Last year, Chip Yates changed the motorcycle world, becoming the first-ever electric bike racer to beat ICE at its own game. What’s next? Oh, just forever altering the aviation landscape. Chip’s a humble dude, here he is talking to PBS about where he’s been and where the world is going through him.
Photo: Grant Ray :continue:
Last summer, Chip Yates took his electric superbike to Bonneville to set a new outright speed record for electric motorcycles. He couldn’t quite match Lightining’s new 215.9mph record, but he did break 200mph, setting four FIM records in the process. Here, for the first time, is onboard footage of that top speed. Weren’t electric motorcycles supposed to be silent? :continue:
Chip Yates has had a tough week at the Bonneville Salt Flats, trying and failing to set a new outright land speed record for electric motorcycles. After a shattered drive chain and issues with his batteries putting out a sustained max amperage for minutes at a time, he didn’t manage to beat Lightning’s 215.9mph, but he did set four other records and even cross the 200mph barrier. Here’s an exclusive first look at video of Chip and his team doing just that. Including a high speed crash through a distance marker, it’s dramatic. :continue:
As the final act in what’s sure to go down in history as one of the most significant careers in electric motorcycling, Chip Yates plans to set a new land speed record. So far this year, the defense contractor emerged from motorcycling obscurity to achieve performance parity with ICE in WERA racing, outpace liter bikes at the Mojave Mile and successfully race up Pikes Peak. An attempt at the official FIM electric motorcycle land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats late this month is a fitting conclusion for the fastest electric motorcycle ever.
Photo: Grant Ray :continue:
On Sunday, Chip Yates rode his 240bhp electric superbike up Pikes Peak in 12:50.094, over four minutes faster than any other electric motorcycle and just 1:39 behind race winner Carlin Dunne’s Ducati Multistrada. Here’s video from that record-breaking climb. :continue:
Practicing for the race on June 26, Chip Yates put in his first runs up Pikes Peak this weekend. “I was leaned over dragging my knee at more than 100mph at Bottomless Pit corner, with a 3,000 foot dropoff on my left and a giant snowbank on my right,” says Chip. “This has to be the most extreme racing spectacle in the United States.” This is his first visit to the mountain, but riding his 240bhp, 400lb/ft electric superbike, Chip still placed seventh out of 33 riders in practice. :continue:
MotoCzysz has just released specs on its new bike for this year’s Isle of Man, giving us the opportunity to see how it stacks up to the other heavyweight electric contender. While Chip Yates won’t be racing at the TT (he’s doing the Pikes Peak Hillclimb on June 26, instead), he is campaigning the only comparable electric motorcycle. But, with only 200bhp to Yates’ 240, just how comparable is the 2011 MotoCzysz E1pc?
Photo: David Folch (2010 model) :continue:
The impressive thing about the unofficial 190.6mph land speed record that Chip Yates set at the Mojave Mile two weeks ago wasn’t necessarily that outright speed — he was aiming for 200+, but faced charging and crosswind problems — but rather that he reached it in a one-mile drag race, not on the open expanse of a dry lake bed where courses can reach 10 miles in length. To put that speed in perspective, Chip outpaced bikes like a BMW S1000RR (173mph), 2011 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R (185mph), Kawasaki ZX-14 (172mph) and a Suzuki Hayabusa (179mph) and supercars like the Corvette ZR1 (166mph), Porsche GT2 (152mph), Ford GT (155mph) and Lamborghini Murcielago SV (179mph). Here’s the complete results. :continue:
On Sunday, Chip Yates’ electric superbike unofficially became the fastest electric motorcycle in the world, reaching 190.6mph in a timed mile. Here, Chip gives HFL readers an exclusive look at the performance data recorded during that run. Check out the lateral Gs and gyro yaw data recorded as the bike went into a 190mph wobble; that’s probably the best visualization of a tightened sphincter we’ve ever seen. :continue:
For the second time this year, Chip Yates has made history. In January, he placed second in a race against ICE superbikes using his homemade electric superbike and yesterday he unofficially set a new land speed record by a comfortable margin. Racing at the Mojave Mile, the garage inventor reached a top speed of 190.6mph. This is made extra impressive not only because he exceed the official electric motorcycle land speed record by 17mph, but also because he did that in a mile-long drag race, not on the open expanse of the Bonneville Salt Flats. The thing is, the ever-modest Chip is actually disappointed with the result.
Update: Chip clarifies the presence of the KERS lever.
Photos: Julie Yates :continue:
