A really great lecture from BRD at Dartmouth, and why they feel their bike makes so much business sense, as well as more insight into their design.
And, they posted this on their Facebook page. (more…)
Archive for January, 2012
Standard fair in this little article/press release thingy from the Ilse of Man folks 4 days ago. Just a quote from the title sponsor, SES, about how excited they are that this will probably be the year the “ton” is broken.
The official 2012 TT Zero page is here. This year the event is from the 26th of May to the 8th of June.
We now have an editor thanks to a long time acquaintance-type-person (is there an, “it’s really complicated” button around here?) who likes poking at all of my grammatical errors. I have decided to put her skills to use, and she has agreed to be my editor. How it is really going to work, I have no idea. But WordPress allows for such a position. For now, I am just going to put up posts and picture her scrambling everyday trying to keep up with it all (hehehe).
“50 mpg at over 200 mph.” That’s right. That, is how Lightning rolls!
Posted: January 25, 2012 in Manufacturers, Teams
Richard Hatfield took this pic! Yes, I AM that cool! Ok, maybe not. 
I saw this MotorcycleUSA.com article last week, and shortly there after the impossible happened . . . I got an e-mail from Lightning! [Que dramatic music]
PR is not their strong suite, but making the fastest electric motorcycles on the planet is (sorry Chip). It is a great article that covers stuff you’ve heard here, and some stuff I’ve heard but held onto. The basics are they will be racing the NA TTXGP and the TT Zero this year (yeah!). And, they are designing a new , from what I’ve been told, really really cool street look for the bike. I am pretty certain that it will still be front end heavy as, from this article, it appears it will only be a cosmetic change. But you can have one for $40,000. Also, they are working on an $8k-$12k (read: Cheaper than the Empulse 10.0) street bike to be released the first half of next year.
We know from the interview with Ted Rich that they have worked really hard on getting the Flying Banana Mk II dialed in. Most of the effort has been in the ergo and handling department. Other than a weight bias that is a bit too far forward, that would take a complete redesign to fix, Ted felt they got the bike really dialed [edit: check the 1 hour 3 minute mark here]. Apparently the forward weight means you sacrifice corner entry speed, but can just nail it coming out of corners. I think I could deal with that considering the high powered bike (of the 2 development bikes) has 240hp.
Yep, that’s a quirk [edit] I could definitely live with.
The biggest news is that Brammo was approved for local funding to help with their expansion. All the details are in their blog post. Basically it will be a local R&D center with manufacturing capabilities, employing about 200 new employees. They are hiring right now, but pretty much only engineers. This facility will include a dirt track for testing their dirt bike and Polaris/Brammo EV ATVs. The dirt track will also serve as a demo for their Brammo Parx system they bought from Quintana. The dirt bikes will show up first at the parks, and then be available to consumers, according to the podcast interview I just posted with Brian.
So, look for them to definitely release the Empulse (everyone is saying shortly, and really they are dying to tell us) and the Enertia Plus. Also, the Brammo Parx system should break ground this year with the dirt bikes for rent at the track, and then available for purchase. Both the Encite (MMX) and Engage (SuperMoto and MX?). Plus, we can be fairly confident they will be showing up to the NA TTXGP series this year, and we may even see a stab at the TT Zero (but don’t stop crossing your fingers now). If they do get to develop the Empulse RR with the new 160hpish motor, look for it to be the most solid bike on the grid. Obviously everyone will be developing their bikes, so who knows where they will all fall. But if Mission sits on their hands and runs the ’11 bike, like is rumored, don’t be surprised if the Brammo is faster.
All in all, as Brian said in the interview, it’s an execution year for them. And they are nothing if not ambitious.
So it’s been 1000 days since the first TTXGP race on the Isle of Man in 2009. And, the third year of the series saw some growing pains, some really painful ones. But there is a lot of good news that just keeps coming out. First the 1000 day video is pretty cool, you have to admit, but the TTXGP and Mavizen are working with the ALMS and it’s sanctioning body, Dryson racing, and Quimera to come up with 3 new classes of EV car racing, an open wheel, LMP type, and GT type classes along with TTXGP rounds for a full day of EV racing. And fast racing to boot, with the GT class being limited to something like 850 hp, the LMPs to 650ish, and open wheels 350 hp. This could be a boon to British tracks that are facing harsher and harsher noise restriction rules. Think Laguna Seca, but for the whole country.
All this and hints that the TTXGP will probably be expanding it’s series this year, not just in the number of races, but possibly the number of continents as well. The UEM sanctioning the TTXGP in Europe is helping them secure tracks (as the AMA/FIM NA did last year, although, whether they did it to help or control the TTXGP remains to be seen. It probably depends on how successful the TTXGP is, and how much the AMA doesn’t want to, or can’t offer an electric class) and means the 2012 schedule will be released shortly! The race will then be on to see which series, the FIM or TTXGP, will maintain it’s claimed schedule the best.
And last but not least, race videos from Laguna Seca and Karlskoga: (more…)
Well, I’ve been off my game enough that I have to do an update post.
If you blinked you missed Zero launching a cross country demo program as they drove the bikes to the New York IMS show on the past weekend. Seriously Zero!? I barely heard about it, and I’ve applied to their media program thingy. Heck, I got an e-mail from Lightning Motorcycles in that time frame! This is a big huge ball dropped on the part of Zero’s marketing department. Mind you, this comes from the same marketing department that doesn’t think racing has any marketing value. Hate to tell you, but racing only doesn’t have any marketing value when you have already spent years racing and winning like Harley Davidson did back in the early days. Although, they seem to find racing useful for R&D (well, duh!).
Normally an “A” or “B” scorer in my marketing grade book, this was an F.
However, the 2012 bikes are in dealers! Hollywood Electrics has tons of photos up on their Facebook page, and from the looks they have been flying out the door. As a matter of fact a new study was released on the elmoto market, and Zero ranks #1 in business planning and execution. The bikes look great, and now go far, but watching the video below, they still seem a bit toy like. A great choice for my short Mom though.
TTXGPod Episode 4: Interview with Brian Wismann of Brammo (full)
Posted: January 24, 2012 in Manufacturers, Podcast, Teams
Stolen from his Facebook page.
Not to toot my own horn, but I think this is the best interview anyone has have ever gotten out of Brammo. Or better yet bothered to get. The interview starts somewhere after minute 30.
2-4 year motorcycle industry cycle meet 3-6 month electronic industry cycle. Have fun you two!
Posted: January 19, 2012 in Blah, blah, blah-
Hello all. Sorry I’ve been quiet lately, but life has needed attention. I am working on getting a decent paying job for a change, and prioritizing what I spend my money on. You know, thinking about how I’ll spend my money before I get it.
I have been looking at getting an Asus Transformer Prime specifically for blogging and podcasting, especially from race tracks (hopefully). The original came out almost a year ago, the new Prime came out over the holidays, with a 3G version rumored for Q1 of this year for at least a few minutes, and then an even higher level due out in Q2 this year. And, you can’t even get a Prime, at the moment.
This made me think of EVs in general. The Automotive and motorcycle industry move at 2 to 4 year model cycles. It used to be everyone came out with a new version of their bike every 4 years. Then the sport bikes, specifically, were all of a sudden in 2 year cycles. But bikes like the VFR left the same for 7 years, in Honda’s case. And when was the last time we’ve seen a new Goldwing? These things take a long time to redesign and get ready to put in production. Molds have to be made and new tooling to be purchased. In contrast, in the electronic world there are things like the Asus Transformer, that has a new one or version on the market every few months, and the old one is or almost out of date when the new one comes out. Apple iPhone anyone? (more…)
New Year’s Resolution: I have an Agenda! That’s right, I said it.
Posted: January 10, 2012 in Blah, blah, blah
Me trying to take off with the RR at Miller. Stupid track stands!
It’s funny when you say or tell someone you have an agenda. The social implications are quite nefarious, even if you mean it more in a literal or logical sense. But I do, I have an agenda. (more…)
