During the Paris round of the FIM X-Trial championship earlier this month Christophe Bruand apparently executed the first ever backflip in front of a public audience on an electric motorcycle. We say apparently, because we’ve haven’t previous news that anyone else has done it before, but if we’re wrong please correct us.

Bruand is riding an electric trials bike dubbed EM 5.7 and has a chassis that is designed and produced by French company Electric Motion run by former Scorpa president Philippe Aresten. The electric drive system uses an electric motor developed to EM’s specifications running at 48 Volts battery pack built with 25 Ah of Kokam Lithium Polymer cells and Electric Motion has threed other models in development.

Check out another video of Bruand in action on the EM 5.7 after the jump.

Continue reading: Christophe Bruand performs back flip on electric trials bike (w/video)

American company BRD Redshift presents a video starring their new electric supermoto SM, the road legal version of the prototype they had introduced last summer. The model will be their very first production motorcycle and is expected to make its debut on the market by the end of the current year, with the company saying they have received quite a few orders already.

This professionally made footage features stuntman Ryan Moore having fun with the BRD RedShift SM up and down the roads of San Francisco, and we have to say that the model looks pretty fun and versatile.

Lights and plate holder aside, it looks almost identical to the prototype it is based upon. The prototype had a 5,1 kWh li-ion battery which allowed it to perform like a 250 cc bike with a range of about 50 miles (80 km), but it seems likely that the road version will have an increased autonomy. As for the price, BRD said in August that it was going to be somewhere in the 15.000$ area. We did not get any further update about that.

via | Asphalt&Rubber

It’s not always an easy task pulling out historic or vintage bikes as design inspiration precisely because there’s so much inspiration to be had. In this motorcycle design study, we see the 1934 Peugeot 515 get a modern interpretation from industrial design student Simone Madella. He says of his Peugeot 515 motorcycle concept:

“I focused on the Peugeot 515 (three world records) from 1934. At the time this bike broke three world records equipped with a single-cylinder, four-stroke 500cc engine capable of getting to 140 mph which for the time was very fast. Inspired by the Peugeot EX1 [electric concept car], I wanted to create an electric motorcycle that could beat any record - speed, endurance, trustworthiness, recharge time etc., while following the same racing spirit with which it was built.

First I decided to put a big electric motor on the rear wheel and a battery pack in the middle (with a cover and ventilation outlets. The lowslung weight meant a lowered centre of gravity which is best for improved agility and stability. Under the battery pack is a fin with sensors which can analyse the road conditions - wet, damaged, dirty etc - and communicate them to the rider.

Continue reading: Peugeot 515 motorcycle concept

After Brammo motorcycles jointly developed its Integrated Electric Transmission with SMRE Engineering, they went ahead and used it for their Brammo Engage and Encite electric motorcycles. Since then, reports from the US of the first Brammo Empulse models to be ordered would indicate that the six-speed transmission will come as standard on this model.

This move will probably further the debate as to whether this kind of electric motorcycle needs a transmission, but if Brammo is making it standard we’re guessing they’ve got a reason to do so. There’s still no official word from Brammo as to why they’ve decided to use the six-speed transmission and make it standard but we’ll wait for more details from the company.

Source | The Kneeslider

Here is the first full gallery of pics of the new BRD RedShift SM electric supermotard. As the US outfit attempts to achieve electric bike performance that can surpass that of fuel-powered bikes, hop on over to A&R to find out just how they’re doing that. The pics come direct from the BRD workshop and we can see what a great looking little bike the RedShift is, too.

The challenge for BRD has been to give the RedShift the kind of performance they were aiming for, while keeping weight down which is not an easy enterprise when using a 5.1kW battery. No official technical specs are available yet, including weight (although BRD says they’re sitting at about 113 kg right now), as the model is still in prototype phase but the company has so far given itself some publicity and is making some nice stuff. More to come in the future.

Continue reading: BRD RedShift SM pics

This is what the electric motorcycle market needed - a bunch of guys to set out and build an electric bike that would be as fast as a fuel-powered counterpart, if not more so. That is exactly the philosophy BRD pursued when it set up its business and now we get the first products emerging in the form of the BRD RedShift range. The first model is this lovely-looking roadgoing supermoto which will soon be followed by a RedShift MX enduro offering.

The BRD RedShift SM claims the same performance as a four-stroke 250cc fuel-powered bike. It has a water-cooled AC Motor producing 40 hp at less than 115 kg total weight. There is a 5.2 kWh electric motor onboard which is currently estimated to give the RedShift SM a range of about 80 km but no official technical specs are available at this stage as BRD still has testing to complete on the model.

The remarkable thing about the BRD electric motorcycle effort is that it is not just about the technology or a bunch of environmental geeks seeing where they can take electricity. BRD has built a business plan for itself, which includes the Supermoto SM model, the MX enduro and a RedShift PD which will be for government and private fleet usage. At a high price point of about $15,000 USD individual private sales are available but don’t make up the large part of planned sales at this stage, as BRD targets the fleet market instead.

The challenge for BRD will be the price in the future, but in terms of performance and power-to-weight, the BRD RedShift range is setting the bar high at this stage in a segment which will prove to be very competitive. As CEO Marc Fenigstain says: “We’re a team of riders and racers with high-performance gas machines in the garage. We’re building the bikes we’d rather be riding.” It looks like our previous list of the best electric motorcycles will have to be updated.

Source | A&R

This Orphiro cruiser motorcycle is the latest concept to come from the world of electric motorcycles and for the moment takes us out of the two opposing worlds of either urban scooters to take on city streets, or electric superbikes to take on the Isle of Man. Whether you support the electric motorcycle movement, or detract from it the reality is that increasingly these bikes are making headway in the market.

We’re not keeping statistics on this stuff, but we think that this Orphiro concept is the first electric cruiser we’ve written about. The design is clearly firmly in the world of concepts and prototypes, but uses a sleek, single structure combined with elegant, spoked wheels. It’s a cross between technical innovation and classic cruiser design, and although we’re not completely convinced on the design front, it’s an interesting proposition.

According to the technical specs, the Orphiro has a 100-km range, a top speed of 120 km/hr and a price of about 39,000 euros. That’s a pricey little label for something that costs nearly as much as an Electra Glide Ultra Classic CVO and only a third of the latter’s range and performance. The Orphiro is already in production but exclusively on an order basis, only.

Orphiro electric cruiser

Continue reading: Orphiro electric cruiser bike concept

While the Italians and Spaniards are representative in Europe of the interest in motocross and offroad motorcycles, the Americans are actually the ones who are more readily pioneering the electric motocross scene. With summer coming up, it’s time for the new offroad releases from various companies, and one that we probably won’t be seeing much of around these traps is the Brammo Engage.

That’s a shame really, because we quite like checking out these emerging electric bikes, and the Engage is another from the Brammo range, after the Enertia and Empulse. It uses a new technology called Integrated Electric Transmission, which is a specialised six-speed transmission designed specifically for the electric bike.

Not all the details of the Brammo Engage have been released yet, although it is available for pre-order and is expected to use another technological first for the company in the form of regenerative braking. The Brammo Engage models are:

Continue reading: Brammo Engage electric dirt bike

Built at Kingston University London and backed by Britain’s first green energy company Ecotricity, this £150,000 bike dubbed the ‘Ion Horse’ is a wind-powered electric superbike that will compete at the Isle of Man SES TT Zero race today, that is if the weather holds up.

The University is in it’s third year of entering an electric bike and is gunning to win the £10,000 prize from the Isle of Man Government for the first electric bike to do a 100mph lap, which they hope to do with the Ion Horse and rider George Spence. Also up for grabs is the University Prize of £5,000, which will be awarded to the fastest University or College team as part of the 2011 Race. The £10.000 prize has yet to be won since the series began in 2009.

“Following hard on the heels of our wind powered car, the Nemesis - comes Ion Horse our wind powered bike. The guys at Kingston have built an amazing machine and we expect it to take the TT by storm. It’s another great demonstration of how transport of the very near future will be - powered by renewable energy, made in Green Britain - and with zero pollution.” said Ecotricity founder and keen biker Dale Vince.

Continue reading: Wind powered Ecotricity Ion Horse electric superbike

Here is the first pic of the new 2011 Motoczysz E1pc bike. It’s hard to tell from this angle what the bike’s style will be like, but A&R assure us it is hot looking, and super fast. From what we gather, it’s quite a new effort from Motoczysz with significant parts and components revised . In the comments we don’t think it’s very fair to say it looks like an appliance as the shot has been taken from an angle so as not to give it all away. More like an Apple product, really…. Further comments also suggest that the new E1pc could have about 200 hp. We can’t wait for more details.