Max Biaggi Shatters EV Motorcycle Speed Record With 283 MPH Run

Road and Track ^ | 30 Nov 2021 | BRETT BERK

[DUMBGRUNT]

The Wattman was upgraded with a host of go-fast componentry. A more potent and lighter battery was installed. The motor was juiced to produce 435 hp. The double-wishbone suspension was adjusted for better precision. And perhaps most importantly, the bike was draped in a carefully developed aerodynamic fairing that resembles one half of a VW XL1. Not that it did much for noise mitigation.

"It’s very different from when I used to ride noisy bikes, with a thermal engine. Because electric motors make just the little zzzzzzttttt," Biaggi said. "But at speed, the wind creates a really big noise. You feel like an airplane taking off. When you break the wall of the air, you make some noise." "You have so much turbulence. You think you can hold. But you can’t. You can’t even see well at this speed. You just try to focus on what is around you. You don’t look anymore at what is straight ahead. You need to look wider. It’s crazy."

"If something really teases me, and gives me the right adrenaline, I’ll accept."

[Sirius Lee]

I can’t imagine what it would be like to “eat it” at that speed.

It would be one long skedaddle from the saddle.

[South Dakota]

You would be dead before your body stopped rolling

[MarkL]

I still remember when Ben Spies, who rode Formula Extreme bikes for Yoshimura Suzuki, was testing tires at Daytona back in 2003, and the rear tire exploded near the start/finish line at 186 MPH, and he went sliding for a very long distance until hitting the wall, winding up with 2nd & 3rd degree burns and broken leg and pelvis.

Mark