The Mission Motors race-prepped superbike is one impressive looking machine, and a rare look under the skin reveals it’s every bit as hot when stripped naked.
Mission Motors unveiled the Mission R last month at the International Motorcycle Show, and it looked like something you’d see from Ducati. It is easily among the most refined electric motorcycles yet. Wes Siler over at Hell for Leather got his hands on some pics of the bike naked, and they only underscore the level of engineering Mission has put into the R.
What’s so impressive about this bike isn’t the liquid-cooled 141-horsepower motor, or the 14.4 kilowatt-hour battery pack (pictured next to the bike), or the top shelf components from the likes of Brembo and Marchesini. What’s impressive is Mission Motors has packed all this tech into a bike about the size of a 600cc supersport. That’s no small feat, and one chassis designer James Parker runs down in detail over at HfL. Here’s an excerpt:
In designing an electric motorcycle, geometries and packages need to be very much analogous to those in a ‘conventional’ motorcycle, but the components are very different. Since the electric components need to work with, and fit within relatively conventional geometries and packages, there is a lot of re-thinking to do.
The heart of the bike is the battery box, which does more than hold the pack. A machined aluminum box at the front provides a mounting point for the steering head. The rear, which is a stressed unit, provides a mount for the motor, primary drive and countershaft as well as the pivot for the swing arm. The box is surrounded by that gorgeous steel trellis frame.
The photo above shows the bike with the battery removed but the battery plate in place. In actual practice, the battery pack and plate are a single unit removed and installed from above.
Let’s get the Mission R lined up on a track alongside Chip Yates’ Swigz.com electric superbike, theMotoCzysz E1PC, the Brammo Empulse RR and the Mavizen TTX02. May we suggest Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca?
