Category: Lightning Motorcycles

Lightning Motorcycle Unveils the Strike

Post author By Wade Thiel
Post date March 28, 2019

It’s Here In All Its Glory

Lightning Motorcycles has teased its new Strike for weeks now, and the company finally revealed it. The bike gets three different battery configurations, each with its own range. The first is the Standard Strike and it has a range of 70 miles highway and 100 miles city per charge. The second is the Strike Mid-Range. It has a range of 105 highway miles and 150 city miles. The final version has a range of 200 miles in the city and is called the Strike Carbon Edition.

Only the Standard Strike gets the $12,998 price tag that was teased early on. The Mid-Range gets a $16,998 price tag, and the top-dog comes with a $19,998 price tag. That’s still considerably lower than the Harley LiveWire, but not quite as good as I was hoping.

All three models get a liquid-cooled, AC induction motor that puts out 90 horsepower and a massive 180 lb-ft of torque. That’s a crap ton of torque. All will work with Level 1 and Level 2 chargers. Level 3 fast charging can be added for $1,500.

With the Level 1 charger, you’re looking at an overnight charge. The Level 2 charger makes it take two to three hours. With the Level 3 charger, it’s only 35 minutes, and you can get 100 miles of range in just 20.

From a design and aesthetic standpoint, the Lightning Strike looks a lot like the LS-218. The Strike is less aggressive, but you can tell the two bikes are related. You can order a Performance package if you want that will add things like Öhlins suspension, Brembo brakes, and an AIM Strada racing dash. If I were buying one, that’d be on my list of options.

Overall, the Strike looks like a heck of a bike. The company priced it reasonably for what you get. I wish the base model offered a little more, but this seems to be where the technology sits at the moment.

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Lightning Motorcycles Teases Charging Info for the Strike

Post author By Wade Thiel
Post date March 8, 2019

Quick Charging Makes the Strike Look Even Better

Lightning Motorcycles is just about ready to debut its new Strike model. The Strike has electrified the motorcycle industry with claims of long 150 miles worth of battery power, 150 mph top speed, and a low price of $13,000. All that sounds well and good, but if the bike takes a long time to charge it won’t be a viable product. Well, according to new info from the company, it charges up pretty quick.

Lightning Motorcycles released the image below outlining the charge times for each level of charger out there, starting with the Level 1. The first level is any 110-volt plug at your house or really anywhere else you can find one. The Level 2 charger encompasses most of the public chargers across the country. The Level 3 chargers are the DC fast-charging stations that aren’t quite as plentiful.

Lightning Motorcycles Strike charging — Image from Lightning Motorcycles

Level 1 will take overnight, Level 2 takes a few hours, and Level 3 takes a quick 35 minutes. You can get a full 100 miles worth of juice in just 20 minutes. That’s long enough for you to take a break from riding and grab some lunch. Most riders would need a break after riding about 150 miles. Stopping for 35 minutes or 20 minutes at a Level 3 charger doesn’t seem like too much of an inconvenience.

With that said, Level 3 chargers aren’t everywhere. If they were, then the bike would make a ton of sense. With Level 2 chargers being the most common type of public charger, I was hoping the bike’s recharge time would be a little better. Still, these numbers are some of the best out there right now. I’m pumped to see the Lightning Motorcycles Strike when it officially debuts. It looks like it could be the best electric motorcycle out there for the money at the moment.

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Lighting Motorcycles Teases Image of the Strike

Post author By Wade Thiel
Post date February 15, 2019

The First Photo Looks Good

Lightning Motorcycle’s new Strike bike is set to be fully revealed in March. Until then, the company has to keep the attention of the media and interested prospective customers. Hence the latest teaser image. In the first photo of the Lightning Motorcycles’ Strike, you can see the bike’s electric motor.

The company doesn’t offer up too much new information other than stating that the Strike will get a liquid-cooled motor. That’s interesting but not a big shocker. Electric motors give off plenty of heat, just like gasoline engines do, so this isn’t too much of a surprise considering the kind of performance Lightning Motorcycles claims.

My electric motorcycle knowledge isn’t as good as it probably should be, but the three orange high-voltage cables connecting to what is most certainly a three-phase brushless motor and what appears to be lightweight aluminum have me pretty excited for what’s to come. As electrek points out, there’s also Öhlins suspension peeking in from the top left of the image.

All of this info together doesn’t really give you much concrete info. However, it does give you a small glimpse into what Lightning Motorcycles has going. The Strike is shaping up to be one of the best electric motorcycles to come out this year. Any other motorcycle manufacturers building electric bikes should probably be apprehensive about this bike.

If Lightning Motorcycles can stick to its $13,000 price tag, deliver bikes on time, and produce motorcycles with high quality, then the company might have a real winner on its hands. More info will come in March, and we can’t wait.

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Lightning Motorcycles Teases Strike’s Riding Position

Post author By Wade Thiel
Post date February 12, 2019

It’s a Bit More Upright

If you were worried that the Lightning Motorcycles Strike was going to have the same super-hunched riding position that the superbike has, then you can breathe easy. It will have a more upright riding position than the company’s LS-218.

This is good news. While the LS-218’s riding position is right for that particular bike, the mainstream Strike that Lightning Motorcycles will put out should be a little more relaxed so it can be used as an everyday bike. We’re not talking full cruiser status here, but something sporty but more upright.

Judging by an image that Lightning Motorcycles teased, the bike will have what looks like a very comfortable yet sporty riding position. In a release by the company, it said, “Strike is a motorcycle engineered for the track, but designed for the street.”

To me that says it’ll be a sportbike with a comfortable riding position and strong performance. In my mind, this is exactly what I hoped the bike would be. A hardcore electric sportbike for the street doesn’t make sense. Lightning Motorcycles already has the LS-218, and the Strike should be more of a mainstream machine. According to the image above it will be. As you can easily see, the rider sits more upright, putting less weight on wrists and arms. This is more comfortable for longer rides and everyday commuting.

This is yet another bit of information that bodes well for the Strike. If the company can deliver on its performance numbers and keep the price set at about $13,000, then it should put just about all other electric motorcycles to shame.

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Lightning Motorcycles Teases Its Second Model, the Lightning Strike

Post author By Wade Thiel
Post date January 17, 2019

A New Electric Motorcycle for the Masses

While the LS-218 electric motorcycle from Lighting Motorcycles is a high-dollar item designed for high-speed racing, the company’s second bike should be more pedestrian. The company just released a teaser for its new motorcycle called the Lighting Strike.

Lightning Motorcycles claims its new bike will “shock the industry in every dimension.” It shared only a few stats for the motorcycle and didn’t give us a full look just a couple of headlights. According to the company’s teaser, the new bike can reach 150 mph. It also has a range of 150 miles. Most importantly, you can recharge the battery in 35 minutes thanks to DC fast charging.

The best part of Lightning Motorcycle’s new bike? The price. The company says its new model will cost $12,998. With a starting price that low, Harley-Davidson must feel pretty silly. Harley wants to shill out the LiveWire for $30k and it only achieves about 100 miles per charge.

The Strike, as Lightning Motorcycles calls it, will launch in March of 2019. At that time, the company will have an official reveal. When that happens Lightning will show us all the little details that are omitted currently.

By the look of the teaser image, the bike will be a sportbike. The headlights give it away. Also, the company has experience with sportbikes. The LS-218 is a superbike that’s set land-speed records. It is, by all accounts, a crazy, electric machine. Hopefully, the new Strike motorcycle will be almost as impressive if not as impressive as the LS-218 Superbike.

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Lightning Motorcycles to Move Into New Headquarters

Post author By Wade Thiel
Post date December 22, 2018

Electric Power, Crazy Fast

There are a lot of innovative startups in the motorcycle industry, but most of these companies are more or less a joke. One of the legit ones is Lightning Motorcycles, which builds top-of-the-line electric motorcycles capable of truly high speeds.

The company recently announced it’s moving to a new San Jose, California, headquarters. That will enable the company to increase the fully electric LS-218 Superbike production.

Lightning Motorcycles is definitely something different from all of the other wannabe motorcycle startups out there. The company isn’t some techie pipe-dream. From the start, it has been about pushing the envelope.

In 2012, the company’s prototype set a record at the Bonneville Salt Flats with a top speed of 215 mph. The next year, the company’s bike sprinted to the top of Pike’s Peak faster than any other bike, electric or gas.

What a New Headquarters Brings

According to a press release, the new headquarters will allow the company to expand considerably. The new facility offers five times the square footage of the company’s current facility.

Not only will Lightning Motorcycles be able to build more of its LS-218 Superbike, but the new space will also allow for an in-house design studio. That design studio will focus on future projects and improving current ones.

Lightning Motorcycles LS-218 Superbike — Image from Lightning Motorcycles

The current LS-218 Superbike offers a fully electric powertrain that produces over 200 hp and has twice the torque of a MotoGP race bike. Lightning Motorcycles is owned by Richard Hatfield. Developed by Lightning from the ground up, the LS-218 is his vision. It’s also an exciting indication of what the future of electric sportbikes will look like.

I’m pretty pumped to see how Lightning evolves over time. I have a feeling the company has the staying power most of these other new electric motorcycle companies don’t have. Hatfield appears to be spending the company money in all the right ways.

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