Whether we like it or not, electric motorcycles are making solid progress not only in the industry, but in the road racing segment, as well. The recent victory Brammo took in the AHRMA Sound of Thunder class is a sign than things are heading in the right direction, especially since among the losers we can spot machines like the Ducati Panigale. Adding the success the Brammo bikes have in the FIM eRoadRacing Championship makes us wonder if Brammo is ready to take the next step.
Most of the big, old manufacturers which can engineer a superbike are shelving an RR version, usually in the superbike class. Whether we’re speaking about liter-class machines or bikes equipped with bigger engines, everybody seems to enjoy RR-spec bikes. Everybody who’s interested in high-speed track racing, that is.
Honda is offering the CBR1000RR and CBR1000RR SP, BWM’s S1000RR machine is quite successful too, while machines like Suzuki GSX-1000R, Kawasaki ZX-10R, Ducati 1199 Panigale’s top versions or Aprilia’s RSV4 are also doing great in this segment. So far, the electric superbikes are barely testing their limits, as the class is fairly new, at least in comparison with the decades-long experience other high-performance manufacturers can rely on.
With the first victories against gas bikes in sanctioned road races, we might be witnessing the dawn of a new era of electric supremacy. Still, with the e-bikes which can currently defeat the ICE-powered ones being only prototypes which are both very expensive and inaccessible to customers like you and me, we can clearly see a new niche opening, that of the RR-specced electric motorcycles.
Derived from the actual R machines, in this case - the Empulse R, a road-legal Brammo Empulse RR seems like a rather natural evolution in the line-up of the Oregon-based manufacturer. Truth is, high-performance motorcycles have never been exactly the most economic bikes, and the electric segment is not making an exception.
Even more, the electric bikes already have a handicap, with the limited amount of energy they can carry being one of the biggest drawbacks of the whole affair. The drivetrains are definitely up to the task, and this can be seen with more than Brammo machines, but it looks like new, bigger, lighter and more enduring batteries being most likely the best thing that could happen to the industry. Still, something tells me that the RR-spec e-bikes are not that far around the corner…
Enjoy Shane Turpin and Eric Bostrom aboard their racing Empulse RRs and dream of a steer version of these bikes.
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