In some cases, you innovate from the ground up.
Last year, MotoCzsyz’s 2009 E1PC electric bike burnt out its engine and failed to complete the inaugural TT Zero. Fast forward to 2010. The future of electric vehicles just dropped wicked science on the mountainous track of one of motorcycling’s most iconic locales: the Isle of Man. Year two of the TT Zero saw revolution.
According to Wes Siler’s popsci.com insider piece, the 2010 E1PC Digital Superbike, built by Portland, Oregon based MotoCzsyz, “packs 10 times the battery capacity of a Toyota Prius and 2.5 times the torque of a Ducati 1198 into a package that looks like something out of a 24th-century Thunderdome.” And it just won the 2010 Isle of Man “TT Zero”. Behold:
Michale Czysz's 2010 E1PC Digital Superbike
Last year, Yves Behar unveiled the Mission One, considered the world’s fastest production electric motorcycle, capable of developing 100Lb-Ft torque:
Yves Behar's 'Mission One'
The 2010 E1PC, by contrast, features a “DC internal permanent magnet motor”, called “D1g1tal Dr1ve”, “small enough to hide within the swingarm beneath the rear shock, [that] develops 100 HP and 250 Lb-Ft of torque continuously.”
Mark Miller piloted the 2010 E1PC, posting speeds of up to 135mph on his way to the win with a lap average of 96.82mph, beating #2 Team Agni’s lap average 89.820mph.
How far ahead is Michael Czysz thinking? Check out the 2009 E1PC’s dash…with onboard telemetry provided by an iPhone. Yes, an iPhone. I repeat: an…ok..you get it.
2009 E1PC dash detail, featuring iPhone
“So what’s the ultimate payoff for all this besides a one-off, priceless prototype race bike? MotoCzysz does plan to develop its own range of production electric motorcycles eventually, but right now it’s about proving ideas, inventing technology and laying the groundwork for a future electric motorcycle industry…[the] technology…could easily find a home in hybrid cars or applied to Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems that are popping up in race cars with increasing frequency. In fact, there’s a couple of distinctly four-wheeled vehicles hiding under tarpaulins in the MotoCzysz HQ right now. What they are or who they belong to Michael [Czysz] isn’t saying, but you can bet some of what you see here on the E1pc will end up on production vehicles in the very near future.”
Wired calls it “the future of cycling”…but it ain’t.
This is the future of badass.
