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" The level of performance at the TTX GP gave some credibility to the emerging electric-vehicle technology. Averaging 87mph on this circuit, as the Agni bike did, is no mean feat on what&amp;#039;s arguably the most demanding course in the road-racing world. The lap record with a gasolene-fuled bike is an average of 131 mph, held by a Honda CBR1000RR. But to maintain 87mph certainly demands both skill and bravery. Unlike a MotoGP race circuit, there is no gravel to run off to at the TT. Even the smallest error can be fatal. There were two classes in TTX GP: Pro and Open. In an effort to cap investment, to compete in Open class you had to be willing to sell your bike for \u00A320,000 (about $32,000) after the race. Here, we examine the top four Pro finishers, the top two Open ones and one very notable contender that didn&amp;#039;t cross the finish line.  1) Agni Motors From: U.K./India Bike number: 12 Result: overall winner Time: 25:53   The Lowdown Anglo-Indian company Agni manufactures DC motors in India that are used mainly to power go-karts for indoor tracks. &amp;quot;We entered the race to promote the motors,&amp;quot; designer Cedric Lynch tells PM. The TTX organizers put Agni in touch with the rider Robert Barber, who recommended converting a Suzuki GSX-R750 to electric power. &amp;quot;He arranged for us to buy this one without its engine. But fitting everything into the space occupied by the internal combustion engine was the biggest challenge.&amp;quot; The bike runs two DC electric motors. It had to use two because the company doesn&amp;#039;t make a single motor durable enough to take all the power this bike can create. Lynch says, &amp;quot;The two motors are simply coupled with a shaft and then drive the rear wheel with a fixed ratio. It&amp;#039;s a twist-and-go machine.&amp;quot; The false fuel tank covers the bike&amp;#039;s battery-management system.  What&amp;#039;s Next?  During the TTX, Cedric Lynch became the cult figurehead. After all, Agni won the race. Lynch says, &amp;quot;It is possible we could collaborate with a manufacturer to develop electric motorcycles for sale.&amp;quot; Sign us up. Why It Matters It won the very first electric TT, by 3 minutes 7 seconds, lapping 10 mph faster than its competitors. In terms of performance, this bike set the standard by which all future electric race motorcycles will be judged.   2) XXL Racing From: Germany Bike number: 18 Result: second in Pro class Time: 29:04   The Lowdown With almost stereotypical German efficiency, the XXL Racing team quietly went about its business and ended up second overall. Technical manager Mark Werner and rider Thomas Schoenfelder have friends in the right places. Their bike, the Xstromer, used a Siemens motor developed for Audi to be used in a prototype hybrid Audi A4. The German entry uses lithium-manganese batteries, the type used in many power tools. &amp;quot;They are heavier and don&amp;#039;t have the capacity of other lithium-ion cells, but they don&amp;#039;t need battery-management systems,&amp;quot; says Werner. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s the only battery in the world that doesn&amp;#039;t need that.&amp;quot; The XXL bike was far from the most powerful, but experienced TT rider Schoenfelder was heavily involved in the project and knew how to handle it. The bike uses a Laverda chassis and manages to hide all its minimal powertrain under the standard fairing.  Where Next? &amp;quot;The future is to build prototypes for other customers.We have already been approached. We also want to build an electric car. Cars are easy  Why It Matters Using the Siemens Audi hardware in this podium finisher illustrates how far major manufacturers have come with EV development that can easily crossover to motorcycles. Who knows how far bike manufacturers like Honda have advanced behind closed doors?  3) Team Brammo From: Oregon, USA Bike number: 11 and 26 Result: Third in Pro class and a DNF (did not finish) Time: 30:02   The Lowdown A two-bike team supported by electronics retailer Best Buy, Brammo is already in the business of building electric commuter bikes. Every team ran batteries from the lithium-ion family, but Brammo was in the minority, choosing lithium cobalt oxide (a type of lithium-polymer cell). Many teams avoided the lithium polymers because of their reputation of being volatile if overcharged or punctured. These cells are often used for remote controlled cars and planes. Brammo used 216 of them to power a single, liquid-cooled, permanent-magnet, alternating current motor. Brammo&amp;#039;s Aaron Bland claims the Racing Enertia can do 0 to 60mph in 2.5 seconds and hit a 98-mph top speed. Brammo created the race bike&amp;#039;s chassis from scratch, and based its geometry on that of current sportbikes. What&amp;#039;s Next? Brammo is ramping up production of its electric commuter, the Enertia. According to Bland, &amp;quot;The goal for this bike was to lead to more sophisticated motors and controllers. Just getting here is a success, but the primary benefit is that it&amp;#039;s pushed us to develop the bikes. The R&amp;amp;amp;D benefits have been tremendous.&amp;quot; He says it&amp;#039;s helped the company test some of the engineering and design approaches it has had in mind for a higher performance, longer range vehicle. Translation? Perhaps a bigger, more powerful Brammo is coming soon. Why It Matters The prettiest, most neatly packaged bike in the race, the Brammo showed riders of traditional internal-combustion bikes that future technologies don&amp;#039;t have to be ugly mashups or freaky concepts.  4) Mission Motors From: San Francisco, USA Number: 1 Result: fourth in the Pro class Time: 30:33   The Lowdown Powered by 14 modules of lithium-polymer cells (like those used in laptops) and a liquid-cooled brushless AC induction motor, the Mission One is the prototype of Mission&amp;#039;s upcoming electric sportbike. &amp;quot;The motor makes the same torque at 100 rpm as it does at 15,000 rpm,&amp;quot; says Mission&amp;#039;s Jeremy Cleland, who joined the company from electric-supercar manufacturer Tesla. &amp;quot;Our bike has a single-speed transmission, and the acceleration is the same at 80 mph as it is at walking pace.&amp;quot; Mission claims a 0-to-60-mph time of 3.5 seconds. It also claimed a top speed of 150 mph. But as with all these bikes, the sophisticated motor controllers--through which the throttle demands are routed--stop the bike from reaching those top speeds. If they didn&amp;#039;t, the bikes wouldn&amp;#039;t have a chance of finishing the 37.73-mile lap--they&amp;#039;d run out of juice. So, headline-grabbing top-speed claims remain just that. Aerodynamics are crucial for power conservation. So Mission dropped its early, more edgy designs for a traditional streamlined fairing to cover the custom-built chassis and huge battery packs. What&amp;#039;s Next? &amp;quot;The TT course is brutal, with elevations, jumps, bumps, twists. In a couple of months we&amp;#039;ll have a prototype built using the data from this race,&amp;quot; says Cleland. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;ll deliver our first 50 sportbikes (at $68,000 each) in the second half of 2010.&amp;quot; Why It Matters There&amp;#039;s no ambiguity about Mission&amp;#039;s mission. &amp;quot;Ultimately we want to build the fastest production electric sportbike you can buy,&amp;quot; Cleland says. &amp;quot;We want to make more than just an electric scooter. We&amp;#039;re sportbike guys.&amp;quot;  5) Electric Motorsport From: San Francisco, USA Number: 21 Result: first in the Open class Time: 34:17   The Lowdown Electric Motorsport&amp;#039;s Todd Kollin is smiling when he tells us, &amp;quot;we sell electric vehicle parts and we&amp;#039;ve sold parts to a lot of these teams, but we kept the best for ourselves. We have a really high-power AC induction system and a good regenerative braking system. The only challenge we face is that the race bike is based on our stock bike.&amp;quot; Electric Motorsport has sold 200 of its $4500 electric commuter bike, the GPRS. &amp;quot;This is a stock bike, not a racing prototype.&amp;quot; Kollin adds. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;ve basically doubled the capacity.&amp;quot; The bike is down on outright grunt compared to a lot of the competition, but the team is pleased with the bike&amp;#039;s regenerative braking system. Kollin says, &amp;quot;When you come off the throttle the motor becomes a generator--the rear wheel is charging the battery.&amp;quot; What&amp;#039;s Next? Electric Motorsport plans to build a sportbike based on its TTX racer. It&amp;#039;s called the Native and should sell for $12,500. Why It Matters With an Open class win, in a time of 34:17:30 and with an average speed of 66 mph, the Native prototype has proved that it&amp;#039;s a proper motorcycle.   6) Barefoot Motors From: Oregon, USA Number: 8 Result: second in the Open class Time: 36:23   The Lowdown Looking very much like a mid-&amp;#039;80s World Superbike, the Barefoot was one of the most thoroughly tested bikes in the race--and one of the least expensive. &amp;quot;Barefoot manufacturers electric agricultural vehicles, ATVs used primarily in wineries,&amp;quot; explains project leader Ely Schless. He says the bike uses the same Chinese-made, large format, lithium-ion-phosphate cells as the company&amp;#039;s production electric ATVs. But the motorcycle uses 30 of them for a potential top speed of 100 mph. He says, &amp;quot;We have a 50-kilowatt power system and a 10-kilowatt-hour battery pack.&amp;quot; The battery powers a rugged DC motor. Barefoot created the frame and swing arm and used a number of used Ducati cycle parts, such as wheels and front forks, to finish the bike.  What&amp;#039;s Next? &amp;quot;There are no real goals to take this into production,&amp;quot; Schless says. &amp;quot;It was a showcase of our design capabilities. We turned this around in three or four months. And we haven&amp;#039;t had to put a wrench on this thing, just charge the batteries.&amp;quot; Why It Matters Schless puts the cost of the bike at under $10,000, and the cells cost the team $3000. A fraction of what most other teams had invested, yet it lapped the demanding TT track at a 62.219-mph average and looked roadworthy (unlike some of the other budget efforts).   7) MotoCzysz From: Oregon, USA Number: 5 Result: DNF   The Lowdown This was the one bike that had everyone talking. The MotoCzysz E1pc was the most stunning creation on the grid. The race came just too early for the team, which struggled with teething problems. Still, the tech behind the MotoCzysz (pronounced &amp;quot;Sizz&amp;quot;) was nothing short of incredible. &amp;quot;How exciting is it to get on a bike that has the equivalent of 30 hp and does 60 to 70 mph? It&amp;#039;s not. I wouldn&amp;#039;t buy one, so why would I want to build one?&amp;quot; says Michael Czysz, the mind behind MotoCzysz. Instead, his bike uses three low-slung Agni-style brushed pancake motors powered by an undisclosed number of lithium-ion cells. It&amp;#039;s been reported that this bike could hit 120 mph. The cells&amp;#039; packaging is designed to be &amp;quot;hot-swappable,&amp;quot; so cells can be quickly removed and replaced with charged packs, making this process the equivalent of filling a bike up with a fresh tank of gas. The bike&amp;#039;s chassis uses technology from MotoCzysz&amp;#039;s stalled C1 990 MotoGP project. What&amp;#039;s Next? Czysz might have been embarrassed by his bike&amp;#039;s DNF, but he shouldn&amp;#039;t be. He never claimed to be an electrical expert and he took on the project with a very small team and a tight deadline. He avoided any post-race debriefs so it&amp;#039;s hard to say what happens next, but this bike is way too exciting to be shelved. Why It Matters It&amp;#039;s so early in the evolution of electric motorcycles, yet the visionary Michael Czysz has shown what can be achieved. His design is sure to inspire others. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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