polished it up and probably still been competitive ,” explains Colin Whittamore , General Manager of Mugen Europe . “ But in practice , we effectively threw that one away and built another one .”
However , a new and improved motorcycle isn ’ t necessarily an imperfect one . There is still some development to be done before electric bikes are wholly practical racing vehicles , particularly where their batteries are concerned .
“ Our technical challenge now is to keep the temperature of the battery pack down ,” says Whittamore . “ That will restrict how fast we go this week : battery temperature will be our ceiling .”
Engineering excellence The majority of electric motorbikes are powered by lithium ion batteries , the same variety of rechargeable cell used widely in mobile phones . For TT racing purposes , a bike must carry enough battery power on board to comfortably see it around the Mountain Course without weighing it down . This year , Belgium ’ s Team Saroléa found themselves negotiating the fine balance between keeping their bikes lightweight and ensuring they perform on the racecourse .
“ It ’ s really about finding the sweet spot between how much battery you put in the bike , how much it weight it can handle ,” says Bjorn Robbens , who co-owns Saroléa with his twin brother Torsten . “ Weight is the key enemy to any electric vehicle , I think .” Saroléa has an added incentive for achieving results at the TT — it is aiming to capitalise on the visibility of the brand by setting up commercial motorcycle production facilities on the island . The company was first established in Belgium in the 1870s , and was defunct by 1963 . In 2008 , the Robbens brothers revived the brand and in 2014 they entered their first Isle of Man TT , with the intention of eventually producing ‘ road-legal ’ versions of their highperformance racing bikes .
“[ The TT ] has been a tremendous push for us ,” says Robbens . “ The bike was really built for this track . So building it here , selling it here , just makes sense .”
“ We already have the brand and a legacy . If you can take the Isle of Man and the TT along with that , it will really increase the speed with
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