Electric Motorsport GPR-S

With all the buzz around Brammo selling it’s Enertia at Best Buy, Mission Motors technologically advanced superbike and former MotoGP hopeful MotoCzysz surprising jump into the world of electrics, Electric Motorsport has not received the press it should. Their GPR-S model is a practical UJM styled bike you can buy for $8500 making it one of the least expensive production electric street bikes currently for sale. Electric Motorsport began selling electric scooters in 2001 and has been selling the GPR-S since October 2008. With so much experience building electrics it’s no wonder they won the Open class of TTXGP at the Isle Of Man TT. They know electric bikes and know how to make them reliable with the current motor, battery and controller technology. The best part is you can buy one today.

The production version of the 285 lb GPR-S has a 70 MPH top speed and a range of 60 miles when set to economy mode. It uses an industry standard motor mount which will allow you to upgrade or swap out the Etec DC motor for an AC unit and even add regenerative braking if you want. Many of these parts can be found in the Electric Motorsport store. Recharge time is 4 hours but buying an optional speed charger will bring it down to 1.5 hours.

After the TTXGP Todd Kollin, Electric Motorsports’ CEO, sold the Native race bike to the Isle Of Man government for $20,000 British Pounds (roughly $32,800 USD). It is now on tour to places like the Good Wood Festival of Speed along with the TTXGP Pro class winning Agni Motors bike. These two bikes are forever a part of history and it will be interesting to see where they end up.

Last weekend Electric Motorsport was at Leguna Seca for the ReFuel EV race where they took second place behind an AC powered go cart with high rate Lithium cells. They were the fastest electric motorcycle at the event ahead of the PMW Shocker. I found some video of the event and it appears they entered their Pro class entry. This bike never made it to the TTXGP. I have not heard an explanation for why but I am glad it is on the track now.

This weekend, July 24th to the 26th Electric Motorsport will be at Mid Ohio for eGrandPrix at Vintage Motorcycle Days at Mid Ohio. They are one of the few teams from the TTXGP that will attend the event. Zero Motorcycles will also be there. PlugBike.com will be there checking out the action. Look for updates on Electric Motorsport / Native Cycles next week along with other highlights from the eGrandPrix.

Electric Motorsport GPR-S specs:

Motor:	Electric Motorsport RT
Peak Power:	19 HP
Battery Capacity	3.3 kWh
Top Speed:	60-70 mph (Gearing Adjustable)
Range:	35 / 60 miles (Power / Economy)
Brakes:	Dual Hydraulic Disk
Charge Time:	4 hours with stock on board charger or 1.5 hr W/ Optional speed charger with integrated BMS.

Source: Native Cycles, Electric Motorsport

Electric Motorcycles And Powersports On Twitter

I’ll tell you what;  I have a lot of admiration for full and part time bloggers. It is not easy to crank out one post a day much less 2, 3 or 4. AutoBlogGreen, David Herron, Environmoto, Brammo Fan, Asphalt and Rubber and others are all rock’n it in the 2 wheeled ev world with great posts. (hint: add to rss reader) I’m working on becoming a regular blogger and will get there!

If love twitter, please skip to the list below :D

Luckly when news gets slow there is Twitter. Please forget the Twitter cliché’s. Many people wander onto Twitter without a purpose and say “huh? Lame”. There is just way too much information unless you know how to filter out the noise and hone in on what you are interested in.

If you read this blog you are into a very targeted niche. People who are fanatical about certian niches will read everything in existence about it and tell you what they think is worth reading into further.  They do this by posting a link to it on twitter with a short summary of why it’s worthy.

Today happens to be “Follow Friday“. On “FF” Twitter users will mention other users they feel are worth following and add a #followfriday or #FF hash tag in the tweet. The hash tag gives the tweet a keyword makes it easy to search for.

So, here is my #FF for people who are into Electric Motorcycles and powersports in general. I’m sure I missed a few and I will add to this list over time so please message me (put @skadamo in a tweet) on twitter of leave a comment with your suggestions…

Electric Motorcycle General
@skadamo (me)
@brammofan
@environmoto
@elmotonet
@tgintz
@ElectricRiders
@PlugBike :D

Brammo
@brammoCraig
@adriangstewart
@johncfarrisjr
@brammosays
@brammodesigner

Elmoto Motorcycles
@elmoto

Mission Motors
@MissionMotors

Quantya
@Quantya
@QuantyaUSA
@QuantyaSwiss
@soundspeed

Zero Motorcycles
@ZeroMC
@ZeroMotoCan
@CBXMan
@MUEV

Xtreme Green Products
@xgpinc

Racing
@ttxgp – TTXGP / eGrandPrix Organizers
@bullet39 – Rob Barber of Team Agni
@torkindia – Team Tork India
@CoolWorldTeam

General EV
@VisForVoltage
@autobloggreen
@evworldeditor
@evcast
@tomraines
@wwwatts

Journalists – People who follow and write about 2 wheeled EV’s:
@7genblog
@jkorz
@domenick_y
@PopSciGuy
@lynneluvah
@HellForLeather
@Asphalt_Rubber

Hash Tags
Here are some twitter keywords you can monitor. Search for them at http://search.twitter.com/ and subscribe to the search in your RSS reader. Or you can download TweetDeck and set up a search for the tag.

#behindbrammo

Who’s Idea Was The iPhone Dashboard?

MotoCzysz captured the attention of motorcycle and gadget geeks a few weeks ago when they displayed pictures of their E1pc Digital Superbike sporting an iPhone dashboard. Who could help linking to something so cool and practical and showing all your friends? The picture received a lot of attention.

I finally sat down this morning to watch a May 26, 2009 Google Tech Talk episode where Zero Motorcycles CEO Neal Saiki explains the engineering behind the Zero S and Zero X electric motorcycles. Neal’s a laid back  guy who speaks very calmly until he starts talking about his desire to incorporate a Google Phone or iPhone into Zero bikes. Suddenly he looked like a kid opening a Wii on Christmas morning. He explained…

Maybe you could make a phone call, get your maps, where your going and also have your speed readout, trip distance, things like that…

Did MotoCzysz watch this video and think hey, that’s a good idea or did they think of it themselves? It makes little difference but the exciting thing is eventually we might see an iPhone or Google Phone used as the default interface for motorcycles and other vehicles.  The potential for integration of electronics into electric motorcycles is high on the minds of electric motorcycle manufacturers. The Brammo Enertia will have an API, wifi and GPS integration when it goes on sale at Best Buy this month.  They have also talked about adding periferals such as a video camera to the bike. Mission plans to have real time data acquisition and use a USB key to allow the user to tune engine braking and other performance characteristics of the Mission One.  It truly is an exciting time for geeks that ride.

Here is a chop of the video:

Source: YouTube

Brammo Training The Geek Squad

There are only a few days left before the Brammo Enertia goes on sale at Best Buy at a select number of stores on the west coast. Part of the preparation involves training the Geek Squad to work on them when they need maintenance. No word yet on how much of electric motorcycle their tools will touch but CEO Craig Bramscher says the service and warranty will be “disruptive”. (A term Brammo often describes their company and business model)

Replacing electical components should not be to difficult for the Geek Squad.  However, working on brakes, wheels and suspension would be a much steeper learning curve.

The Brammo Enertia will be sold along site the Segway, the Ultra Motors A2B electric bicycle and some Currie Motors electric bicycles. Brammo hopes to tap into a vast audience of people who have wanted to ride but were intimidated to learn. Most ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) motorcycles have gears, clutch, choke, hot exhaust pipes and engine noise to put a novice riders nerves on edge. Brammo hopes the Enertia’s simplicity and user friendly nature will allow it to change the motorcycle world the way Honda did in the 60’s when they rolled out the “You meet the nicest people on a Honda” campaign.

The user friendly nature is only part of Brammo’s disruptive plans. The bike also has an API, GPS and is wifi enabled. The wifi will not be active when he bike rolls out but owners will get a free upgrade later. CEO Craig Bramscher has hinted at cool features that use GPS positioning and periferals such as a video camera to document your ride.  He is also open to your ideas and almost always responds so drop him a line on twitter @brammoCraig.

Today I will be picking up my iPhone 3GS and wondering how Best Buy will change as it moves toward electronic transportation sales. Will we see electric cars at “Best Buy Motors” some day? Brammo may be paving the way to just that type of disruption.

Picture Source: Brammo Fan, @brammoCraig

FIM Electric Motorcycle Race Series For 2010

Many motorsports fans were skeptical of Azhar Hussain’s plans to bring electric motorcycle racing to the Isle of Man TT with the TTXGP. Calls for variety in the IOM TT had been shot down in the past. While many wanted to take a step backward to 2 strokes and more capacity variations Azhar and the IOM TT committ chose to take a leap forward. Many teams stepped up with amazing all electric motorcycles in a short amount of time to compete in what some say was the most important race in the world.

The FIM was on board with TTXGP and now they are starting their own electric motorcycle race series.  This should be great for the progress of electric motorcycles. As Mission Motors mentioned in their TTXGP recap, months of R&D happens in a short amount of time when you race.

The TTXGP Press release summarizes the new series saying…

The FIM Series for electric bikes will provide an international platform for the development of electric bikes and the technology behind them to be tested in an exciting and challenging way. It aims at driving low-carbon technological innovation forward, to demonstrate that clean-emission transport technologies have matured and can be fun, fast and exciting.

Dates and times are being worked out. This should give us some time to clear next summers schedule and plan to hit as many races as possible.

Full Press Release: TTXGP

TTXGP Documentary Coming Soon

Some good footage of the TTXGP is turning up on youTube. Brammo recently released high quality footage of their two all electric TTR’s circulating the island circuit. One shot Amadeus_IOM took after TTXGP qualifying reminded me that Mark Neale (director of Faster) is working on a documentary of the TTXGP that will air on Discovery Channel.  Notice the video camera and boom mic in the shot. Whether that is the film crew working on the documentary or not I hope we see the footage they put together soon.

I will try to track down the link but I remember a mention that Discovery Channel visited Brammo offices and are working on a documenatary. Not sure if Neale was involved.

TTXGP Rider Interviews After the Race

The official TTXGP results are posted along with a video from race day and interviews with the riders and team members. Most riders interviewed over the last week seem surprised at the power of the bikes and how much they enjoyed riding them. Keep in mind some of the entries were not complete and track worthy until the week before the race. As some of the comments on previous posts here explain, Mark Miller did not ride the MotoCzysz E1pc until the first practice lap 6/9.

TTXGP Year 0 Results (2009)

The TTXGP zero emissions race is complete. I’m sure most everyone who reads this blog has seen the results. What an exciting addition to the world of racing!

Amazing performance by the winning team, the teams who finished, the teams who made it to the starting line and the teams who attempted to enter the TTXGP. Reading and watching the teams prepare their ground breaking bikes and plan the race in such a short amount of time was inspirational.  I can’t wait for year 1 and everything that will happen in the world of electric motorcycles before then. Thanks TTXGP for organizing a great race!

Below are some links to the TTXGP results. (Caution, spoiler!)

2009 TTXGP Results

1. Rob Barber (AGNI) 25m 53.50s, average speed 87.434mph
2. Thomas Schoenfelder (XXL Racing Team) 29m 04.93s, 77.841mph
3. Mark Buckley (Brammo) 30m 02.64s, 75.350mph
4. Thomas Montano (Mission Motors) 30m 33.26s 74.091mph
5. Chris Heath (Electric Motorsport) 34m 17:30s 66.022mph
6. Paul Dobbs (HTBlauva) 36m 10.63s 62.575mph
7. Chris Petty (Barefoot Motors) 36m 23.06s, 62.219mph
8. John Crellin (TORK) 37m 26.01s, 60.475mph
9. Stephen Harper (Brunel) 56m 27.89s 40.092mph

BEST BUY PRO CLASS

1. Barber
2. Schoenfelder
3. Buckley
4. Montano
5. Dobbs
6. Harper

OPEN CLASS

1. Heath
2. Petty
3. Crellin

AutoBlogGreen

V is For Voltage

Hell For Leather

Check out this twitter search for TTXGP pictures and comments starting at about 04:45 CST (-5 GMT) 6/12/2009

@amadeus_IOM has some great photos from IOM TT and TTXGP

Please feel free to leave any other links to results and pictures in the comments and I will add them to this post.

Will We See Evo Design In TTXGP?

Absent from TTXGP qualifying was the Evo Design EV-0RR. MCN reported the reason is the bike was not ready. There is a rumor that all entries will be able to race tomorrow regardless of if they qualified or not. It would be great to see the Evo Design bike on the circuit as well as some of the other bikes teams have built quickly over the last year. We will look for a decision today.

MotoCzysz Qualifies For TTXGP Race

Yesterday, June 10 was the second and last day of qualifying for the final TTXGP race being held tomorrow. Based on comments from the field, a rumor developed that MotoCzysz did not qualify for the final. I was hoping this was not the case and a fan/photographer on the scene confirmed it was not. MotoCzysz apparently crossed the finish line with little power left. We now have MotoCzysz side of the story.

Reader tgintz left the following comment on my previous TTXGP Pictures post…

Just recieved this from the MotoCzysz team:

Concerning the second practice …. “This time we passed every other team and were blazing in for the fastest lap of the field when the controllers went into current limitation with sagging batteries just one mile from the finish line. Our rider, Mark Miller, stopped the bike and tried to figure out what was wrong as the rest of the teams passed, then decided to get back on and give it another go. By then the batteries had rebounded sufficiently to give him his last mile, ……and he crept in at only 13.8 mph! On the other hand, he qualified us for the race on Friday, and the bike absolutely ripped most of the way round. ……..we’re looking very good.”

MotoCzysz qualified…

This is great news, thanks tgintz for the update! MotoCzysz has wowed us repeatedly over the last 5 months with blog posts and videos of progress on their D1g1tal Superbike. It sounds like they will work through the issues and give Team Agni and the rest of the field a run for their money. I hope next year someone sets up a live stream of the event here in the states or more people are on the scene to blog details quickly. That would do a lot to get the fanatics like us accurate information quickly. Luckily this “year 0” we have Amadeus_IOM to keep us up to date with pictures. Here are a few of the MotoCzysz E1pc during TTXGP Qualifying round 2:

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