Spoiler Alert! TTXGP winner is...
It took only 25 minutes and 53.5 seconds, for the TTXGP to be decided. Find out the winner after the jump.
[Source: iom today / BBC]
Rob Barber secured his place in the record books as the first ever winner of the TTXGP. Riding the Team Agni bike at an average speed of 87.434 mph around the 37.73 mile mountain course, the fastest bike in qualifying dominated the field of 13 starters. Second place belonged to early island arrivers, Thomas Schoenfelder and XXL Racing with a time of 29 minutes 4.93 seconds (77.841 mph) while the Brammo bike riden by Mark Buckley took third, completing the circuit in 30 minutes 2.64 seconds (75.350 mph). Mission Motors, whose entry experienced a failure of some sort a day earlier and didn't complete their 2nd qualifying run, managed a forth place finish with a time of 30 minutes 33.26 seconds (74.091mph).
Team Agni has had tons of experience to draw on for the race. Their team leader, Cedric Lynch, invented his own electric motor in 1979 and has been improving on the design ever since. According to the team's page on TTXGP.com, the bike is a "...converted a 2007 Suzuki GSXR 600 fitted with two Agni 95 reinforced motors and a Kokam lithium polymer battery of 63 cells totaling around 16 kilowatt-hours of energy." For his part, rider Rob Barber's reaction at the race end was, "The bike is absolutely brilliant to ride and to win a race here in the Isle of Man really is a dream come true." While the race couldn't be seen live in the U.S., footage should be available here, possibly as soon as 11:00 EST today. In the meantime, look below for a video from the third place finisher, Brammo, as their lead engineer discusses technical aspects of their TTXGP bike.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Nick P. 11:21AM (6/12/2009)
In the end, the teams with the most preparations won. Mission & MotoCzysc barely had the time to let the paint dry before shipping the bikes to Isle of Man.
Next year will be awesome. I hope to see a Zero SS competing there.
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EVan 12:06PM (6/12/2009)
Electric motorcycle racing needs more venues...
I.... can't.... wait.... a... whole... year....
ronEbear 11:42AM (6/12/2009)
Now, all that needs to be done is reduce the cost on an all electric motorcycle from the cost of a luxury SUV to the cost of a 600cc sports bike.
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kert 12:03PM (6/12/2009)
Um .. consider it done ?
http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/
http://www.vectrix.com/
http://www.x-tremescooters.com/electric_mopeds/xm-5000li/xm-5000li.html
Nick P. 12:13PM (6/12/2009)
No, no scooters or motocross bikes: we want sport bikes. We need a Tesla Roadster type of exciting performance vehicle. More like MotoCzysz (http://www.motoczysz.com/club/). Now, that's what I'm talkin' about.
Tohe 11:48PM (6/12/2009)
Wow wouldn't a Tesla sports bike be awesome? Maybe even work a deal with mission and rebadge a cheaper Mission One for the masses?
Travis Gintz 11:43AM (6/12/2009)
Dammit TTXGP.com.... upload some video....
the coverage for this race was pitiful at best..... only manxradio was available the whole time, no video anywhere.
Congrats for Team Agni
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jeff 12:28PM (6/12/2009)
Cedric Lynch's motor was the original "pancake" motor and has led to a number of copycats from big companies. The Briggs and Stratton E-Tek and and Perm PMG 132 used in the zero are both heavily influenced by Lynch's design. Meanwhile, i think Cedric Lynch himself has had a hard time getting the deserved recognition and just left Lynch Motor Company to do his own thing with Agni motors. Based on this video, he seems like a bit of an eccentric:
http://www.in.com/videos/watchvideo-cedric-lynch-and-agni-motors-the-legend-2201603.html
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gorr 1:54PM (6/12/2009)
These bikes are barelly just good for closed race for half an hour, then the battery is shot and cost 5 000$ or more to replace. Nobody will drive on the road with just a problematic battery as a propulsion system. I have said that this criminal product is coming from this site and high financial circles with taxmoney, subsidies, regulations and spreaded corruption for the faint at heart that beg for a little energy of his own. Tons and tons and tons of petrol and nuclear and coal and natural gas and corn ethanol and h1vi deseases is sold and burned and transacted in cia each day.
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Travis 2:31PM (6/12/2009)
Gorr, I guess everything is a conspiracy theory for you isn't it....what do you do for a living? I bet you just at the computer all day and write ill-formed sentances with lots of spelling errors. Find another blog to bother, you make no sense. You write like you're foreign with very bad translation skills.
This race is a major step forward for things. The battery packs are fine for another race... they're not shot. Just recharge them and go out for another race. This is year zero. Just like the invention of the steam engine and gasoline engine, technology only gets better. The paint had barely dried on some of the bikes... 10 of them finished the race... thats a huge accomplishment.
I'm glad that I know the entire MotoCzysz team, even if they didn't do so well.
Robert 1:55PM (6/12/2009)
The race bike looks so much better than the production model. They ought to make the race version as well.
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MT 4:41PM (6/12/2009)
Another positive sign is Brammo's performance. The Enertia bike they're selling has about a bit over 50mph top speed, yet their TTXGP avg speed was 75. You gotta expect some of that performance will show up in future Brammo models and/or updates to the existing bike.
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NewAge 5:36PM (6/12/2009)
Some video is already trickling in on youtube, one in particular shows the bikes flying down Bray Hill whining like formula 1 cars going by, I can hardly wait until next year.
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Travis Gintz 6:18PM (6/12/2009)
some footage from the beginning of the race and the finish
http://www.ttxgp.com/index_nav.php?page=livecams
there should be more over the next couple days.
my good friend Loni is in a few shots next to the MotoCzysz bike.... even though it didn't finish, it still remarkable that there were so many teams.
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Stan Wellaway 5:59PM (6/12/2009)
I'm impressed that so many makers of electric bikes got their act together in time to compete. A truly historic moment in EV progress. And impressed that so many finished the 37 mile mountain course.
This is just the start - and it's a great start. A lot more teams will now emerge and next year's race will be huge! A new era of racing has commenced.
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hektik 8:12AM (6/15/2009)
Moto GP always need for rubber to be spread over the circuit for the bikes to improve their grip. Why not include a TTXGP in the schedule in every GP? Laguna Seca could be the first one since two stroke bikes won't be taking part.
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c.wallker.jr 11:15AM (6/16/2009)
such as the AMA eGrand Prix coming up in July?
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mike 8:26AM (7/01/2009)
I was there and I have to say that it was desperately dull - a triumph of marketing hype over substance. A full grid for a TT is 80+ bikes. 13 starters is a pitifully small number. The event management said it was to be considered a success 2 months before it had even run - that kind of verbal claptrap always turns me off.
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