A look at the Mission Motors superbike
As noted in an earlier posting (http://visforvoltage.org/forum/7147-egrandprixttxgp-video-premier-mission-motors) I had the opportunity to attend an event at Mission motors' headquarters. The primary purpose was to view the TTXGP race video, but hey Mission Motors was the host and they got to talk about their bike and status quite a bit. They recently moved into new offices which are in a converted old warehouse next to ancient crumbling shipyards in San Francisco.
The office space layout is kinda hip.. the work area is open, no walls, and instead has computers on simple tables that are set on sawhorses. Apparently there's a shop downstairs which we didn't get to see. There was a bike setup on a stand in this room, and on one of the tables was the dashboard apparently set up for doing firmware development outside the bike.
Some things they claimed are:-
Tom Montano was there to speak a bit, and said at this stage of electric motorcycle racing it's more about the geeks typing on keyboards to do the right software design & settings rather than the skill of the riders. Therefore, he claimed, the finish order more about luck than anything. (aside: so how does that explain the 3+ minute gap between Team Agni's bike and the #'s 2,3,4 ??)
They had just that day achieved full theoretical power with their drive system. They knew theoretically the thing could do n amount of power output but had never gotten it, until yesterday.
They were unable to go to the Ohio event because of time required to ship their bike back from the Isle of Man. Customs problems etc plus the batteries, due to being in a special transport class, had to be shipped separately from the bike. It cost them over $20,000 just for shipping.
They carefully refused to take a stance on regen-as-equivalent-to-engine-braking or to learning how to incorporate coasting into ones riding. Their bike has intense instrumentation and they know precisely whether it was a positive energy gain. But they carefully did not state whether there was an energy gain or not. Apparently most of the riders in the race had differing opinions.
The skin used on the bike they had at the Isle of Man was on display in the lobby, as just the skin. It was not attached to a bike.
Apparently they go to the Infeneon Raceway regularly for test runs. I may be able to tag along with a future test run (or runs).
Thanks for the update, seeing as how they are not 'open to the public' Seems like an impressive machine.
This has got to be one of the lamest excuses ever!
Tom Montano was there to speak a bit, and said at this stage of electric motorcycle racing it's more about the geeks typing on keyboards to do the right software design & settings rather than the skill of the riders. Therefore, he claimed, the finish order more about luck than anything.
Typical of a racer - when they win it's all about the racer, but when they don't win it's just because the other person had better equipment. Also, "geeks typing on keyboards" are actually software engineers who are an important part of the team of engineers who design and build the bike. Glad I don't work with Tom (was he the rider, or is he an employee / manager at Mission One?)
I'm curious - do folks like the look of the Mission One?
He's the rider and so far as I know not a Mission Motors employee. I also didn't quote him directly but he said something like "geeks typing on keyboards". It's clear there's a lot of software inside that bike and he (I think) was giving a lot of credit to the software developers who make that bike go.
Like that bike? Well, it's not my fancy to be honest. I prefer bikes with a foot forward stance, where you are sitting upright and have a great view of everything around you. At least with bicycles I don't like the lean-over-the-handlebars seating, and the Mission Motors bike is clearly that style.
how much are these new bikes and when are these due for sale 150 miles sounds good not botherd about these silly speeds
as 150 mph more like 55/60 that fine
YOWEE!
This is from their website:
The deposit amount is $5000, and the sales price is $68,995
a bit out of my reach. :)
What a bike looks like and how it rides are two different things. I think the bike looks futuristic it has some nice styling.
But I have ridden cafe style racers in the past and I can say they are not that comfortable. Even if the price were not 68k I probably would not consider this bike for myself. But the technology is interesting.
I don't know how this got locked for comments.. it's unlocked now.
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