The first two electric bikes, designed by Team Oni Racing Club in Bermuda.
HAMILTON, Bermuda, Thursday October 13, 2016 – Bermudian-designed all-electric motorbikes are set to hit the roads of Bermuda.
Businessmen Jamie Lovell and Alex Marshall, who run Team Oni Racing Club, unveiled the first two superbike-styled machines — with one already sold.
“We designed them ourselves and we got a manufacturer in Asia to create them,” Lovell explained to The Royal Gazette newspaper. “The manufacturer put it all together for us to our specifications, which were cleared with TCD. It has amazing build quality and we’re very proud of them.”
The Torc X-Tercel bikes went on display at a local motor show two weeks ago.
“It’s amazing; people have been blown away. They are beyond what we imagined when we built them. They’re very smooth and very silent,” Lovell said.
The bikes come in two guises — one powered by acid batteries which is equivalent to a 50cc machine and another, with a lithium battery, which is equivalent to a 125cc bike.
“We’re going to offer mopeds and other bikes, but we wanted our first bikes to be street bikes – sexy and beautiful – because people don’t think of electric bikes like that,” added Marshall who also disclosed that Team Oni Racing Club was also planning to introduce electric cars in the future.
The batteries of the electric bikes, slung under the frame of the bike where a petrol engine would be, power electric motors housed in the rear-wheel hub. Once plugged in, the bikes can go from zero charge to a fully-powered battery in six hours.
The bigger bike can hit a top speed of 110kph in nine seconds, while the smaller one’s top speed is 90kph, also achievable in nine seconds.
Each bike has three gears, changed by flipping a small switch near the right handgrip.
“There’s no gas, no mechanical parts and they are environmentally friendly and quiet. There’s no noise with these bikes. They are energy-efficient and carbon neutral, they leave no carbon footprint. The styling really catches people’s eyes and the technology is interesting. You also get the speed that matches a conventional gas bike. It’s amazing that this new technology can reach these speeds,” Lovell said.
“This technology has only been available for a year, so Bermuda is ahead of the game.”