VOL. 56 ISSUE 11 MARCH 19, 2019 P105
ment on the Strike's brakes and
suspension, since the hardware
carried by this early prototype
won't reach volume production.
But a close look at the seat/
handlebar/footpeg triangle is
needed, and Richard Hatfield
realizes this. However, he's got
the Strike's essential architecture
dead right, though physically
smaller and with more accessible
performance from the half-as-
powerful motor, it feels chuckable
and agile in a way the heavier,
much bulkier, and less nimble
LS-218 could never be, despite
the Strike sharing the same 24º
rake/105.3mm trail steering ge-
ometry as the bigger bike.
But if the Strike's chassis
package needs some work, the
motor is already just about spot
on. After booting up the bike and
going live, you must be ready for
the traditional Lightning arm-
lengthening acceleration, so hold
on tight. Very tight! Acceleration
isn't as absolutely monstrous as
on the LS-218, but thanks to the
instant dose of substantial torque
on tap as soon as you wind open
the throttle, it's still mighty im-
pressive and far superior from
rest to almost any other sport
bike of whatever capacity. Okay,
absolute top speed won't be
anywhere as fast as the LS-218,
but that's not the point of this
real world E-motorcycle, which
represents a new departure for
Lightning—away from the outright
performance, towards real-world
rideability.
"We're targeting the 650-
800cc sector of gas-powered
bikes with the Strike family of
models," says Hatfield. "So this is
our mid-price, mid-performance,
middleweight model with half the
outright power and around 18%
less battery than the LS-218—al-
though we can also configure it
with larger high-energy batteries
for extra range. So we'll have
several options on that, and the
same with the charger. Our base
model has a 3.3kWh Level Two
system, which takes roughly
three and a half hours to charge
from five percent to 95 percent,
but we'll also offer a 12 kWh char-
ger which will reduce recharging
time to roughly an hour, or we
can use a DC fast charger which
brings it down to 40 minutes.
We'll be giving each of our cus-
tomers the opportunity to specify
the exact overall package they're
looking for, which in most cases
depends on their likely intended
use for the motorcycle."
Meanwhile,, the Strike proto-
type delivered thrilling accelera-
tion coupled with controllability
at low speeds, and especially
exiting a tight turn, with no trace
of the brusque pickup mid-turn
from a closed throttle of some
E-bikes. The fact that the build of
power and especially torque all
the way to the 15,000 rpm limiter
is so smooth and linear, with no
spikes in the delivery ready to
get the rear Pirelli unhooked via a
sudden spurt of power as on an
ICE Supersport, makes it feasible
to exploit the reserves of perfor-
mance of the Lightning motor.
Designed in California, constructed in China.
