Parker motor powers Brammo’s new electric race bike.
Sunday, July 25th, was a big day for motorcycle racing enthusiasts around the world with a huge race event in the Monterey, Calif., area. Thousands of people came to the area to see some of the world’s best motorcycle racers competing on some of the world’s fastest race bikes.
That was not the reason I pulled myself out of bed at 5:30 on that Sunday morning to make the 3-hour drive to Monterey. It was not to spend the day at the Mazda Raceway in Laguna Seca, California, listening to the deafening whine of the screaming cycles whiz by at 200 mph. In fact, I attended this race event specifically because I would not have to deal with the noise.
Featured at the Mazda Raceway was a high performance electric motorcycle race that promised crazy-fast speeds, professional bike racers and near silence as these state-of-the-art race bikes blurred by the spectators. Not only was the race itself going to be fun to witness, but it also provided the perfect venue for Brammo, Inc., to unveil its answer to high performance electric bike racing, featuring a Parker MPP motor to propel this bike silently at breakneck velocities.
This bike has been in development for several months. Competitors and enthusiasts were awed at the bike’s look and feel as they walked through the paddock area and asked the Brammo engineers about the bike’s performance.
The MPP powering the bike features Parker’s patent-pending internal cooling –technology that increases the continuous torque output that virtually eliminates the peak region of the motor. This technology is particularly useful for the high duty cycle of acceleration as the racer exits each curve. The rider sends the torque command into the “peak region” with high enough frequency rendering a non-cooled motor to very limited performance. In addition, the motor uses external cooling, allowing for very high motor speeds — up to three times the catalog rating. This combination of cooling and packaging give the MPP traction motor on this bike a power density higher than that of most — if not all — traction motors available today.
The bike wasn’t quite ready for competition at this last event. But even without the Brammo bike racing, the other electric bikes competing in the race was very exciting. It was also rewarding to hear the spectators comment in amazement as the e-bikes accelerated to their top speeds at a fraction of the noise their ICE counterparts output. So, I eagerly anticipate the next event in the e-Power racing series, to be held in France next month. To further my energy for the event, the Brammo engineering team’s evaluation of the race and winners last month gave us all great confidence that the Brammo bike will be a strong contender for the winning trophy.
Brammo plans to market a street version of the race bike for the commercial market next year. Parker is working closely with Brammo to create a smaller MPP motor for the production version.
All said, it was a very exciting day for the both the Brammo and Parker team — well worth the 6-hour roundtrip drive.
