World’s Fastest Electric Superbike: 125 MPH & No Carbon Emissions
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 12. 1.08
photo: The Guardian
If you live in the United States, you may have missed the announcement made last Thursday, that the world’s fastest all-electric superbike has been unveiled. Making its first appearance at the 2008 NEC Bike Show in the UK , the TTX01 isn’t commercially available yet, but it is street legal (in the UK at least), can do 0-60 in 3.5 seconds and reach a top speed of 125 mph. The price tag when a limited number are available for purchase by the end of 2009: £20,000 ($30,000).
Want to know how far will you be able to go on a single battery charge, more details? Read on:
Based Off Stock Suzuki Bike
Based on the chassis of a Suzuki GSX750, the TTX01 uses two 43 bhp Agni Lynch electric motors: equivalent to the peak power of a 600cc gasoline powered motorcycle. What’s more, the TTX01 has a an additional motor on the front wheel creating a 2WD motorcycle which gives the bike “achieve significant improvements to handling and roadholding, particularly in wet conditions.” (Gizmag)
Currently the TTX01 has 14 kWh battery packs, but the goal is to have hot swappable 20 kWh batteries which will power the bike at normal road speeds for about 50 miles. Recharge time for the batteries should be under two hours.
For the next six months the TTX01 will be on a promotional tour of Europe, before returning to the UK for the TTX GP race on the Isle of Man next June.
More: Gizmag (if you’re really into superbikes) & The Guardian (if you’re just into greener transport)
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What the CO2 emissions from the manufacture of this beast or the from the production of the electricity?
Please leave the sensational headlines to the tabloids.
there should be an economy mode selector switch that would limit top speed to say 60 mph in exchange for say 100 mile battery range. this would suit both crotch rocketeers & city commuters as well.
Richard,
IMHO "great is the enemy of good."
Better is better despite not being perfect.
For good or bad, much of our roads and cities are not bike able, and even in cities with great public transportation people want independence and continue to drive (why is beyond me, I hate driving in traffic).
We can keep driving the same ICE cars and motorcycles and wait on great public transportation or make the cars and motorcycles better in the meantime.
(FWIW, I live in a city that I feel has really good public transportation, despite not being all that bike friendly)
Not what I expected to see.
It looks like a Japanese race bike.
The quickness of the bike is amazing.
I wonder what the travel range is
on a full charge.
thanks from tony
killacycle is faster and made a year ago
>>killacycle is faster and made a year ago
The Killacycle is a purpose built drag racing bike. It is not a good choice for use on public roads unlike the TTX01.
Killacycle is a drag bike. Only good if you're world is straight, flat, and a quarter mile long.
This is a bike that can be used for personal transportation.
The bike has a speed limiter / economy selector, it's the operator's right wrist. Go slower = go longer.
Enough of this carbon beast stuff. Just limit the burning of fossil fuels.
vsk
Hooray, now we can exchange benificial CO2 for toxic ground level ozone at dizzying speeds. Hooray for progress. (Yes, I realize ozone comes from engines too).
So are people going to really exchange a Honda CBR600RR that can go forever with a 60 second 'charge' and only costs $10,000 for a $30,000 35 mile range bike? (soon to be all the way up to 50!)
I mean in reality you could get a Pontiac Wave or Chev Aveo AND a CBR600RR for the same price as that thing so that you can take the family and have a trunk when you need it and use the bike when you can.
Actually... if you just get in shape, why not just get the wave and a bicycle . . .
people are changing their habits, albeit slowly. One of the studies looked at the number of miles people drive every year. The figure rose steadily from 1998-2007, while 2008 was the first year they started to fall. In percentage terms, it’s wasn’t grand - 2.8 percent - but that’s 2.8 percent of 3 trillion miles, so 84 million miles.
we need to make roads safer in rural areas where SUVS rule the road and nobody really cares??/ in this region, in the past six months, motorcyclists were fatally injured every week with collisions with SUVs and trucks and the only ticket ever given was "failure to yield" not manslaughter...instead of concentrating on urban areas, provide safer roads where public transportation is not an option....some people are risk takers, but most will not consider biking or riding motorcycles/scooters, when their safety is at risk and local "conservative" govt which mostly operates in rural small towns, do not care!!!! survival of the fittest mentality will be the downfall of us all..when gas prices go back up there will be a mass migration to urban cores form outlying areas....it happened to a small degree last summer...that was a prelude....public transportation couldn't handle the influx....wiill we do something proactive to avoid the future calamity?? probably not....but we will STILL rescue GM and Chrysler, whose outdated philosophy led to the current issues...and whose Hummers are very destructive and whose owners do not pay the full cost of their irresponsible, selfish, behavior.....
This version is not 2WD, they spoke about the next version using 2WD (info found on gizmag). I had thought the front wheel looks too much like a stock Suzuki wheel.
It's cool to see electric motorcycles coming out. Sure, this one isn't as fast as current gasoline powered, but development will fix that. The simplicity is just SO much less than an internal combustion engine with intake, exhaust, valve actuation...
Now we just need some tofu-based racing leathers!
"Sure, this one isn't as fast as current gasoline powered, but development will fix that. "
The energy density of gasoline is so high that I doubt this will be any time soon. Even LiIon pales in comparison in energy and power density relative to gasoline.
nice bike... this will potentially bring down the level of motorbike racing and mods... no revving this m/c at the stop light, no roaring off into the night away from a disc with ze gal on ze bak...*sigh*
instead now it'll be stealth, silence, higher grip, two wheel drive two wheelers and no emissions... woohoo!!!
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You know... they could probably get even better mileage if they used the new, more aerodynamic Suzuki GSX-R chassis and body. It would shave weight and wind resistance. Why they went with the hulking late-90s gixxer body, I don't know.
"The energy density of gasoline is so high that I doubt this will be any time soon. Even LiIon pales in comparison in energy and power density relative to gasoline."
While this is true, a very important factor is the efficiency of the system. An EV is MUCH more efficient in getting its power to the wheels than an ICE vehicle. It consumes less than half the energy content to move your body the same amount. Therefore lithium batteries do not need to be as energy dense as gasoline.