Mission: Impossible. That is the title of an article written by James Parker on page 26 of the August issue of Motorcyclist magazine. Mr. Parker is describing the history of Mission Motorcycles. He was a contractor for the company (starting in 2009) and was the lead engineer for chassis and powertrain development for the Mission R model. He says that they completed the first prototype in early 2011.
Shortly after successfully entering races at Laguna Seca and the IOM, Mission Motorcycles dropped motorcycle development completely to focus instead on the automotive EV field – which he describes as being incredibly tough and just didn't pan out for them. In 2013 the company returned to motorcycle development and Mr. Parker and his team started design work on an updated version of the Mission R, which was produced in 2014. (I saw a couple of the bikes last year that were being displayed at Alice's Restaurant one Sunday – photos attached.) Unfortunately, early this year the team was told that the project wouldn't go forward. “Mission: impossible.”
Mr. Parker then spends the rest of the article considering the possibilities of electric motorcycles racing toe-to-toe with the latest IC racing motorcycles in the MotoGP series. He concludes that it would require 660 pounds of (current technology) batteries to equal the power in the 20 liters of gasoline currently being used by MotoGP IC racers. This amounts to 55 kWh of battery power. To reach the power, range and chassis weight necessary to compete in the world's top racing series, these batteries would need to weight only 90 pounds and that is the limiting factor that needs to be addressed in the future.
Whether or not you agree with his analysis, it is an interesting thought experiment and one worth reading. The Mission Motorcycles history just added to this interesting article.
