Motorcycles

Segway MotoCzysz wins the IOM electric motorcycle race at 99.513 mph average speed

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Michael Rutter at Braddon Bridge during the 2011 Isle of Man TT Zero race
The MIT BMW EVT machine of Allan Brew finished fourth and second in the University competition
Winner Rutter thought that the Motoczysz could have gone even quicker but held back to conserve power
Rutter, Miller and George Spence share the podium at the 2011 IOM TT Zero
Mark Miller on the Motoczysz
Mark Miller on the Motoczysz
Michael Rutter at Braddon Bridge during the 2011 Isle of Man TT Zero race
Mark Miller gets of the line on the Motoczysz
Mark Miller on the Motoczysz at Querterbridge during practice for the 2011 Isle of Man TT Zero race
Team Motoczysz lines up in reverse order to the way it finished - Miller first and Rutter second
Team Prozza's Yoshinari Matsushita and Team Motoczysz' Mark Miller during practice for the 2011 IOM TT Zero race
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The continuing progress of electric motorcycle racing was illustrated this week when MotoCzysz won the TT Zero Race at the Isle of Man for the second year running. In achieving a new lap record for electric motorcycles of 99.513 mph, the Segway-sponsored MotoCzysz E1PC went within a whisker of claiming the GBP10,000 prize for the first electric bike to lap the 37 mile circuit at 100mph at the same time as demonstrating yet another quantum leap in electric bike performance from last year's 96.820 mph average and the 2009 winning average of 87.434 mph.

Mark Miller on the Motoczysz

The MotoCzysz was clearly the fastest electric bike of the week, with last year's winner Mark Miller finishing second to his team-mate Michael Rutter, giving the American brand a 1-2 result. To cap things off, the MotoCzysz was also the fastest through the speed traps, with a top speed of 149.5mph.

The small field also included four University outfits competing for the GBP5000 University Prize, with third place outright and the first university team home going to the Kingston Ecotricity ION Horse ridden by George Spence, though considerably slower than the MotoCzysz at just 88.435mph. Allan Brew on the MIT machine was second in the university class and fourth outright.

Rutter, Miller and George Spence share the podium at the 2011 IOM TT Zero

The times might have been even faster for the winning machine had experienced TT rider Rutter not backed off to conserve power, and there's also little doubt that the bike has considerably more performance available for shorter circuits thanks to its recently commercialised d1g1tal dr1ve.

Rutter thought that the bike could have gone even quicker but held back to conserve power, though there's clearly a huge performance gap between electric bikes and the fastest petrol-engined road bikes which lap the circuit some 28% faster. Viewed another way, it's 54 years since the first 100 mph lap of the circuit by a petrol-engined bike.

View gallery - 11 images
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3 comments
Gerard Sharry
I have known doubt this is the future. Good acceleration, no vibration, very low noise, the ability to top it up from home and most important of all, low maintains. The only two down sides I can see, you cannot fuel it up as fast as a combustion engine. In addition, the battery has a very short life span and is very costly to replace. Pity that.
Peter Wade
yes i agree on the speed of topups, too slow ,itd be quicker just to exchange the batteries...a bit like \"better place\" is already doing for the e car market here in Australia
PaulYak
This story was 3 yrs ago, todays ZERO TT race will avg approx 115MPH over 37 miles, that's fantastic. 15% increase 3 yrs, another 3 yrs maybe 125 MPH, then they'll have to race the petrol versions....lol. 600s to start, then 1,000s when they get good enough. I CAN easily see the day, when electric bikes will compete and then have to be constrained to keep parity.
As per engine size regs today for racing. It'll be MAX electrical energy per race....LOL Great I can't wait, as I love most every type of racing I've seen/competed in.