weight of a ZZR-1100 from the early 90's. Hat's off to the lunatics that can throw them around for that long.

Manxmodder:
Rob,there are a number of emerging energy storage technologies in the pipeline that will bring far greater energy density vs battery weight,Lithium sulphur batteries being one of the recent ones.

As I said earlier, the whole development curve is about to get very steep indeed and what we may see in 10 years from now could realistically challenge and exceed the internal combustion engine technology performance of the day.

OzzyRob:
It's getting there, ableit slowly, I guess it will more or less folow the development curve of the IC engine.

Manxmodder:
Rob,I may be viewing things from a slightly different perspective,but I actually believe the development is getting there rather more quickly than many people are aware and the leaps forward are often so quick in succession that the development curve is often close to leapfrogging itself.

Below I have attached some photos I took at an introductory test day in January 2009 here on the Isle of Man.

The basis of this introductory test day was to assess the viability of establishing and promoting an Isle of Man TT race class specifically for zero emission electric race bikes.

The history of the event goes something like this. The first years race in 2009 was held under the TTX GP organisers banner but due to a break down in commercial negotiations to run future years events TTX GP withdrew from organising the race soon after the 1st year.

It was decided by the powers that be that this new form of racing had great potential and the 2010 event and all since have been organised and run by the Isle of Man Government's Department of Economic Development with input from the ACU and TT development team,headed by Paul Phillips(TT Development Officer)

I attended that original introductory test day because I believed at the time that this was a very appropriate addition to the TT race schedule as the TT races have always historically been about development and improvement of the motorcycle breed,though I have to say it had many doubters and detractors at that early stage.

If you take a quick look at the attached photos and compare them to some of the purpose built electric racing exotica we see today you would surely agree that the development has been on a fast track forward over the past 3 or 4 years,and I personally see that intensity continuing for another 5 years at least.

The bike in photos is a GSXR 750 chassis fitted with an electric propulsion system and was typical of the sort of machines we saw at the first race in 2009.....OZ.

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