The news that Stark Future SL is to make the leap from specialising in electric motocross and enduro bikes into road-going models is an exciting step for the EV motorcycle world, and the company’s statement of intent when it comes to performance and range is the boldest we’ve heard. Stark says it wants to compete against 800cc bikes in the adventure and street categories and to beat its combustion engined rivals on every front including performance, weight and range.
That’s a challenge no electric motorcycle has yet met. Power isn’t a problem – Stark’s existing offroad bikes already hit the 80hp mark and others boast significantly more – but combining that with the same range as an ICE bike, say 200 miles or so, without paying a huge weight and size penalty thanks to vast, heavy batteries is unheard of. Short of a revolution in energy density from battery technology, aerodynamics must surely play a significant role and here at WMC we’ve shown again and again how reducing drag pays dividends, whether on EVs, hybrids or ICE.
You might have noticed that while car manufactures often boast about the class-leading coefficients of drag (Cd) that their latest machines achieve, you’ll rarely see a motorcycle company put as much emphasis on it. The best fully-faired sports bikes manage around 0.35 Cd, with the rider tucked deep behind the screen in a racing crouch, while mainstream cars are rapidly heading towards figures of around 0.2 Cd. Tackling drag will be key to achieving more respectable range from future electric bikes, and in doing so opening the door to smaller batteries, less weight and even reduced costs.
At WMC we’ve shown that our patented central air duct has the potential to radically reduce a bike’s overall drag. In its most extreme form, the WMC250EV, we achieved 0.11 CdA, illustrating what can be done when a bike is developed from a clean sheet around the idea. Even when the duct is added later, as on the WMCSRS prototype we developed with Zero, we’ve seen a drag improvement of 10%. You’re using less power to push the bike through the air, translating directly into a longer range without adding a single extra battery cell.
Our WMC300E+ shows a more substantial aerodynamic gain, with drag reduction in the region of 25% via a refined, dual-channel version of our duct concept. What’s more, despite the duct’s importance to achieving those goals, it doesn’t dominate the bike’s appearance. Our work with Pininfarina has also explored how the duct can be turned into an eye-catching styling feature as well as an aerodynamic advantage.
In case you missed it, Stark’s plans were presented in a YouTube video, which you can see here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXYqKlD26Ng.
It’s going to be fascinating to see how the company goes about hitting the astronomic targets it’s imposed upon itself and we are excited to see them succeed.