Fastest electric motorcycle tops 200 mph for world record

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Lightning Motorcycles SuperBike recently set a speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats as the world’s fastest electric bike, vrooming in at over 200 mph. Lightning Motorcycles set its newest speed coups at a record-breaking 215.960 mph with a best speed of 218.637 mph. Until this month's triumph, no electric motorcycle had ever topped a speed of 200 mph.

The speeds also signify how Lightning Motorcycles broke its own 2010 record of 173 mph. The bike has a Remy HVH250 electric propulsion motor, and an Ener1 battery pack. The pack provides mileage of over 100 miles on the freeway and a combined city/highway range of 150 miles. Lightning Motorcycles is taking orders on its website for the SuperBike, with a base price set at $38,888.

The price is not likely to deflate the interests of serious electric bike enthusiasts who, to parrot the Lightning Motorcycles company motto, believe that choosing to ride an electric motorcycle should not be a compromise. The company has focused on refining the technology of their electric bikes for best performance.

The company--the result of founder Richard Hatfield getting together with engineers who shared his belief that clean tech transportation can deliver high performance--continues to work out technical challenges. Its key goal is placing electronic motorcycle technology in parity with gas-powered motorcycles.

Lightning Motorcycles is especially happy with its choice of the Ener1 lithium-ion battery pack used in the record-breaking run.

The driver of the SuperBike was Paul Thede, the owner of Race Tech. Thede, who has a degree in mechanical engineering from California Polytechnic University, is known as a motorcycle suspension guru. He developed the Lightning SuperBike's suspension system. For Thede, breaking the 200 mph mark on an electric motorcycle was special not just for the numbers, he said, but because it is a step toward "green" technology.