Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1333258
VOLUME 58 ISSUE 4 JANUARY 26, 2021 P101 SPECIFICATIONS 2020 LIGHTFIGHTER V2.0 MOTOR Parker GVM210-100 Permanent Magnet AC with integrated gear reduction, liquid-cooled BATTERY 410Vdc, Farasis Energy lithium- ion NMC, actively cooled MOTOR INVERTER Cascadia Motion PM100DXR, liquid-cooled POWER (CLAIMED) 141 hp @ 6800 rpm TORQUE (CLAIMED) 120 lb-ft @ 0-6,800 rpm TRANSMISSION Direct Drive, gear reduction (2:1) CLUTCH None ELECTRONICS Motec CDL3 Data Logger Dash CHASSIS Chromoly steel trellis frame, fully stressed carbon fiber seat subframe FRONT SUSPENSION Ohlins FGRT 210 fully adjustable 30mm cartridge REAR SUSPENSION Fully adjustable Ohlins TTX36 unit, cast and fabricated aluminum Yamaha R1 OE swingarm with custom linkage (-10mm) FRONT WHEEL Thyssenkrupp Carbon Components braided carbon fiber 3.50 x 17 in. REAR WHEEL Thyssenkrupp Carbon Components braided carbon fiber 6.00 x 17 in. FRONT BRAKE Dual 320mm T-slotted floating discs, radially mounted Brembo CNC Monobloc 4-piston P34/38 racing calipers with titanium pistons REAR BRAKE 220mm Superbike Unlimited rear disc, Brembo Billet CNC 2-piston caliper FRONT TIRE Pirelli Superbike Slick 120/70 ZR17 in. REAR TIRE Pirelli Superbike Slick 200/60 ZR17 in. RAKE 24.0° WHEELBASE 56.4 in. SEAT HEIGHT 32.9 in. BATTERY CAPACITY 12kWh CHARGE TIME 1h WEIGHT (CLAIMED) 399 lbs. the tip-in point. And here's the best bit—because you've got all that torque, you can either ride it like a superbike by stopping at the apex and firing it out, or you can take a sweeping corner arc like a 600. It's the best of both worlds. Speaking of braking, the front performance is very good, but the rear brake is about five times as powerful as any production 1000cc machine I've ridden. If anything, it's almost too powerful and will lock the rear if you're really ham-fisted with it. I'm not a rear brake user at all but I am if it's a hand-operated unit, like the thumb brake I had on my Pikes Peak Aprilia. You can brake incredibly late on the Lightfighter, using the masses of power from the front and rear brakes and the variable regenerative braking to pull you into the apex of the corner. The Lightfighter is good for about 10 laps of full-on pace at Buttonwillow before power starts tapering off, which is enough to get you through a club race. This is close to what Brian wants but there will need to be a bit more range—or easy changeability of the battery pack—for the Light- fighter idea to really take hold. At the end of my three sessions on the Light- fighter V2.0, I'm absolutely, positively buzzing. I'm happy for two reasons: it's always nice to get a gen- uine surprise; and secondly, someone has finally built an electric motorcycle that has the potential to be a genuine challenger to gas machines. Best of all, it's designed and almost entirely constructed in the USA with American partners. You can't buy a Lightfighter—yet—but this may change in the coming years. "The Lightfighter is not technically for sale right now, although some discussions are underway," says Wismann. "If you wanted to build a bike from scratch to the same specs with the nice Ohlins and Brembos as this one with myself and Ely putting it together, it would run around $45-50k." So, in that regard, watch this space. The Lightfighter is an extremely impressive machine and given its infancy and indeed that of the electric motorcycle space, the sky really is the limit. CN