It can be yours for only $40k.
http://t.autos.msn.com/news/fastest-electric-superbike-to-debutLightning Motorcycle will unveil its LS-218 this weekend in California.
There’s a good chance you haven’t heard about Lightning Motorcycle, so before we get ahead of ourselves, a brief primer: Lightning Motorcycle makes electric-powered motorcycles. Really damn fast ones.
CEO Richard Hatfield has been on a mission to build a battery-powered bike that outperforms traditional, gasoline-powered models. The Lightning bike that’s been making headlines since 2009 is a racer, simply known as the Lightning Motorcycle Electric Superbike.
But maybe you’re not sure how far electric technology has come over the years. When we say that Hatfield’s bike has been making headlines, we mean it’s really been making headlines: It’s the world’s fastest production motorcycle, at just shy of 216 mph. During that record run, it was consuming the equivalent of 50 mpg, and on top of that, it won Pikes Peak last year, beating out everything else with two wheels; the second place bike was some 20 seconds slower. We could go on, but you get the idea. E-bikes are here to stay.
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And now you’ll be able to buy one. Set to be unveiled May 17 at the Quail Motorsport Gathering in Carmel, California, the street-legal electric superbike will be dubbed the LS-218. According to the company, it’s as easy to ride to the library as it is to the top of Pikes Peak. The bike starts at a hefty $38,888, and that price goes up as you start tacking on the options.
Either way, you’re starting with a stout 200 horsepower electric motor and three battery pack options, ranging from 12 kilowatt-hour to 20 kilowatt-hour (all at 380 volts). If you opt for the big one (which, if you’re dropping $40,000 on a bike, you probably will), Lightning claims up to 180 miles of range per charge. And remember, because it’s a motorbike, it doesn’t use as much power as a car, which means it doesn’t need nearly as big a battery. And that means that you can charge it up in two hours on a 240-volt Level 2 charger or in just 30 minutes on a fast-charge Level 3.
The bike weighs 495 pounds, and that’s light for an electric-powered superbike that will dust off all of your gas-powered buddies. Some credit is due the use of lightweight materials throughout -- the swing-arm is billet aluminum as stock, but you can get yours in carbon fiber. You can even opt for titanium fasteners. The brakes are from Brembo and the damping from Ohlins. If you’re a tech geek (and again, you probably are if you’re buying one of these for 10 times the price of a used superbike), you’ll be excited to know that you can even have a fully programmable Android display to record your record-setting runs.
If electric doesn’t quite make sense yet in automobiles, the Lightning LS-218 makes a pretty good case for e-power on two wheels.
