Lightning Motorcycle Developing Closed Electric Model

New teardrop-shaped design could greatly increase top speed and range.

Will a fully enclosed electric motorcycle have vastly improved range? Lightning Motorcycle looks like it’s trying to find out.Lightning Design Patent

Although we’re still waiting for the promised low-cost Lightning Strike to reach production, there’s no denying the fact that the California-based firm has achieved a lot since it was founded in 2006.

For years, from its original land speed machine, which set a new electric motorcycle record and hit 218 mph at Bonneville in 2012, to getting an outright win in the two-wheeler class at Pikes Peak in 2013, Lightning has been consistently dispelling myths that electric bikes are slow. With the Strike, which is intended to cost less than $13,000, it could also kill the idea that they’re expensive.

And now there’s this; an all-enclosed bike that might be just what’s needed to sort out the range problem of most electrics.


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A teardrop-shaped fairing is a bid to improve the bike’s aerodynamics and make the most of every watt.Lightning Design Patent

The pictures here haven’t been officially released by Lightning but they’ve been published as part of a design patent filed in China. That’s where the firm has been setting up a factory to manufacture components for the Strike. The patent shows the owner is “Lightning Motorcycle” and the designer is Richard Hatfield, the firm’s CEO and founder.

There’s a clear link to the Strike and the more expensive Lightning LS-218 not only in the choice of color—blue is the firm’s signature paint hue—but in the slanted headlight design. Other than that, though, this isn’t much like any existing motorcycle, either gas-powered or electric.

Details are scant, but the bike’s length suggests the possibility of a lower, car-style seating arrangement.Lightning

It’s closest in design to some of the machines made by Swiss firm Peraves, which has sold enclosed bikes including the Ecomobile, MonoTracer, and MonoRacer since the 1980s. Those bikes have traditionally used BMW K-series engines but Peraves has also built electric versions—and all have had impressive economy and top-speed figures thanks to aerodynamics that traditional bikes can’t even dream of. The teardrop-shaped fairing is close to wind-cheating perfection, making the most of every watt.

The designs shown in the Chinese patent aren’t very detailed, so we don’t get any idea of what’s underneath that bodywork. No doubt the battery and motor technology will be shared with Lightning’s other machines, but the bike here appears to be much longer than a traditional motorcycle—suggesting a car-style seating position. There’s also no hint of how the bike stops itself from falling when stationary. The Peraves solution is to use extendable outrigger wheels, but in recent years we’ve seen self-balancing technology that could also work, notable on Honda’s “Riding Assist” concept bikes and the Lit Motors C1 prototype, which also shares a similar all-enclosed layout to the one seen in Lightning’s patent.

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