TTXGP Articles
Steve Atlas returns to TTXGP with a win
Pictured here is Steve Atlas, back from injuring his back and hand on May 4, riding to victory at the Portland International Raceway round of the TTXGP. Steve and this 130bhp Brammo Empulse RR achieved a resounding victory in a field that only included seven bikes after the two MotoCzysz entries suffered mechanical trouble. Update: word from MotoCzysz. More than a simple win in an under-conte...
Dailies
A Q&A with Icon’s Kurt Walter on the awesome Brammo livery
Regardless of power source, regardless of series, regardless of country, regardless of speed, the Team Icon Brammo Empulse RR sports the finest sponsor livery we’ve seen on a motorcycle in decades. To learn more, we spoke to Icon Design Director Kurt Walter, who penned it. Why do all other sponsor liveries suck so bad? Designing graphics for race bikes is a difficult challenge. There are usua...
More photos of the stunning new Icon sponsored Brammo Empulse RR
At the time of writing, it’s unclear if this new Brammo Empulse RR will be racing at the first TTXGP race of the season. Practicing at Infineon yesterday, rider Steve Atlas highsided the new 130bhp race bike, fracturing six vertebra and injuring a finger. While the team tries to patch things together and find a pinch hitter, enjoy these 13 photos. Update: five great new pre-crash action photos...
Dailies
Icon x Brammo Racing
"Not only is Icon’s involvement important for Brammo, it’s also important for the sport of electric motorcycle racing," states Brammo designer Brian Wismann. "Here is a brand that is known for being innovative and different, stepping up to support an entirely new genre in the motorcycle world - electrics. Last year was a huge milestone with Steve Atlas (pictured) bringing home our first TTXGP...
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One lap of Chuckwalla aboard the 2012 Lightning SB14
Here’s a sneak preview of Lightning’s 2012 TTXGP race bike. They haven’t released details yet, but this thing looks fast, passing ICE 600s and 1,000s as it completes a lap of California’s Chuckwalla Valley Raceway. The TTXGP returns to North America on May 4th at Infineon Raceway, going to to a five-race season, including the World Championship, this year at Daytona Raceway on October 21. ...
Dailies
Killacycle, TTXGP shooting for outright motorcycle land speed record
Nope, not the land speed record for electric motorcycles. The land speed record for motorcycles (367mph), period. Don’t laugh, the team behind this effort has already built an electric bike that can do 0-60mph in less than 1 second and run a quarter mile with a 155mph exit speed. The best news though? The exact same powertrain that will power the land speed record attempt will be available throu...
Photos: MotoCzysz at TTXGP Laguna Seca
Let it never be said that Michael Czysz doesn't value HFL's community. Yesterday, in our interview with Mission Motors racer Steve Rapp and marketing man David Salguero, T Diver asked Michael for a shot of one of his bikes pulling a wheelie. This morning, Michael sent over these exclusive images from the TTXGP race at Laguna Seca. "It is a pretty sorry wheelie," Czysz explains. "But it is a pure p...
Dailies
Steve Rapp and David Salguero on lapping the Mission R on par with 600s
Two weekends ago, San Francisco-based startup Mission Motors made history when rider Steve Rapp lapped Laguna Seca in 1:31.3. That’s a new record for electric vehicles of any kind and would have put them 5th on that weekend’s AMA Supersport grid. Steve went on to win the race, utterly blowing away competition from MotoCzysz, Lightning and Brammo. Two days ago, we talked to Steve and our old bu...
Dailies
Brammo makes it easier to go electric racing
It’s about to get a lot easier to go electric motorcycle racing. Electric motorcycle manufacturer Brammo has signed a deal to provide race-ready rides for the TTXGP electric racing series for the 2013 season. The bike will be a souped-up version of the Empulse that Brammo says we’ll see within months. The deal comes at a critical time for electric motorcycle racing. Although the sport has co...
Dailies
Azhar Hussain, MBE
Azhar Hussain, creator of the TTXGP, has received one of the United Kingdom’s most prestigious awards. On Saturday, the Queen included him on her Honor’s List, making Azhar a Member of the Order of the British Empire “for services to motorsport.” Originally held as a single race at the Isle of Man in 2009, TTXGP has since expanded to include races in seven countries with teams from 30. I...
Dailies
TTXGP Spec-ulation: can this grid be saved?
TTXGP promotes itself as the “world’s first zero emission motorcycle racing series.” A question being asked these days is whether it might be the world’s last such series. On May 14, 2011, only four electric motorcycles showed up at the starting line for that afternoon’s race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. Rewind to a year before at the same track where TTXGP launched its ...
Dailies
FIM/TTXGP coming to Laguna MotoGP
Electric motorcycle racing will return to Laguna Seca this year on July 23-24 as the recently-announced FIM/TTXGP working together thing bears its first fruit. Joint races will also be held at Donington park on August 20-21 and Le Mans on 24-25 September. This news is primarily exciting for one reason — we’ll be seeing all the big electric bikes on the track at the same time, including the Mot...
Dailies
2011 Roehr eSuperSport
Roehr has announced an updated eSuperSport for 2011. The outgoing model rode on a Hyosung GT250R chassis, made 48hp with it's 5.8kWh of battery capacity, weighed in at 395lbs and was priced at $16,995. The new bike makes 67hp from 7.7kWh, weighs 470 and costs $17,995. In case you weren't counting, that's 19 more hp and 1.9kWh more for your extra $1000. Along with the extra muscle comes 75lbs wort...
Amarok P1 unmasked
Two weeks ago, HFL contributor and motorcycle designer Michael Uhlarik showed you the first images of his new motorcycle, the Amarok P1 TTXGP competitor. Unlike most other electric racers, it's pursuing a radically reduced weight over high power output and huge battery capacity, something Michael hopes will endow it with 250GP-like performance and handling. Now, here’s an in depth look at the fi...
If you want an electric motorcycle designed right, you’ve got to design it yourself
Ever since I saw the first modern electric scooters in the middle of last decade, I’ve felt the time was right to start approaching motorcycle design like that of an airplane, integrating the body, frame and battery into the same structure. Doing so can drastically reduce size, weight and complication, all of which I hope I’ve achieved with this, the Amarok P1. Unlike the giants it will race a...
Dailies
AMA sanctions TTXGP
Hell For Leather can exclusively reveal that the American Motorcyclist Association has decided to welcome TTXGP into the mainstream racing fold, officially sanctioning the series beginning this year. This is a huge leap forward for electric motorcycle racing, effectively legitimizing it in the eyes of sponsors, teams and fans. It also puts the nail in the coffin of the rival FIM e-Power series, TT...
Dailies
TTXGP, FIM e-Power finally working together
It’s been in the works for months and now it looks like they’re announcing before the exact agreement has been worked out. TTXGP and its copycat FIM e-Power are collaborating on select races for the 2011 season (schedule below). The collaboration (don’t call it a partnership or merger, yet) is one of those painfully common sense things that was sadly made difficult by the egos involved. In f...
Inside the Mission R electric superbike
Here’s a rare look inside the workings of of an electric race bike. The Mission R is unique not because of its 141bhp electric motor, but because it packs that plus a 14kWh battery pack (the 2010 MotoCzysz E1pc is only 13.75kWh) into a package no larger than a 600cc sportsbike. A big part of the ability to do that came from the James Parker-designed chassis. The following explanation comes dir...
Mission R Electric Superbike: much smaller, much more capacity
Despite featuring more battery capacity — 14.4kWh — than the 2010 MotoCzysz E1pc or the Chip Yates electric superbike, this Mission R is relatively tiny, with similar overall dimensions to an R6 and lightweight— just 545lbs. Of course, it won’t be racing either of those electric bikes, it’ll be racing in the TTXGP, where specs like this should dominate. What of the much-promised Mission ...
Dailies
TTXGP 2011: Specs class, more teams and races
Michael Barnes of Lightning Motorcycles had already won the championship before the final race at VIRginia International Raceway, but to TTXGP founder Azhar Hussain the increasingly tighter racing is one of the biggest achievements of the TTXGP North American championship's first season. - I think we've achieved a lot in our first season in North-America. To me the biggest achievment is how tigh...
Dailies
How the FIM and TTXGP can fix electric motorcycle racing
Photo: Grant Ray"Racing improves the breed." That was Azhar Hussain's mantra when he launched TTXGP and the idea of electric motorcycle racing a couple of years ago. He's right, of course. If we want the best possible electric street bikes as soon as possible, the racetrack is the best place to breed them. But we also need the best possible breeding ground - one premier racing series. One. TTXGP a...
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