The present transportation scenario is going under transmogrification. Endeavour to create fuel efficient and powerful engines resulted in rise of diesel, hybrid and electricity powered vehicles. Despite, its fuel efficiency and economy, the electric engines were criticized for low power. But, this didn’t hampered the spirits of Chip Yates, who believed that electric motorcycles are for real and at par with the league of superbikes available in the market. Recently, he hit 190.6 mph on his electric bike during the Mojave Mile. During the act he surpassed his previous record by a full 17 mph.
A hardcore lover of electric bikes, Yates is still not satisfied with his performance and believes that with some computer modeling his bike can reach a top speed of 200 mph. He along with his Swigz.com Pro Racing crew is working hard to break the 100 mph mark. Few days back, he upped the bike’s output to 240 horsepower (and 365 pound feet of torque) to improve the power to weight ratio of the 585-pound machine to participate in the WERA Heavyweight Twin Races. He faced superbikes like Ducati 848, KTM RC8 and Suzuki SV650. During this course this bike hit 158 mph at one point to post a fastest lap of 1.39.792.
All said and done, this milestone was not achieved overnight. Diligent efforts and “never say die attitude” did it for Yates. He had to add a custom fairing to minimize drag, thus, attain high speed. In order to handle the torque while spinning at 8,500 RPM, he tweaked the motor controller software and installed a custom jackshaft and sprockets. For additional voltage, he also added a booster pack to the battery. Yates has been very optimistic that electric vehicles can lay down extreme performance as his bike hit a dyno speed of 227 mph during stress testing. Now, he is sole aim is to take on Pikes Peak and repeat his win in 1995. Yates and his team have proved that electric bikes can compete directly against gasoline powered vehicles if properly designed and executed.
Via: Autotopia
