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[protomech]

Asphalt & Rubber is the first to post Lightning's press release. Lightning has revamped their website, and presumably is waiting for the big reveal on May 17 at the Quail Motorsport Gathering in Carmel, CA.

http://www.asphaltandrubber.com/bikes/lightning-motorcycles-ls-218-electric-superbike/

They also have posted specs now:

* 150 kW / 200 hp motor
* 3 battery options:
   380V 12kwh battery pack good for 100-120 miles per charge // elsewhere Lightning claims 100 miles at highway speeds
   380V 15kwh battery pack good for 120-150 miles per charge
   380V 20kwh battery pack good for 160-180 miles per charge
* 495 pounds (presumably for the 12 kWh pack)
* Charging 30 mins on a quick charger or 120 minutes on level 2 charger

At $39k base price, these are pitched squarely at or above the Mission R .. but it looks like they're serious about selling a product now.

I'm loving that Mission, Lightning, CRP are all committing to high voltage 30 minute charging .. even if these bikes are very expensive, they're pointing the way to the future that Brammo, Zero, and the traditional manufacturers will follow.

Edit: A commenter "chris" on Asphalt & Rubber has lightened the image for a better look. Obviously unfinished, we should see the real thing later this weekend.

[kensiko]

I like the look more then the other electric motorcycles! Too bad for the starting price.

[protomech]

Yeah, I like the styling from what little we can see.

A bit more power than the Mission bike. Perhaps a bit less tech. Similar weight, at least for the 12 kWh bike.

Onboard AC charger appears to be slower, but either bike will be able to saturate the typical 30A J1772 EVSE.

Both bikes support 30 minute quick charging (probably to 80%) with off board DC chargers, though neither have announced which protocol they support.

Both manufacturers are being a little vague with their range claims. Lightning claims 100 highway miles with the 12 kWh bike, lists 100-120 miles on their site. Mission claims 140 miles city, 105 "real-world" miles. "Real-world" appears to be a mix of city and highway riding.

Lightning has the highest top speed claim, and they have adopted this land speed record (218 mph) into their LS-218 model name. This LSR was achieved by use of a slipstream fairing; customer bikes will likely be somewhat lower. Still, top speed sells.

Lightning costs $6500 more than the Mission bike. I don't know how much that matters at these price points.

[ultrarnr]

Lightening has just delivered their first LS-218!

http://blog.motorcycle.com/2014/11/13/motorcycle-category/sportbikes/lightning-delivers-first-ls-218-electric-superbike/

[Doug S]

After winning the motorcycle division outright at the Pike's Peak Hill Climb in 2013, and coming within a few seconds of the all-time motorcycle record, I was bitterly disappointed that they didn't come back this year and finish the job by breaking the record. That would be an amazing milestone for electric motorcycles and EVs in general -- the first all-time record in an open-class, highly prestigious, competitive event. No more of this "the fastest ELECTRIC vehicle" stuff. The fastest, period.

If they're delivering bikes, there's got to be a nutso, well-funded privateer somewhere that'll do it. The bike is clearly in the running to do it.

[Richard230]

Here is Rideapart's report on the LS-218 and its first delivery two days ago:

https://rideapart.com/articles/lightning-ls-218-fastest-electric-motorcycle?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HellForLeather+%28Hell+For+Leather%29

[Richard230]

The Lightning 218 has hit Jay Leno's Garage. Jay talks to Richard Hatfield and goes for a ride on the bike:

http://www.autoblog.com/2014/11/18/jay-lenos-garage-lightning-ls-218-motorcycle-video/

[kensiko]

That's one real sport electric bike! Would love to try it.

200 HP 168 torque! Yihaaa!

[ultrarnr]

Has anyone ever asked Lightening a question about the LS-218 and gotten a response back? I haven't had any luck at getting any kind of response despite several attempts.

[Richard230]

Has anyone ever asked Lightening a question about the LS-218 and gotten a response back? I haven't had any luck at getting any kind of response despite several attempts.

If you want a response, I think you need to track them down and ask your question face-to-face.

[benswing]

Lightning is focused on Oregon/San Fran area because that is the only area they support right now.  I called them a while back to ask some questions to include the latest info in the 2015 Electric Motorcycle Buyer's Guide, but the guy on the phone seemed unconcerned since I wasn't buying one.  If they branch out to the east coast they may be a little more friendly.

[protomech]

Craig Vetter writes about the July 2015 fuel economy challenges:
http://craigvetter.com/pages/470MPG/470MPG%20Main.html

In the "these competitors will try to be there" list is one Richard Hatfield.

The LS-218 claims 120 miles of highway 70 mph range for the 12 kWh bike, 160 for the 16 kWh bike, and 200 for the 20 kWh bike.

I'm curious whether these range claims are based upon their land speed record fairings; traditional sportbike fairings tend to only make small improvements over naked bike aero, and even Terry's heavily modified slipstreamed full-tail 2012 Zero uses about 110 Wh/mile at 70 mph .. granted, about a thousand pounds with rider.

I hope it shows up, it'd be nice to see a real world range test of the Lightning bike.

[protomech]

http://www.gizmag.com/lightning-ls218-review-ls-218/36470/

Nice review of the LS-218. Lightning says they want to produce 150 bikes in a first run. That seems ambitious for a bike that starts at $39k with (AFAIK) no distribution network and no support network. It's hard to tell how serious they are about actually selling; but unlike Mission Motorcycles, I think Lightning and CRP both will actually sell you a bike if you show up at the door with $40k.

Richard Hatfield also talks about charging.

The LS-218 ships with either a 12, a 15 or a 20 kWh battery pack, getting you a maximum range of 120, 150 or 180 miles respectively. Charging time is around 30 minutes on a DC fast charger, and I don't know many sportsbike riders who don't appreciate a half-hour break after a couple of hours in the saddle.

Lightning has claimed 120 highway miles for a long time for the 12 kWh pack; I've long suspected that this range was either a partial-highway test or using the landspeed record fairings. That range claim is now gone from their website, and the 12 kWh bike now claims 100-120 miles of range. Significantly there is no mention of SAE/MIC city and 70 mph highway test conditions; it's possible that Lightning is still working on a standard range test, but I suspect the 100-120 mile specification is still somewhat optimistic.

Standard DC charging is very nice to see on both the Lightning and the Energica. The Energica has a surprisingly low highway range specification, but the larger capacity Lightning bikes could offer reasonable touring distances. How many people want to spend $50k to tour on a sportbike, though?

And it could be a lot quicker than that if Tesla came to the party, says Hatfield: "Tesla, with their supercharger network, they're at about 130,000 watts, so if we plugged that in to our bike and watched it carefully, everything was optimal, we could have the bike to 80 percent full in well under 10 minutes. So that's kind of the holy grail. The technology exists right now to do it. We have our own chargers that'll charge that quickly, but we just need to see a network out there that people can use.

"We can use the J1772, we can set it up with the SAE AC/DC plug or the CHAdeMO. The problem with the CHAdeMO is the plug is just enormous and expensive. It works just fine on our bike, it's just a big expensive, huge plug. Tesla has this beautiful little plug that would fit nicely on a motorcycle. Right now you can ride right from the Canadian border to the Mexican border, or San Francisco to New York using Tesla superchargers.

"[Tesla have] opened up their patents, but … there's nothing in their patent that'll tell us what the charging algorithm is [to communicate between the bike and the charging station]. We could take one of their plugs and reverse engineer it, but that doesn't necessarily give us the right to use their supercharging network. So our top priority is to convince Tesla to share their supercharger network with us, and even build it out with public money. That more than anything else will help bridge that last gap."

I wonder how much of this is hypothetical talk. Tesla has expressed an interest in opening up their charging network to partners who are willing to abide by the same terms, ie no-marginal-cost charging and up-front network registration. It's also curious that Lightning is talking about SAE J1772 DC, CHAdeMO, and Supercharging on a bike that is supposedly ready to ship now; possibly there are different DC charging modules that could be attached?

[ultrarnr]

Great article. I was glad to see that Hatfield mentioned charging. It is great that you get either the CCS or CHAdeMO. So now what about J1772? What size is the charger? I have asked Lightening multiple times and even asked their Canadian dealer about this. Lightening won't even answer questions their dealer asks them! I wonder if Lightening is serious about selling bikes or if a lot of this is just empty talk. The article showed a photo o the dash. Nice but why couldn't they have this photo on their web site? Right now my bet is on Energica for an electric sportbike that you can actually buy.

[Richard230]

I am looking forward to reading a ride review of the production LS-218.  Also, I figure that it will take more than 10 employees to manufacture 150 motorcycles a year. Richard should start checking around for some unemployed former Brammo factory workers. 

San Carlos is only 30 miles from my home.....

I just finished the reading the article.  I like the last half of it where it talks about the future more than the actual review of the LS-218.