Lightning Motorcycles Planning Speed Record At Bonneville

Electric motorcycle maker Lightning Motorcycles is planning to take a shot at the world's fastest production motorcycle record at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Lightning first came to the electric bike speed record scene in 2012, hitting 218 mph (over 350 kmph) at Bonneville, making the company's RR model the world's fastest production motorcycle. That bike was renamed the LS-218 in honour of its achievement. In 2013, Lightning won the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, and this time, in 2017, the company is all set to make another run at Bonneville Speed Week from August 12-18, 2017.

Lightning says it will test a new production model called the LS-2?? RR, and the company intends to replace the two question marks in the bike's name with maximum speed numbers from the official time slip. The company says that the new bike has the potential to break the company's own production bike world speed record of 218 mph.

"Our rider, Jim Hoogerhyde, has an impressive resume of race wins and landspeed records himself", said Richard Hatfield, Lightning CEO, "but Bonneville Speed Week in August is lining up to be a special event. We look forward to working with Jim to replace the ?? with an exciting number for our LS-2?? RR".

Lightning says what is behind the new bike's extraordinary performance is a higher density battery pack. Additionally, the new drive package along with a lighter, more stable chassis design all contributes to the most powerful and ride-able bike Lightning has ever built. There's no word yet on when these bikes will be actually made commercially available. The company is expected to reveal its additional line of motorcycles and claims that these electric bikes are even better than bikes with conventional internal combustion engines.