The site won’t be updated for quite awhile.  I’m finding less and less time to update it between other hobbies and work.

You can get your electric motorcycle fix at one of these great sites, too:

Plug Bike
Ivar Kvadsheim
eMotoRules

SONOMA COUNTY, California — Team Electra’s entry in the TTXGP electric motorcycle race looks like something from the 1960s.

That’s because it is.

Team Electra is among the 12 teams here at Infineon Raceway to kick off the TTXGP North American electric motorcycle race series this weekend, and it is the only one coming out of the old school.

The heart of the team’s gorgeous café racer is a 1966 Norton Featherbed frame wrapped in a copy of a fairing from the 1972 John Player Special Norton grand prix bike. It is one of the slickest bikes on the grid here at Infineon Raceway, and it stands in stark contrast to the converted superbikes and purpose-built machines like Zero Motorcycles’ impressive racers.

Brian Richardson, who built and owns the bike, says the retro approach makes perfect sense because, for all their high-tech hardware, electric motorcycles don’t put down much more power than the café racers of his youth.

“Anyone can use a Yamaha R6 chassis, and you’d think that would be the way to go,” Richardson said. “But you’ve only got 50 horsepower. Why not start with racing machine that only had 50 horsepower to begin with?”

Source: TechCat

Electric motorcycle maker Zero Motorcycles is planning an expansion into Santa Cruz, Calif., where it will erect facilities to research, develop and sell its next generation of products.

The Scotts Valley, Calif.-based OEM plans to use $800,000 in grants and loans from the California Energy Commission (CEC) to build powertrain research, manufacturing and retail facilities in Santa Cruz, according to John Borofka, manager of strategy at Zero.

However, funds from CEC are being distributed under a new program to foster environmentally friendly vehicles, and there is no guarantee Zero will be named a recipient. Applications for the program are due May 20, and Zero should know by July whether it would receive the money.

To bolster its application, Zero has lined up the equivalent of $800,000 in matching funds for the endeavor; the Santa Cruz city council has pledged the equivalent of $400,000 (in loans, staff and technical assistance), Zero will put up $350,000 of its own capital, and the remaining matching funds will be realized in rent incentives and in-kind support provided by the future facilities’ landowner.

Source: Unleashed Motorsports

by Nik Bristow

Say you’re in the market for an electric motorcycle but you don’t like the modern styling of a Zero S or a Brammo Enertia. Or maybe you do, but some jerk who works in your office already has one. Well, now you can get a modern electric bike that looks like anything but. Check out custom bike designer James Hammarhead’s cafe racer-inspired Volta 102.

Each customized Volta 102 starts life as a 2002-2009 Royal Enfield Bullet. Classic bike enthusiasts know that, in its heyday a half-century ago, Royal Enfield was known for keeping streets and driveways across the British Empire nice and waterproof, earning it the nickname “Royal Oilfield.” The engines of the revived Royal Enfield don’t suffer from the same machining defects of the original, but nonetheless, the gas engine is gone out of the Volta 102 and, in its place, a 6kw EnerTrac MHM 602 electric motor. Power is supplied by a 102-volt lithium-iron-phosphate battery pack (hence the name Volta 102). We have no performance specs, but with those power numbers, it should move pretty good.

Source: Autoblog Green

Deliveries to begin in the summer.

Roehr Motorcycles has released more information about its line of electric sportbikes including two street models and a higher-spec racing version.

The Illinois-based manufacturer announced its entry in the electric motorcycle segment in January with two eRoehr models, the eSuperbike and the entry-level eSupersport. They will be joined by the Roehr’s new flagship electric sportbike, the eSuperbike RR which was designed to compete in the TTXGP and the FIM’s ePower racing series.

According to Roehr Motorcycle founder Walter Roehrich, development of the electric models had fallen behind, and the eSuperbike RR will not be ready for the start of the TTXGP series. Roehrich told Motorcycle.com there is a chance the eSuperbike RR would ener the TTXGP late in the season but 2011 would be more likely.

“The mechanical portion of the bikes are completed, we are in the testing and development process right now, both on the dyno and the street. We were planning to be a little further along by now, and were hoping to enter the TTXGP series, however a few delays, mainly with bodywork tooling have set us behind schedule a bit,” Roehrich wrote on the electric motorcycle forum ElMoto.net. “As much as we would have loved to compete at Infineon next week, our main priority is to finish our development, and deliver a refined quality product with confidence. Like the eSuperbike production model, the RR version will use twin AC induction motors with a claimed output of 96 hp and 210 ft-lb. of torque. The motor will run on a 96V lithium-iron-phosphate battery with a capacity of 9.6 kWh.”

Source: Motorcycle.com