Good. Lord. 350km/h is fast, like super fast, like suck-the-teeth-out-the-back-of-your-head super fast. And that’s world-record setting speed the Lightning Motorcycle SuperBike just pulled off at the Bonneville Salt Flats last week. Why should you care? Because you can now own one.
The Lightning Motorcycle SuperBike is the the fastest production motorcycle — internal combustion or otherwise — for sale in North America and the fastest electric bike in its class worldwide. It blew the doors off of the previous record by more than 64km/h, also held by Lightning Motorcycles. It features a Remy HVH250 electric propulsion motor, an Ener1 battery pack (reputedly good for 160+ freeway kilometres) and a range of 240km.
For reference, 350km/h is approximately triple — triple — the speed limit in most parts of the US. Plus, electric motors have this awesome ability to provide 100 per cent of the available torque the second you hit the throttle — more power off the line, higher top speed. I’ll take five.
You’ll have to put down a pretty penny to ride this pony, however. Its $US40,000 price tag is triple the $US13,000 you’d pay for a 2011 Suzuki Hayabusa — the world’s fastest motorcycle with a top speed of 400km/h, though it’s not sold in North America. You’ve got to import Hayabusas, hence Lightning’s claims of being the fastest bike available for sale in North America.
[PR News Wire via UberGizmo]