Last night Lightning Motorcycles fulfilled a long-held promise of selling the Lightning electric superbike to paying customers.  The company has raced with production-intent-prototype-bikes in events since 2010 setting a number of records.  After every one, Lightning CEO Richard Hatfield promised their bikes were now on sale - a promise that's now been fulfilled. For more see Lightning

Last week at the Vetter Fuel Economy Challenge in Utah, Terry Hershner became the first electric motorcycle rider to win the challenge.  With new modifications to his 2012 Zero S electric motorcycle, he easily finished the 172 mile route, at 2/3rds the cost of the closest finisher.  In the fuel economy challenge, the riders are competing to see which can complete the course at the lowest cost

The Killacycle Racing Team just set a new speed record in their class (three wheeled streamlined electric motorcycles) and for the first time in history an electric vehicle had the fastest speed at the Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials event.  I don't know much beyond a couple postings from the Killacycle team, so I'll do my best to summarize what they posted. Basically - they a) set a new

Historical streamlined race bike - the NSU SportMax from 1955 History is about to be made at the upcoming eMotoRacing event near Salt Lake City.  For the first time in decades a streamlined motorcycle will race in a sanctioned event.  If you're scratching your head and going "why's that important" we have to ponder motorcycle racing politics, and the abysmal inefficiency of regular motorcycle

Taking the shape of a muscle car from an earlier era, Renovo Motors has unveiled the Renovo Coupe all electric supercar.  The car, based on a factory-modified Shelby American CSX9000 rolling chassis ("Cobra Daytona Coupe"), has a 0-60 miles/hr time under 3.4 seconds and a top speed over 120 miles/hr.  That's faster than the Tesla Roadster, FWIW. That performance is generated by a

Energica Ego in San Francisco CRP's Energica Ego has been several years coming - in 2010, CRP came onto the TTXGP scene with the eCRP, a bike patterned after the Agni Motors entry in the 2009 TTXGP on the Isle of Man.  This was the act of a motorcycle manufacturer getting their feet went in electric bikes, and with that first effort they won titles in the 2010-11 TTXGP and e-Power seasons.  

In last weekend's Pikes Peak Hill Climb race, electric car drivers took 3 of the top 4 results in the overall ranking, and both electric car and electric motorcycle racers claimed hugely positive results.  While this isn't as stunning as Lightning Motorcycle's overall win last year with a 20 second margin over all motorcycle racers, that Mitsubishi's drivers came within 3 seconds of an overall

Bobby Goodin, R.I.P. A question in my mind since the 2014 TT ZERO (and TT) at the Isle of Man is the carnage happening in this kind of race.  The TT course, the Pikes Peak course, and some other races, are severe challenges between person, machine, and the elements.  The challenge is higher than at regular race tracks, and while track based racing see's a fair amount of injury and even death,

Harley Davidson just dropped a bombshell, stunning the motorcycle world by announcing the company's first electric motorcycle.  Instead of the obnoxious Harley Sound, the bike has the high pitch whine we know and love from electric motorcycle racing.  The bike looks awesome, and initial response in the articles I've seen have been great. Normally I'd cover this news on ElectricRaceNews, but

John Wayland of Plasma Boy Racing, builder of the White Zombie electric 1972 Datsun, has teamed up with Mitch Medford (a Texas Tech CEO) to start building ultra high end electric muscle cars.  The first car they're planning is the Black Zombie, which is a 1968 Mustang powered by twin Netgain Warp 11 motors and dual Zilla controllers.  The car is expected to deliver over 700 horsepower, about

The next major event lined up for the electric racing calender is the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.  The list of electric challengers in 2014 is smaller than in 2013, but a return entrant is Drive eO.  Last year the team ran with a custom built electric car, the PP01, but didn't finish the race.  This year, the team is returning with a Tesla Roadster sporting a custom drive train, the

Mugen shattered lap speed records in the 2014 TT ZERO, with John McGuinness (117.366 miles/hr) and Bruce Anstey (115.048 miles/hr) taking 1st and 2nd place.   They were the expected winners, and a 115+ miles/hr finish was to be expected after McGuinness' 115.598 finish on Monday, but hitting a speed over 117 miles/hr was beyond expectations.  The battle for 3rd place saw a photo finish between

Earlier today Mugen Shinden's John McGuinness shattered the TT ZERO lap speed record - it now stands at 115.598 miles/hr.  His teammate, Bruce Anstey, also broke the previous record, which had been set by Anstey on Saturday, with a 113+ miles/hr lap speed.  These two are top riders in the TT, for example Anstey set the overall lap speed record just yesterday at over 132 miles/hr.  Setting a new

The 115 miles/hr threshold has been broken in today's 2014 TT ZERO qualifying round.  Mugen Shinden's John McGuinness finished with a 115.598 miles/hr (19:35.007) lap speed, followed closely by Bruce Anstey who also broke the previous record with a 113.643 miles/hr (19:55.221) lap speed. The wet weather for which the Isle of Man is famous nearly canceled today's racing, but the IOM TT crew

John McGuinness during Friday's practice Source: IOMTT Today it was Bruce Anstey's turn to set an (unofficial) TT ZERO lap speed record.  Yesterday, Mugen's John McGuinness finished with a 111.904 miles/hr lap speed, and in today's qualifying round Mugen's Bruce Anstey finished with a 112.355 miles/hr (unofficial per live.iomtt.com) lap speed. McGuinness finished with a 109.370 miles/hr lap

Today the 2014 TT ZERO is having its first practice session on the Isle of Man.  At the bottom of this is a bunch of postings I've located on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.  The big news is that John McGuinness, riding for Team Mugen Shinden, broke the 110 miles/hr threshold, hitting a 111.904 miles/hr lap speed.  Going by the Manx Radio reporting, he rode real hard the whole race, hitting 164

The Buckeye Current team is working hard on the Isle of Man before the 2014 TT ZERO.  I stumbled across a discussion thread on a forum where the team is posting field updates. They're using the same 2006 CBR1000RR frame as before but have completely redone the battery pack, adding three more cells while dropping 30 lbs of weight.  They've also worked on the software, hopefully eliminating

Just a few minutes ago I posted an entry list for the 2014 TT ZERO that lacked an entry from home-town team ManTTX.  That team is based on the Isle of Man, and has raced in every previous running, even including the 2009 TTXGP.  It'd be odd to hold a TT ZERO and not have a ManTTX entry, and indeed while looking for data on the previous post I found a news item saying Dave Moffit was going to ride

The Buckeye Current team just posted the TT ZERO entry list - this list doesn't seem to be posted on iomtt.com, but since Buckeye Current is a competitor they obviously have access to things not published on that site.  Hopefully it's okay they posted this on Twitter ;-) Who are the entries? John McGuiness - Mugen Shinden - Team Mugen (earlier coverage) James Hillier - TBC - TBC - (?? To be

Sarolea isn't the only historical motorcycle brand being revived for the electric age, Spain's Bultaco Motors is relaunching as an electric motorcycle company.  The brand has a strong history dating back to 1958, and had many racing wins to its credit.  However, the company had shut down until the Bulto family met LGN Tech Design, a Spanish firm working on mechanical and electronic designs and

The TT ZERO is due to begin on the weekend of May 24 on the Isle of Man.  There's going to be a bunch of noisy stinky gasoline powered bikes roaming the Island, and filling the schedule with events important to those who haven't yet realized electric racing is the future.  Therefore, it's still the case that only a portion of the schedule will feature the TT ZERO activities. In the meantime

Teams are starting to arrive at the Isle of Man getting ready for TT Week.  The festivities start this weekend, on the 24th.  Here's a few pictures of/from the Mugen Shinden team I'm capturing off Twitter. We're here at Castle Combe with @MUGENSHINDENTT who are testing with @JM130TT and Bruce Anstey, fresh from the NW200! pic.twitter.com/4oqO7Ru9ZB — Bennetts (@bennetts_bike) May 19, 2014

An electric race car team in Australia just became the first team to race an electric car against gas powered race cars on equal terms.  The team, ELMOFO (electro motive force), builds high end electric cars, and has built a race car based on a Radical SR8 chassis.  With that car they entered the 2014 NSW Motor Race Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park, last weekend.  While a battery pack

Doors open on new Donington Park headquarters and team facilities LEICESTERSHIRE, UK (May 15 2014): The 10 teams competing in the new FIA Formula E Championship received their first batch of Spark-Renault SRT_01E race cars today, at the same time as the doors to their new state-of-the-art facilities were officially opened. With both projects delivered precisely to schedule, each team

Colorado Springs, May 9------------One of the top competitions at the 2014 The Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb will be the quietest of them all. The talent-heavy Electric Modified Division already includes Nobuhiro Tajima, who won the Electric Division last year when he drove his Tajima Monster Sports Special E-Runner to a blazing time of 9:46.530, an Electric record and the