Remniscing over AHRMA's history with TTXGP electric motorcycle racing

The other day we learned of a new electric motorcycle racing series that will be run under the AHRMA umbrella.  There's actually a fair bit of history of AHRMA hosting electric motorcycle racing, and I thought it might be worth recounting that history.

First, AHRMA is the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association.  In practice most of their bikes are loud 2 stroke machines from decades ago, that AHRMA members lovingly keep in a restored condition, racing them at AHRMA events.  They hold events across the country, but as a club racing series those events are not well attended.  Instead, it's the racers, their friends and family.

Thad Wolff riding Team Electra's 2010 race bike
Waiting for the start at AHRMA's event
At Barber Motorsports Park

The first instance I know of where an electric motorcycle raced at an AHRMA event came in October 2010.  Team Electra, the brain-child of Brian Richardson, had raced in the 2010 and 2011 TTXGP seasons with a Norton Featherbed motorcycle from the 1950's that had been converted to electric.  At the end of the 2010 season, the team had a chance to go to Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham Alabama for an AHRMA event. 

After going through qualifying races, AHRMA decided their best fit was the GP-350 class.  During the race, rider Thad Wolff, lapped the whole of the GP-350 riders and was working on lapping the riders in the next faster class.  (AHRMA routinely runs multiple classes at the same time)

That was the first known instance of an electric motorcycle entering a gas motorcycle race, competing for points, and winning.

Lightning Motorcycles brought two bikes
to the 2011 TTXGP World Final

AHRMA then hosted the TTXGP North American finals events for the 2011 and 2012 seasons.  That occurred both years at Miller Motorsports Park outside of Salt Lake City.

The 2011 TTXGP final featured one of the more interesting line-ups in electric motorcycle racing history, so far.   It came a little over a month following the 2011 TTXGP/e-Power race at Laguna Seca during which Mission Motors beat the pants off both MotoCzysz and Lightning Motorcycles, setting a lap speed record that still stands today.  The line-up at Miller featured MotoCzysz, Lightning, Brammo, Team Electra, and Proto Moto (Ely Schless).  MotoCzysz won the race, beating Lightning by 30 seconds.

The 2012 TTXGP final (and this) had a rather different line-up, featuring Brammo, Virginia Tech, and several bikes from Zero Motorcycles.  By this time Eric Bostrom had joined the Brammo line-up and had raced with them in a couple events.

The 2012 season was the first year in which Zero Motorcycle's bikes were credible enough for racing in the TTXGP.  They'd raced all year with a fleet of four bikes and an ever-changing roster of riders.

The 2012 season was a turning point in electric motorcycle racing, because the field to be dominated by Brammo, with prototype high-end bikes, and Zero Motorcycles, with manufactured bikes close to 250cc performance levels.  In 2010 and 2012 the field was dominated by prototype bikes or home-built conversions.  With the 2012 season, factory prototypes and manufactured bikes became the norm.

The 2012 TTXGP World Final, held during the AHRMA weekend at Daytona International Speedway, featured the same line-up as the North American final (Brammo, Virginia Tech, and Zero Motorcycles) plus Catavolt came all the way from Australia to race. 

The most amazing part of that event was the performance of the two Brammo bikes.  Eric Bostrom and team-mate Steve Atlas both were hitting 170 miles/hr in race conditions.  Just two years previously, Lightning Motorcycles had set the electric motorcycle land speed record at 176 miles/hr (which they surpassed with a 215 miles/hr record in 2011).  But there they were, on a race track, rather than a straight line track like is used in land speed racing, hitting nearly the same speed, in race conditions.

This event turned out to be Steve Atlas' last time racing with Brammo.

For the 2013 season, the TTXGP no longer existed, and the new series, eRoadRacing World Cup, had to operate under different conditions.  Namely, they could only hold races at FIM homologated race tracks, resulting in only four events this year all of which came during MotoGP weekends.  That meant no AHRMA/TTXGP events in 2013.

What all this means is that AHRMA is already familiar with the electric motorcycle scene.  They know who we are, and how to deal with us.

Because AHRMA events are quiet little affairs, we'll be missing out on something the TTXGP originally sought -- exposure before large audiences.  The TTXGP's first event, 2009 at the Isle of Man, was on one of the largest stages one could imagine, TT Week.  During the 2010 season the TTXGP was able to race at AMA events, in front of large audiences.  But something happened beginning with the 2011 season, and TTXGP was no longer able to race at AMA events and instead ended up at less attended club racing events.

By working with the AHRMA this new series won't be in front of large audiences.  But maybe the sport is too young for what the large audience events demand.  They're expecting 600cc superbike or MotoGP speeds, and the number of electric motorcycles that can hit such speeds are, well, extremely rare.  Namely, MotoCzysz's two bikes, the Mission Motors 2011 bike, Lightning's two bikes, Brammo's two bikes, and maybe bikes from Meunch or Zongshen.  Everyone else has speeds closer to the 250cc-450cc classes.

The other requirement for large audience events is enough awareness that fans will pay for tickets to see them race.  Do enough people know about electric motorcycle racing to form a large enough fan base?  I don't think so. 

I suspect that racing at AHRMA events could give the electric motorcycle racing sport time to mature a bit before trying again to break into the big time.  Except that the eRoadRacing organization will presumably make another go of a racing season in 2014.  What will eRoadRacing's plans be?  And how will it overlap with this new series?   Will the new series even be able to get off the ground?  Lots of questions remain.

Moto Electra Racing attending Cycle World Rolling Concours, AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days, and has a cool new dashboard

A few little updates from Moto Electra Racing, the sometimes- TTXGP racing team run by Brian Richardson which is unfortunately unable to race in the 2012 season.  Of course that hasn't stopped them from doing other things, cool and interesting things.

First - they'll be attending the AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days event at the Mid-Ohio Raceway on the weekend of July 24.  In 2009 the TTXGP made its first North America appearance at that same event, and the early version of Moto Electra showed up to race, but in 2010 and 2011 they were instead at the TTXGP/e-Power event at Laguna Seca.

The Vintage Motorcycle Days is a fun event, focusing on, of course, Vintage motorcycles and racing with Vintage motorcycles.  It features a huge swap meet of vendors selling parts and bikes.  Additionally, Craig Vetter has gone for several years to show his efforts at full fairing design.  What I'm trying to do is make it sound appealing to go, to perhaps see Moto Electra, perhaps see Craig Vetter, perhaps see a bunch of vintage motorcycles, etc.

Second - they'll be at the Cycle World Rolling Concours at the Indianapolis Speedway, Saturday August 18, 2012.  I don't know anything about this event, and details are probably on the Cycle World website.

Lastly - Brian Richardson has posted a series of Facebook videos that shows he's integrated an iPad on the Moto Electra bike, to add some custom control panels.  One thing this can do is synthesize any kind of motorcycle sound you like, and it's connected with the throttle such that as you twist the throttle the chosen roar is emitted from loud speakers.

See:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=447246171973733

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=445362918828725

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=445359662162384

The amazing history of Moto-Electra Racing in the TTXGP

As we gear up for the 2012 TTXGP North America season opening race at Infineon Raceway, we learn that Moto-Electra Racing will not be at the race.  In a note on the teams Facebook page, Moto-Electric Racing team owner Brian Richardson posted a note (see text below) about their plans for the 2012 TTXGP racing season explaining their absence and that the team still intends to qualify for the 2012 TTXGP Championship race in Daytona.

This story is worth retelling some history, most of which is told in the video below, and which I was present to witness.

I first met the team (then called Team Electra, IIRC) in July 2009 at the Mid-Ohio race track.  I've never spent any time at race tracks, but because of the TTXGP race held in June 2009 that year I'd gotten the bug to see electric motorcycle racing.  The TTXGP team came to the Vintage Motorcycle Days event that's held every year at Mid-Ohio, and therefore I went to the event, to see what I could see, and write up some news articles.  Brian Richardson, Thad Wolff, Rob Prins, and others of that team were among the couple dozen people from various teams who showed up.

They were one of two teams whose bikes had a significant fairing of this sort.  At the time I'd been reading carefully Craig Vetter website and his discussion of fairings and aerodynamics, and was excited to see two bikes using fairings of this sort.  Unfortunately this sort of fairing is no longer legal in motorcycle racing and is no longer fashionable for motorcycles at all.

I next met Brian, Thad and the rest of the team the next May, at the 2010 TTXGP North America season opening race at Infineon Raceway.  By then they had redone the bike, using a new fairing.

Notice that the front wheel is uncovered.  That's what it takes nowadays to be a legal fairing, but it has worse aerodynamics than the previous fairing.  Fairings and aerodynamics aren't the point of this however.

Underneath the fairing was a vintage Norton Featherbed motorcycle frame, which is part of the story about this team.  That they've married old technology (Norton Featherbed motorcycle) with the newest of electric drive train and battery technology.  And done it on a shoestring budget, out of a former sheep barn turned motorcycle shop in a very rural part of Virginia.

There was an important thing which occurred that weekend that shows Brian Richardson's character.  During the actual race Thad Wolff was riding the bike very well and was on a time to make a strong 3rd place or maybe 2nd place, but in lap 3 (?) the bike failed and pulled to the side of the track.  It turned out what happened is a set screw failed, and because this set screw held in place a gizmo that helped the controller drive the motor, the bike stopped completely.  Set screws are the tiniest of parts, but sometimes it is the small things that topple a machine.  This meant that Brian Richardson had driven all the way from Virginia to California, to not even finish the race.

He was understandably sad, frustrated, maybe even depressed, and when I talked with him he looked unlikely to come to another race.  But, by the next race at the Race America track in Wisconsin, he was back in the game.  Throughout the TTXGP history I've seen Brian Richardson take setback after setback, and come back to race again and again.  His commitment to racing with his electric motorcycle is demonstrated by the lengths he had to drive to get to the races.  To participate, to keep his skin in the game, meant several cross country drives because while Brian is based in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia most of the TTXGP races were held far far away.

The team raced in the 2010 and 2011 TTXGP seasons, as well as the joint TTXGP and FIM e-Power race in 2011 at the Laguna Seca Raceway.

In the fall of 2010 the team made a bit of history by being the first electric race bike to enter a gas bike race.  Not only did they enter, but they won convincingly, starting from the very end of the grid and by the end of the race were so far in front that the gas bikes were nowhere to be seen.

By the 2011 season the bike had changed again.

Notice the lack of a fairing.  That was because of a little accident the weekend of that first race, that messed up the new fairing Brian had built.  The 2011 season rather than use a vintage Norton Featherbed frame, he went with a newly manufactured frame on the same dimensions as the vintage frame.  He also had built a very nice new fairing to go with it, but unfortunately destroyed the fairing, and had to race with a naked bike but they still took 2nd place.

Here they are at the TTXGP/e-Power race, Laguna Seca, in the corkscrew, July 2011.

And at the TTXGP race at Miller Motorsports Park, Sept 2011.

While the team did well, taking 2nd or 3rd place in almost every race, though they were never the headliner winning the race.  The reason why has to do with the technological capability of other bikes fielded by other teams.

While the Moto-Electra bike can easily hit 120 miles/hr or more, other teams (Lightning Motors) were able to build bikes with much more power.  By the last race they weren't even in the top three, because the presence of MotoCzysz, Lightning Motors and Brammo simply outclassed their bike.

It was clear that for the team to remain relevant in the TTXGP racing, that they need to up their game. The leading teams are gunning to develop bikes which can compete directly against the 600cc superbikes.   While Moto-Electra has built an awesome and beautiful bike, one that I'm sure is a joy to drive around town, it was beginning to be outclassed in 2011, and I'm certain that the 2012 bikes are going to leave them in the dust.  Unless, as Brian says in the note below, they get a new more powerful motor.

Moto-Electra has an amazing story behind them.  The choice to use a vintage Norton Featherbed frame was, as Brian Richardson explained in the video, a bit of serendipity.  For his 50th birthday he developed the idea to build himself a Cafe Racer, and as he says Cafe Racers start with the Norton Featherbed frame.  Halfway through the build he decided to make it an electric bike.  Then some time after that he heard of the TTXGP race, decided to go, and somehow connected up with Thad Wolff, who is a famous motorcycle racer with plenty of years of experience behind him.

We wish Brian and his team the best and have confidence that their intention to race in the 2012 TTXGP world championship race this year will be fulfilled.

Thanks for visiting Moto-Electra Racing  As you may now by now, Moto-Electra is looking for a new primary sponsor so that we can upgrade the motor and increase the voltage. We are working with a design change that would provide us with 50% more hp and 30% more torque, using an oil cooled motor.  

Although we are sitting out the first part of the 2012 TTXGP series, it has always been our desire to compete in the World Championships. This year they are in the USA (Daytona).

Hopefully we will find a new primary sponsor to take us to the next level, and get our old bike ready for the last race of the season so that we can qualify for the grid at Daytona. We need your help to keep our old Norton in the hunt.

With the changes, we feel like the Moto-Electra could be ready for an Isle of Man appearance in 2013. Could a frame designed in 1949 (Norton Featherbed) beat the best in the world? The underdog -- Yes; but the Moto-Electra Team has always expected to win -- that's never changed.

Brian