Lightning breaks records at el Mirage in shakedown run for new LS-2?? electric hyperbike
; Date: July 20, 2017
Tags: Lightning Motorcycles »»»» Land Speed Records »»»» Electric Motorcycles »»»» Electric Racing
Lightning Motorcycles can rightfully claim to produce the fastest production motorcycle in the world, an all-electric bike dubbed the LS-218. The name was earned in August 2012, when Lightning set a land speed record at Bonneville of 218 miles per hour.
The record was actually 215.960 miles/hr averaged over two runs with the faster run being 218 miles/hr, forming the basis for the bike's name. The next year they took the bike to the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb race, and beat the entire motorcycle field by over 20 seconds. That bike was one of a handful of prototype bikes Lightning built for racing, and the company now sells a production version to the public.
Lightning's engineering team has been at work on two tracks -- One is developing the manufacturing expertise required to produce motorcycles -- The other is to develop a new prototype bike. The team plans to take this new bike to the Bonneville speed trials this summer where the team intends to set a new land speed record, and the new bike will be named after whatever speed it attains. In the riders seat is a leading land speed record holder, Jim Hoogerhyde.
In their "shakedown run", at the El Mirage track in California, they recorded a 211.730 miles/hr record from a standing start. The standing start is a different format than is used at Bonneville, which uses a "flying start" where racers are timed over a 1 mile stretch in the middle of a longer run. In November 2012, Lightning recorded a 189 miles/hr standing start speed at El Mirage compared to the 215.590 miles/hr record at Bonneville. Does this imply they might hit 250 miles/hr at Bonneville?
The company has long used racing as the cauldron within which to develop their motorcycles. They achieved many wins in earlier years, but the last couple years their racing program took a back seat to the priority of building bikes for customers. Lightning has long promised a range of motorcycles targeted more typical usages than racing, such as the daily commute. This press release repeats that promise. At their shop I've seen several prototypes such as an urban-oriented scooter, and a street bike meant for every-day riders.
Previously, Lightning had partnered with Remy for the motor and Ener1 for EnerDel batteries. In this press release Lightning names Farasis as the battery partner. That company has supplied super powerful battery cells to several electric racing teams.
On Sunday, 7/16/2017 Lightning took its never before run prototype LS-2?? RR to El Mirage, for a first ever shakedown run. What is the result?
SAN CARLOS, CA (PRWEB) JULY 20, 2017 In August 2012 Lightning brought its new electric super bike to Bonneville speed week and left with a record two-way average speed of 218 miles per hour making it the fastest production bike in the world.
In June 2013 Lightning brought its electric super bike, the LS-218 to Pikes Peak to compete in the Iconic Race to the Clouds and succeeded in beating all the other motorcycles to the top, electric and ICE, by a margin of over 20 seconds
On Sunday, 7/16/2017 Lightning took its never before run prototype LS-2?? RR to El Mirage, for a first ever shakedown run. The 211.730 mph first run was the second fastest among 90 purpose built land speed record racing vehicles running during this event and broke Lightning’s own standing start mile record of 189 mph set in 2012 with our production LS-218.
With this first, record setting test completed, Lightning is now targeting SpeedWeek at Bonneville, August 12-18, to determine just how fast this new production RR edition of the Lightning production HyperBike will go. Lightning is targeting the replacement of the two question marks in our new bikes name, with maximum speed numbers from our official time slip. Lightning's new design has the potential to smash our own production bike world speed record of 218 mph.
"Our rider, Jim Hoogerhyde, has an impressive resume of race wins and landspeed records himself", said Richard Hatfield, Lightning CEO, "but Bonneville Speed Week in August is lining up to be a special event. We look forward to working with Jim to replace the ?? with an exciting number for our LS-2?? RR".
What makes this extraordinary bike even better, even faster, is Lightning’s cutting edge, higher density battery pack developed in collaboration with Farasis. The new battery technology powering our next step in electric drive systems provides a torque “Curve” that is not a curve at all. The dyno chart shows a straight line from 100 rpms to 9,500 rpms. This new drive package along with a lighter more stable chassis design results in the most powerful and most ride-able bike we have ever built.
At one time, being as good as a comparable ICE bike was considered the highest goal to be attained by any electric bike. For Lightning “As good as, is not good enough.” The Lightning LS-218 proved that we could deliver on that concept by setting the world speed record for any production bike.
In August, at Bonneville, the LS-2?? RR will be even better, even faster.
Innovation is Lightning's DNA and drives our passion for building the best motorcycles in the world. At Lightning, that innovation, that drive for excellence, is not limited to the LS series of Super and Hyper bikes, it is in the design, the technology, reliability, ride-ability and the amazing fun factor of all our bikes.
Lightning will soon reveal its additional line of motorcycles. All of them were designed and engineered with the idea that being as good as the ICE bikes in each of their categories was not good enough for our bikes, and we think you will agree.
Stay tuned for more world records, and more very exciting bikes from entry level to Hyper bike, from Lightning Motorcycles, the Most Technologically Advanced Motorcycle Company in the World.
