Hollywood Electrics to sell Brammo motorcycles again

You know, it has been a good long while since I have read something in the elmoto world that is far enough from my perception of what is, that it didn’t even register. This one caught me off guard. Like, when I first saw something on Facebook I dismissed it as there is something wrong with my contacts, off guard. But at the same time I believe it to be a very important moment in elmoto history.

I’m gonna be frank, and at the risk of making some people unhappy. Hollywood electrics used to sell Brammo Enertias a few years back. Then the Empulse was released but never brought to market on time. About that time Hollywood Electrics stopped being a Brammo dealership, and even went so far as to offer a rebate of $1000 to anyone who had an Empulse on order and bought a Zero instead if, in fact, their Empulse was delivered when promised. Which, as we all know, it was not. As far as I could tell there were some bad feelings there. And with one off the record comment and other things I read on the internet (insert grain of salt here) that if I took the liberty to read between the lines, gave me a strong feeling that these two were never going to work together again. At least not for a long while. Well, we’re all adults and we know that stuff happens, and then you move on, and it is LA. Well, Hollywood Electrics still had their Zero line up that would improve dramatically every year and I don’t know of a year that they haven’t been Zero’s top selling dealership. The Zeros have come a long way and are a great bike, and a very good seller for Hollywood Electrics who every spring seem to never be able to get their hands on enough. Hollywood Electrics also are involved in racing, have a close relationship to Zero, and have contributed to the development of those bikes. Those guys fly the Zero flag, and do it very well. So, it would seem, well to me anyway, that they would have little to no need to add Brammo to their lineup. Having said that, I truly believe that the Zeros and Brammos don’t compete directly with each other, so adding an Empulse to their sales floor isn’t like selling a Yamaha R1 and adding a GSX-1000 to the sales fleet. And business is business. If Hollywood Electrics can expand then by all means they should! I don’t see this diminishing their Zero sales at all. It has just caught me by total surprise.

So whatever tension there may have been from one side, the other, or both, it is possible something either has happened, or is happening, that overrides the past and brought them back together in a working relationship. It also possible, and more likely it could simply be Hollywood Electrics is expanding, which is a great thing. It could really be that simple. But you know me. It makes me wonder if Brammo doesn’t have something so cool on the horizon that Hollywood Electrics couldn’t not be a part of it.

Best of luck to both!

So Close, Yet so Far

[Due to technical difficulties, or more likely user error, this never posted as it should have last week. My apologies to MotoE for not getting the word out on time]

So here I am sitting in the Amsterdam Airport. Shortly after arriving I hooked my phone into the wifi in a desperate attempt to get my Delta app working and confirm the gate my flight to Norway is leaving from. Well, the app was telling me I was flying from the boondocks of Minnesota to St. Paul. Less than helpful. But I “checked in” (a nice social media feature on my windows phone) and Mike Edwards was kind enough to quickly pipe up and remind that the inaugural Moto-E race at Assen is this weekend, and that I wasn’t that far away. Agrhh, this job blows some times. I am actually here for work and simply on my way for another round of 35 days straight on the ship. I’m not going to be here for much more than an hour, much less hanging out for a race. I freaking wish.

Another thing is that maybe you heard Jeremiah Johnson has been selected as the rider (replacement rider I believe) for the University of Nottingham’s bike. No matter how you slice it, that’s just cool. The Moto-E series is run by one of the former TTXGP employees, which has disappeared like a gorilla in the mist, or a ninja. I can’t make up my mind which. If some of you enjoyed the European governing body style drama of days of old, I suspect this series will have a small dash of that ingredient. But, I’m OK, if that isn’t the case. It looks like Moto-E had a great launch at the Goodwood festival, so we shall see how participation is at the first round, and subsequent rounds this year.

In what seemed like the last bastion of the original elmoto racing series, the guy behind all of the media coverage for the Australian eFXC series announced they will not be continuing with their coverage for this year. And in even better news, I never finished editing those podcasts. As I was telling my grandfather, it amazing the amount of “manure” that piles up when you are gone for 5 weeks. There is actually an evish related blog post about some of this that is still unfolding. But it’s a personal experience and has nothing to do with motorcycles or racing. My poor 500 didn’t even have the cover lifted off of it accept to show it off to a buddy once. This working two jobs is for the birds, but it’s the price I pay for my cycling addiction. For those new to the site or with lives of their own, I work and my old job, a bicycle mechanic part time when I am home for my new job working out to sea on a ship.

Now, I was motivated when I got home to do for the site. One of the first things I did was check on what it would take to get my motorcycle and car licenses. Yes, I have been carless since 2009, and simply let my license expire back in 2011. Well, I could have gotten the temp licenses/permits, but the actual driver’s exams are backed up 2 months. So I had to cancel my trip to NY to test the Energica. Not that I ever got any word back from them at all about that event. Plenty of other folks got the info and showed up. Sutff like that can make a man paranoid, but se la via. Also, with no time to work on the 500, or ability to get my license in a timely manner, any attempt to get to the two eMotoRacing rounds were thwarted. What is evident is that working two jobs, and getting enough bicycle riding in to try to keep myself healthy, and supporting family, are all conspiring to take away focus from this site. It’s just a reality. I’m not giving up, but as I can see with my serious drop in traffic, you all know I’m not as gun-ho as I was. Which is cool. I think if I can get the bike shop down to one day a week when I’m home it will work out for this site. We’ll see, as it has to work out for everyone.

In the meantime keep an eye out at MotoE’s website for details on this weekend’s racing.

KTRSD

What to Expect from ESBK.co in the Future

It seems like I owe you guys a little “what’s going on” chat.

Well, as you have seen (if you follow this blog) I have a job working out to sea in the oil industry. The rotation is supposed to be 5 weeks out to sea and 5 weeks home. But that isn’t set in stone. I am making good money for the first time in my life, and trying to set myself up for the future, while still enjoying myself. So I will write as I can out here, but it’s not going to be regular. And I will do what I can with the podcast as well. I have enough interviews from last December for 5 episodes I think. But I will try to do what I can with that. It’s just a lot of energy that I don’t always have. I have a house I rent now, and a garage, and an office in my bedroom. It’s pretty sweet. I am still working at the bicycle shop when I am home, but I am, not sure how that will play out in the future.

One thing that will change from say when I started all of this, or even a year ago is I am not going to put any real effort into getting news to the site asap. I may still get clued in and have a breaking news story once in a while. But I will be in no hurry. Often I find it better to let everyone else scramble, and then wait and see how it all settles and try to bring you a better informed opinion. Another thing that will change is that I now have the money and the time to take trips. I already have a trip planned to New York to ride the Energica. I still have some things to secure so there is plenty of time for it to fall through, but cross your fingers (or send money J ). And I am going to plan out attending the final round of the eMR to see if that is feasible. I also have something big I want to do. But it is going to take a lot of planning, and money, and luck. So my point is I am going to be able to go to some events and cover them now that I have some money to spend. And I am still looking for someone reputable to do my WordPress site up right.

Also know that my posts out to sea may be a bit dull looking. Finding and downloading photos and such is not the easiest thing to do out here.

So while there may be less content, and not particularly regular or showy, there should be some very good content to come. Enjoy!

Project Live Wire: Range Doesn’t Matter . . . Yet

Hey all. Well . . . there goes the neighborhood, huh.

So if you are like me, you’ve seen all the news that Harley has some electric motorcycles now. How many of these prototypes exist seems to depend on which article they you read. Do I have anything new to add? No. Well there is this one thing. It seems like everyone has been talking about how the drivetrain was sourced from Mission Motors. So I contacted an anonymous source as soon as I read it in Ride Apart. I was given a standard, we can neither confirm nor deny reply. Which is fair enough. Well just yesterday this source got word that Mission motors can confirm they have involvement with Harley Davidson in this project, but that they are not discussing details. And I am good with that. Even though I haven’t received official word or a press release. I have yet to take the time to secure a line of communication with Harley-Davidson about this project. But I am in no hurry, I’m sure they are busy, and I’m not even sure they’d answer back if they had the time. I’ll give it a go when I get back to dry land.

By now everyone should have the details, and seen all the videos. I haven’t seen any yet as I can’t stream video out here on the boat. I am actually writing this in word on my tablet and then will upload it to the internet when I get the chance. Here’s the thing that gets me. I have talked about this on the forums a bit. H-D straight out said these are prototypes that are to test ridden and to get input on. The packs are only sized for that purpose. So there is no reason for anyone to get their panties in a bunch over range. Right now it is a smaller, light, sporty muscle bike, that’s also electric. And, I am curious where it falls in Harley’s line up when it comes to 0-60mph times. Also, the looks are really good. Good enough that it has many Harley’s-aren’t-my-thing people (such as myself) going, “I’d ride that.” Forget the fact I am 6’2″ and this bike is sized for women. And, I think that is what Harley wants you focusing on. They have Mission Motors in their pocket, sort to speak. These are the folks that built the electric bike that still has the fastest lap around Laguna Seca from when they set it in 2011. More power? More speed? More batteries? No problem. However, on the flip side, Mission Motors is also the company that ran one race, left the field in the dust, got all us racing fans drooling, and then left us high and dry. Never to return to the track again. They are good folks and know their stuff, but I keep my eye on them. Either way, power and pack size are not the issues Harley seems concerned about.

Many reports say that acceleration is on par with Zero’s new SR, and maybe the power hits a little harder than either it or the Empulse R. Although in an interesting point of view, Ted Dillard (Evmc2) got to test ride one in Boston. And compared to his home made bike, the Harley still feels soft off of initial throttle. This seems to be something elmoto manufactures build into their bikes for public consumption. Otherwise this bike seems to have the Zeros and Brammos squarely in their sites. Sporty handling and racy cruiser looks. Not what the guys I work with think a typical Harley looks like. But then again, no one seems to know what a V-Rod is either. So it is aimed performance wise at Zero and Brammo, but just like the Empulse is a sportier standard motorcycle than the Zero, so does the Harley seem to be an equal distance to the cruiser side of the scale. So competitive, but not a direct competitor. I think this is a good thing. Also, with this model we see what it’s like when an experienced manufacturer like Harley Davidson makes an electric motorcycle. The build quality is something for both Brammo and Zero to try to match.

But then there is the one thing no one else seems to have talked about. Other than Yamaha’s little pip-squeak elmotos I guess they will be coming out with, the first major motorcycle manufacturer to come out with a proper electric motorcycle is an American company. So what if they contracted the drivetrain. They contracted it from another American company. The elmoto wave is continuing to be dominated by the good ol’ US of A. And I feel this is an encouraging sign for our future.

One question remains, will Harley come out to take Brammo on at the track? Oh tell me you didn’t see that question coming from the pages of this site.

BRT and Moto Zero. Their History, Focus, and Direction

So sometime late last summer or early fall I contacted Brammo and Zero’s race team leads with what I thought was a pretty cool idea for an article. Well Brian got back to me within the week, but I had to wait a while for Kenyon’s response. Turns out he had a lot of positive things going on in his personal life taking up his time. That, however, didn’t stop me from giving him a bit of a hard time. Well here we are months later and I am just now getting this written up. I am not sure but this may qualify Kenyon for a lifetime membership to the “give Richard a hard time” club, and Brian as his tag team partner. But this all started with me thinking to myself about the two teams one day. I always try go back and look at things, be it races, interviews, championship goings ons, PR stuff, etc. And try to use some of that 20/20 hindsight and see if I can gleam some previously undiscovered truths that might shed some more realism to this seemly fanciful world some of us fans inadvertently create. Well, OK. Maybe it’s just me. But I know where I am today is much closer to reality than it was when I started few years ago. So I tried to apply that to these two teams. My perception was that they were very different teams. One, seemingly a full on factory team and the other mostly an employee effort, seemingly despite the company at times. Those were my perceptions. But then I recalled my many conversations with Brian Wismann at Brammo and the few with Kenyon, and I went “wait a tick.” In the beginning Brammo’s team was nothing more than employee’s putting in extra work after hours and on weekends. But they proved themselves (eventually [cough*2010*cough]) and their worth, and the race team became more and more an actual entity within the company. To the point they now have a name, BRT. So if Brammo started off as an employee effort, and MotoZero is currently an employee effort, then maybe the two teams aren’t so different after all. Maybe they are following the same path, just at different rates. That’s what I thought at least, so I decided to contact them and find out. Now, before we get to their responses, remember this was last year and we were looking forward to a US TTXGP eSS series here in the US. Both Brammo and Zero were offering factory support for current and future bikes. Brammo already had the TTX, and I believe rumors of the SR were already swirly around the internet. Also know that I was convinced that the SR was going to be a factory race bike like the TTX, and did not believe that the bigger controller would stay cool enough for street use. I should have listened to Protomech. So I also took the time to ask about customer support from these teams, and help you folks decide if you should buy a race bike from them. At the time I was hoping to get the word out and help those who were thinking about jumping into elmoto racing, make an informed decision. So go the plans of mice and men. Here is what the two had to say last fall:  

eMotoRacing: Road America Race Report, June 7-8, 2014

Got this in the ol’ mail box and thought I would share, and a thank you Arthur for the update. As a race fan I’d like to see more about the race itself, but I really do appreciate the detail about the riders and their bikes. Enjoy

What beautiful racetrack and facility! We had perfect weather and crowds estimated at 10,000 for the motorcycle festival weekend.
The track’s hilly terrain creates a few blind spots, while the 3 looong straightaways challenge racebikes as few courses anywhere. One of these long, but kinked straights hurtles the racers through a lush forest at top speed…it’s enchanting.

There were 4 eMotoRacing entrants for the 2 round series held at this grueling, high-speed 4 mile road course.
Dave Sadowsky, former Daytona 200 winner, had a new custom rear shock by Nitron fitted to his Brammo Empulse R.
Secondly, Andrew Cowell, AHRMA’s race school instructor, fielded another Brammo with new Bridgestone DOT race tires mounted and ready for action.
New to the series is AHRMA Middleweight Superbike veteran Scott Signorini, who recently took delivery of an Empulse R that sports lightweight racing wheels, and a few other nice bits. Scott was excited to compete in his first eMotoRacing event.
Lastly, myself, with my Brammo TTX which is fitted with substantially the same motor, controller, and batteries as the other entrants…but the bike has been lightened and trimmed down for racing.

eMotoRacing heads to a tight and technical course at Grattan Michigan next weekend, where racebike advantages are secondary to rider daring and skill. But, this week in both races at Road America, the lighter and sleeker TTX was too much for the rest of the field.
1st….Arthur Kowitz, Brammo TTX
2nd…Dave Sadowsky, Brammo Empulse R
3rd…Andrew Cowell, Brammo Empulse R
4th…Scott Signorini, Barmmo Empulse R

These same competitors, plus another new entrant to the field will test each other next weekend at Grattan, Michigan, where the top podium spot will be fiercely contested.
Bring it on!

Energica EGO US Tour Coming Soon

 

While the Energica EGO tours Europe with Germany coming up, us Yanks will get our crack at a test ride as well. Test rides are scheduled for July 18^th in San Francisco (Mission Motorcycles back yard no less), July 20^th in LA, and July 30^th in Bear Mountain, New York. If you want to reserve a test ride fill out their online questionnaire at http://www.energicasuperbike.com/where-is-my-ego-tour/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_CRP_2_2014

You might just catch me in New York. We’ll see, and fingers crossed it works out for me.

Buckeyes Podium Again!, 1st sub 20 minute laps, and a C+ grade

Ok, here we are, in the afterglow of yet another TT Zero. It is a bit hard to believe it has been 5 years now. I am sure you noted where my loyalties lie, i.e. American education. Great job again, Buckeyes! Rob Barber came back at the end to just snatch the podium away from the Belgian new comers Saroléa by hundredths of a mph/tenths of a second. To tell the truth with the early numbers put out about the by Saroléa I thought we were looking at a challenge to Mugen. Clearly that was not the case this year, but Saroléa put in a heck of a good run for their first time. You have to give it to those Buckeye kids beating a carbon fiber beauty, and to Rob for putting the bike on its nose into that one turn grabbing back precious seconds. That 117mph lap just gets cooler the more I look at it. 19:17 seconds isn’t just under 20 minutes, it’s headed for south of 19. It’s just remarkable and congrats to Mugen. As Mark Miller said, there are guys on full liter bikes that have a hard time getting a 117 mph lap. I was interested to see if Anstey could beat McGuiness in his first time out, but McGuiness, who seemed to forgo a gas race to concentrate on the TT Zero, had control of the race from the get go and it reads like he had no intention of letting go.

By now I am sure you are wondering why the C+ rating? A bit harsh, but after a very successful year last year we are back to half the field finishing. Some of these teams haven’t finished a lap since when, 2009, 2010? Actually I guess 7 bikes lined up, but there were 10 on the starting list. And then we are back to one team racing themselves. This just isn’t as good racing, and the teammates weren’t that close to make it exciting. So yet again I want bigger fields and closer racing. However, I still think the solution is letting a stock/supersport class run at the same time (TT format helps keep bikes from interfering with each other) and fill out the field and get manufactures some good exposure. Hence, these reliability issues shouldn’t be as much of an issue. But it is the TT and that may be nothing more than wishful thinking.

Some of my disappointment comes from looking at a 117mph lap and thinking, “now what?” I know, there I go thinking again. Regular readers understand what kind of trouble that usually follows me thinking, and I am sure are chuckling to themselves right now. But, I started to ask myself if things are at the point of racing two laps. I then realized the next fastest bike only did a 93mph lap. So moving onto a two lap race would not be fair to anyone. It is a disappointing conclusion, realizing that wide spread progress is still just beyond grasp. And you have to wonder where Mugen laid down such a massive statement, is anyone out there up to the task of taking them head on? The only ones with the known technical experience to build a bike that might be close would be Brammo, but I am not sure they have deep enough pockets, much less the time.

Still how about them Buckeyes, and 117.3mph! Ok, maybe a B-.

TT Zero Update [Edit]

Well, my internet is spotty and getting all the details right has been impossible, so please just consider this a basic guide to what is going and check out the ESBK.co Facebook page for links to articles and updates from teams and riders.

We finally got results with yesterday’s practice, which is the second practice according to the teams. And there is nothing about the first practice on the TT’s website. David Heron did a good job of piecing together Friday’s result from social media. I think he thought Saroléa didn’t finish their lap, but I got word from them that they had transponder issues, and actually snagged third in both practices to date. The Buckeyes qual’d on Friday but noted an issue with their pack. They have since fixed said issue and have opted not run any more practices, instead leaving everything for the race. Mark Miller has been racing for Vercar Moto on both the R6 electric conversion and their gas powered Yamaha R6. He has been having a good time. In the first practice he had an overheating issues and had to wait 4 minutes before the bike would let him reset it, according to his Facebook page. He didn’t have much to say about the second TT Zero practice other than it went well. ManxTT and Brunell have also run, but it seems both have not finished at least one of the two practice laps. The Mugen guys have had some excitement. There’s a photo of Antsey’s bike with fire coming out of it in the first practice According to the Mogen rep that smoke is from the rear tire and the sunlight reflecting in it and the bike’s retirement had nothing to do with the electrical system. Meanwhile his teammate McGuiness ran a 111mph lap. In the second practice Antsey came back with 112mph, while McGuiness “slowed” to 109mph. Part of this appears to due to a hand injury. But it was not uncommon to see MotoCzysz teammates swap fast times, and even slowdown in the second practice. So none of this is unusual. Also, if memory serves, Mugen has said 115mph is possible. And with how things have gone in the past 112mph in the second practice doesn’t seem like that big a deal. But 115mph in the race is what I will be watching for. The last team that has been a mystery is Darvill Racing. They teased a shot of an Empulse on its way to Isle of Man, but as of the last I saw, they had not confirmed whether they were going to enter it or not.

It seems 5 bikes finished yesterday, which I think is one more than Friday. But again I am not positive. So it looks like this year isn’t going as well as last year in that respect, but nowhere near as bad as previous years. So the Mugen boys are in their own race as MotoCzysz or any other factory (ie. Brammo, Mission, or Lightning) isn’t there to challenge them. The question will be can McGuinness get his first TT Zero win, or will his teammate snatch it. Next it looks like it might be a good battle for third between the Buckeyes and Saroléa as they both seem to be in the low 90mph speed bracket. Next down the list will be Brunell and Vercar Moto as they are both close in the 80mph bracket. I am not sure that a stock Empulse will be far off of those speeds, should Darvill get a bike in and qualified. We have one more practice before the race, so we’ll see.

Enjoy.

P.S. Check out Arc EV Racing’s Twitter feed to find out what is going on with them. They have fixed something, had a dyno run and am going to run practice on Monday.

Back to Sea, and a strange year so far

Hi ho everyone.

OK, ok. Yet again I have proven to be a huge slacker when it comes to keeping up with the blog. Truth be told my life has been very full the last few weeks even with the extra 2 weeks home. I am renting a house now, and have discovered just how much more a PITA (not to mention expensive) it is than the humble room I was living in. But having done the homeless thing I am resolved to not let any of my family members have to go through the same thing. And that is exactly the situation I find myself in now. I am actually on a plane now headed to Norway. By all rights I should be headed to the TT Zero, but that just cannot be helped. One thing I did do for the blog while I was home was pay the web hosting bill. Not insignificant, so I’ll have to do something to justify the investment.

The big news that you should be looking for is next week’s TT Zero results. The other is the formation of a new elmoto series in Europe and the apparent end of the TTXGP. I have not seen nor heard anything official, but by David Herron’s report it seems to be no more, or at least dormant. It seems to me that things like these die quietly, and for a change I am content to leave things be. I do not feel digging around in this particular matter will help anyone. But what a year; no MotoCzysz at the TT, and no TTXGP pushing an international series. Meanwhile, I look at the up and coming Formula-e and their giant facility and F1 team involvement, and their Robert Llewellyn announcer and his team with great envy. All of that is enough to conjure emotions that warrant much inflection, but then you add Lightning finally revealing the new bodywork of their superbike. David Herron has been doing a great job of keeping everyone up to date and I, for one, am grateful.

Since the beginning I have supported the TTXGP, even though many have not. Some with extreme vitriol, while not backing up their arguments with anything other than a trust me. But that was a while ago. Arthur Kowitz apparently felt the eRoadRacing experience was lacking enough for the club racers here in the US that he organized his own series in conjunction with the supportive folks at AHRMA. The biggest issue the TTXGP ever had was getting teams to show up. From my point of view we all share in the blame, if any blame really needs to be assigned. But it causes me to pause, and wonder how far off the mark I may have been over the last few years, and then led you readers off. It is something I also concern myself with. Balancing passion and excitement with responsibility. Irreguardless, one of the reasons I originally got behind the TTXGP was because they stepped up and started something. And One thing I have a hard time tolerating is people kicking someone’s new hard efforts, when they should instead be involved and help. If we take pause werealise we now have electric motorcycles racing gas bikes, elmoto series still on three continents, two major one race events fielding them, and now a very well supported electric car series unfolding in front of us. And who knows, maybe the eRR or TTXGP will come back to the fore front. But if they don’t, they still left an admirable mark.

But then I wonder if the eRR (as the TTXGP evolved into), could ever have been what the Formula-E appears to be now? I’m not so sure. First the TTXGP started right in the middle of the economy crashing, where there has been at least some recovery in recent years for the cars guys to build on. Also, the motorcycle world hasn’t had a Tesla. A small startup company that built an award winning consumer car that just happened to be electric. No offense to Brammo or Zero, But the Empulse nor the S are blowing the doors off of the best the gas bikes have to offer, yet. Also, while major car companies have been building electric cars, we have not seen it from major motorcycle companies. Although, we used to hear the ‘when Hondamaha wants to join the fray Brammo and Zero will be toast’ quite often. I still believe the longer they wait the less likely it is that is going to happen. And I haven’t heard it in a while either, but maybe they know I don’t listen so well. Also F1 teams aren’t all OEM manufactures. They tend to be their own company building their own race cars in multi-million dollar facilities, where rarely do you see such teams in MotoGP as they are all factory based. F1 strikes me as a field where being as conservative as an OEM brand means you’ll never finish first. They are folks that are used to trying to think in, out, or sideways of the box in order get an advantage, and dabbling in this electric car stuff might be fun and enlightening. Especially with a chance of feedback and experience gained could help with KERS systems many teams employ in their gas cars. There are no such benefits for OEM MotoGP teams who have no OEM elmotos, hybrid motorcycles, much less hybrid race bikes that could benefit from participating in an eRR type series in that manner. And let’s not forget the outrage from the TTXGP offering bikes for sale through the sister company Mavizen. Now the company building the Formula-E cars is supposedly separate, but it’s not that separate. But they have the advantage of getting parts and/or systems from multiple F1 teams to put people’s minds at ease. And then there is always the suborn conservatism of motorcyclists. It seems to exceed that of even car guys. Who knew? So, if you are like me and look at Formula-E with jealousy and a wish for utopia, I say don’t feel bad. I don’t think it could ever have happened that way for us anyway.

So what is the future of elmoto racing then? Ha! Darned if I know. I think it is in the hands of the TT Zero in Europe, and the American companies Brammo, Zero, and even Lightning here in the US. I also think racing gas bikes in the shorter club races is great, while promoting grass roots elmoto classes like the Aussie series and the eMR here in the US is just as positive. Lots of racing to be had and seen, minus the MotoGP entry fees. However, from what I hear the sponsor money is out there for a big series. The problem is getting the right person who can step up and organize such a thing. The other thing is getting teams lined up who will show up. Maybe next year? We also need to keep an eye on the eMR as well. Thought I saw a report that quite a few bikes showed up for round 2. Things that make you go, hmmm.