Technosanity #25: 24 Hours of Electricross - Interview with Neal Saiki

On April 4-5, 2009, Zero Motorcycles held the 24 Hours of Electricross race. This was an endurance race for their brand of electric motorcycle, 24 hours in length, 10 teams, three battery packs per team, the winner being the team achieving the most number of laps during that period. I've never been to a dirt bike race, never ridden a "dirt bike" style motorcycle "on dirt", but am an electric vehicle enthusiast and was excited to see this race occur.

I've been to the NEDRA race, the National Electric Drag Racing Association has a goal, shared by Zero Motorcycles, of proving that electric cars aren't boring golf carts. Electric vehicle races are a great way to show electric vehicles can be fast. However the NEDRA race is in the form of a drag race, 1/4 mile, 10-15 seconds, and that's it. The Electricross race just kept going and going and going. What made this possible is a motorcycle frame design which allows for quickly changing the battery pack. I observed several times a racer would come in off the track, the pit crew quickly change out the pack, and within a minute or so the bike is back on the track (with a new rider).

Quick change battery packs are not a new idea. Famously this is a key of the Project Better Place plan, however the idea is very old and goes back to the earliest days of electric vehicles. Zero Motorcycles have simply done a great job of implementing this old idea.

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Technosanity #25: 24 Hours of Electricross - Interview with Neal Saiki