The SWIGZ Pro Racing Electric Superbike has added “world’s fastest” to its growing list of achievements with a standing start, one-mile run of 190.6 mph at the Mojave Mile Shootout event in the California desert. The previous top speeds achieved by electric motorcycles at various events are in the 170 mph range.
Although busy adapting the superbike’s electric powertrain technology for the recently announced Pikes Peak International Hill Climb set for June 26, rider and team owner Chip Yates decided to go after the one-mile top speed of the 240 horsepower electric superbike.
“I called the Mojave Mile Shootout organizers from MKM Racing Promotions and they welcomed us to their event as the first electric motorcycle to ever take part. At that point, the pressure was on for us to do our best,” says Yates.
Yet despite the team’s two-week preparation, Yates was not completely satisfied with the result. “All our models of the bike’s performance as well as the data collected from today’s runs put our top speed on a one-mile course at over 200 mph, but unfortunately I was unable to go full throttle for the whole one-mile run due to a high speed buffeting that caused some weaving of the bike similar to what slowed us a bit at Auto Club Speedway in January and February,” explained Yates.
Yate continued: “We made some aerodynamic changes to improve the buffeting but then suffered failures of both our main charger, and our backup battery charger due to high voltage spikes coming from a rented generator we were using in our pits. With no way to recharge our batteries, I was only able to make two runs. I’m disappointed about not reaching 200 mph, but I know we can do it next time out, and for now I have to be happy with establishing our superbike as the fastest electric motorcycle in the world!”
For more information, visit www.chipyates.com.
