New at Indy

[Shinysideup]

Looks like Eric Bostrom is running new, non-Brammo batteries:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151535918295443&set=a.10151535914435443.1073741866.108820970442&type=1&theater

And Shelina Moreda is sporting a new partial fairing on the TTX:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151536065695443&set=a.10151536065190443.1073741867.108820970442&type=1&theater

[kingcharles]

The next photo in that album shows that Shane has made the switch too.
But it is a major change! To swap to a new battery architecture is like a heart transplant.

[Richard230]

Those Farasis batteries are what Zero uses in their 2013 models.  (The 2012 bikes used EIG batteries.)  It looks like Farasis is making a sales push into the electric motorcycle market.  From what I can gather from their web site, the company HQ and research center is in the Bay Area and the batteries are made (naturally) at their factory in China.

[7racer]

Is there any performance differences in the batteries???

[Gavin]

Shane is riding SteveO's bike...so his batteries were the oldest and had the most miles and stress on them. His bike needed new batteries. The fact that Eric changed too tells us that either Brammo likes the batteries more than the old ones, or Farasis is giving a deal in exchange for sticker placement on the bikes that is too good to pass up on.
Probably a bit of both?

G

[Richard230]

I don't know about performance differences, but both the EIG and Farasis batteries seem to be pretty robust.  I can't recall a single Zero owner on the Electric Motorcycle forum ever complaining about any battery issues.  They have other issues, but not the batteries.  I don't know what Brammo is currently using in the way of batteries, but I don't think they could go wrong if they decided to switch to Farasis cells.

[7racer]

good point!  Would just be interesting to hear the inside info.

On another note...I didn't know they had a steering dampener!

[protomech]

The cells in both the RR and the 2013 Zeros are made by Farasis, and they're similar, but they're not the exact same cell.

Terry @ offthegrid had a problem with a weak EIG cell in his pack. He has since replaced it (I think the cell, not the pack) under warranty.

Gavin: likely both bike packs were replaced at once to keep them in lockstep. It's probably much easier to develop two copies of the same bike than two different bikes.

[Brammo Rider Wannabe]

Here, hopefully, is a link to some pics I took over the weekend.
http://www.facebook.com/douglas.w.wilcox.7/media_set?set=a.10200792041101860.1073741827.1188048157&type=3&uploaded=86

[BrammoBrian]

Some clarification:

1. Farasis is a cell supplier.  Brammo designs and assembles full battery packs for the Empulse and Enertia Plus at our battery production facility in Ashland, OR.  This has not changed. We do not, however, manufacture the cell itself. 

2. Brammo has a technical specification that indicates among other parameters, the cell size, capacity, and performance.  Owning this specification allows us to source cells from multiple suppliers and move to a new supplier if they have an advantage in performance or cost, or both. 

3. Both RR bikes received a cell upgrade following Laguna Seca.  We stopped by the Farasis US R&D headquarters in Hayward, CA and picked up the cells (which we originally had hoped to receive prior to Laguna).  The cells were custom developed for their aggressive use in racing on the RRs.  Kudos to Farasis for having the courage to develop something like this for us.  Those guys are awesome, and as a way of saying thanks, we put their logo on the bikes.

[protomech]

Pretty cool that Farasis would custom develop a cell for you. They must be pretty proud to have provided cells to 6 of the 8 bikes that raced at Indianapolis (bad luck for SPSU..)

Can you say what advantages the Farasis cells had over your previous (as far as I know, unnamed) supplier?