Max Biaggi Shatters EV Motorcycle Speed Record With 283 MPH Run
Max Biaggi Shatters EV Motorcycle Speed Record With 283 MPH Run
Last week, legendary MotoGP rider Max Biaggi hopped on a modified Venturi Voxan Wattman electric motorcycle and took a top-secret ride down a decommissioned NASA runway in Florida—the same one where the Space Shuttle used to land. In the process, he broke 18 land-speed records for electric motorcycles, including top speed, averaging 283 mph over two runs, one in each direction. With that, Biaggi broke his own electric motorcycle speed record, set just last year, when he took a previous version of the Wattman to 253 mph. Max Biaggi Shatters EV Motorcycle Speed Record With 283 MPH Run
"I saw that it started to be realistic, what Voxan was saying—that they could build the bike better to break the record," Biaggi told Road & Track in a one-on-one interview at the Classic Car Club Manhattan, where the electric motorcycle maker hosted a party to announce the new top-speed record. "After that, it was all processed by testing and R&D until we could achieve the results."Max Biaggi Shatters EV Motorcycle Speed Record With 283 MPH Run
The Wattman was upgraded with a host of go-fast componentry. A more potent and lighter battery was installed. The motor was juiced to produce 435 hp. The double-wishbone suspension was adjusted for better precision. And perhaps most importantly, the bike was draped in a carefully developed aerodynamic fairing that resembles one half of a VW XL1. Not that it did much for noise mitigation. Max Biaggi Shatters EV Motorcycle Speed Record With 283 MPH Run
"It’s very different from when I used to ride noisy bikes, with a thermal engine. Because electric motors make just the little zzzzzzttttt," Biaggi said. "But at speed, the wind creates a really big noise. You feel like an airplane taking off. When you break the wall of the air, you make some noise." Here, Biaggi is referring to the subsonic wind pressure, at around .3 Mach (roughly 230 mph), when the air surrounding a vehicle becomes very difficult to compress. The sensation is like driving into, and then through, a wall.
So Max Biaggi Shatters EV Motorcycle Speed Record With 283 MPH Run
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