The Ion Horse

Kingston University has spent seven months producing the 'Ion Horse' electric motorcycle (Code name ENRG900 TT) and is aiming to record the first ever 100mph lap in the forthcoming Isle of Man's TT Zero race. This year, YASA motors are supplying a YASA-750 motor fully integrated into the vehicle as part of our ongoing sponsorship of Kingston University and their green vehicle development program.

Using the very latest in battery technology (BMS system supplied by LiFeBATT) and a controller from Sevcon, the direct drive system means the bike can top 140mph and roar from 0-60mph in just three seconds. The Ion Horse is entirely powered by wind-energy from Ecotricity's 52 turbines and can travel 120 miles after a single five hour charge.

Ecotricity are Kingston University's main sponsor this year and has allowed the team to develop a ground breaking motorcycle. Ecotricity's founder Dale Vince has quoted "The guys at Kingston have built an amazing machine and we expect it to take the TT by storm," Vince said. "It's another great demonstration of how transport of the very near future will be: powered by renewable energy, made in Green Britain and with zero pollution."

.be

The Ion Horse at TTZero Qualifying (04-06-11)

Expecting to be one of the lead contenders for the £5,000 University prize, George Spence, Riding for Kingston University's 'Ion Horse' was first away from the startline on Glencrutchery Road. The team's instructions to George were to just put in a qualifying lap and take things easy. With this in mind, The Ion Horse clocked a time of 28:08 minutes with an average lap speed of 80.4mph on the Isle of Man's winding 37 mile course. We're not allowed to tell you how much energy George used but let's just say there's plenty more in the tank!

Results are as follows:

Position No. Rider Machine/Entrant Lap Time Speed

1 2 Michael Rutter MotoCzysz E1PC / MotoCzysz 92.779mph
2 10 George Spence Enrg 900 TT / Kingston University 81.823mph
3 11 Allan Brew BMW / MIT EVT 75.702mph
4 14 Yoshinari Matsushita Prozza TT Zero – 11 / Team Prozza 66.113mph
 

The Ion Horse at Qualifying 2 (06-06-11)

This time out George was asked to put in a 90mph lap and was ahead of schedule at Ramsey, however whilst exiting the left hander, George unfortunately clipped the curb with his footrest and snapped it clean off. As George had to hold his left leg out the side of the bike through the mountains, he made the decision to just get the bike back safely and cruised through the last part of the course.

Position No. Rider Machine/Entrant Lap Time Speed

1 2 Michael Rutter MotoCzysz E1PC / MotoCzysz 93.353mph
2 2 Mark Miller MotoCzysz E1PC / MotoCzysz 81.133mph
3 10 George Spence Enrg 900 TT / Kingston University 80.442mph
4 11 Allan Brew BMW / MIT EVT 78.53mph
5 14 Yoshinari Matsushita Prozza TT Zero – 11 / Team Prozza 62.906mph

The Ion Horse on Race Day (09-06-11)

Congratulations are in order for the Kingston Univeristy team and  in particular rider George Spence who came in third on Thursday's race! We're very proud of the team's efforts here at YASA Motors and that despite technical difficulties, the team were able to overcome and secure the £5,000 quickest university prize. See a short video containing some footage of the bike below:

http://blip.tv/rossifumi/2011-tt-zero-race-5263243

"After a fantastic two qualifiers, we then had a problem before the start of the race when our dashboard display failed. This is critical to give the rider the information he needs to enable him to push the bike to the limit but still have enough energy left in the batteries to finish the race. We quickly connected a digital volt meter and taped this to the bike with a set of voltages that would at least give George some idea of the battery capacity he had – it was not ideal but this is racing and you have to adapt.
We were the 7th bike to go out and gave George instructions to overtake at will and run with the 2 Motoczysz bikes at the front. At the first timing point he was 5th and by the second he was 4th, so all was going well (although his actual split times were slightly down on what we were hoping for). At the Sulby speed trap he was clocked at 120mph (again slightly down) and had picked up another place at the next timing point, putting him in 3rd  place but still some way off the 2 Motoczysz bikes. He finally came in a triumphant 3rd at 127mph across the finish line (15mph faster than the next quickest). We ran to the winner’s enclosure to congratulate George and discovering that he still had 25% left in the batteries. This meant that If we hadn’t had the dash problem he could have been running the same times as the Motoczysz bikes – very frustrating for us all!

So we know the bike will perform to its design specification and the Americans now realise we are a real threat! We were by far the quickest University, we beat the BMW team and are a force to be reckoned with.  In three years we have progressed from a DNF to 5th to 3rd and it was great to see George get his first ever podium at the TT and spraying the champagne.

Once again a huge thank you to everyone involved that made this possible, this was a real team effort."
Well done Kingston!

Results are as follows:

1 Michael Rutter / 2011 MotoCzysz E1PC / Segway Racing MotoCzysz 99.604
2 Mark Miller / 2011 MotoCzysz E1PC / Segway Racing MotoCzysz 98.288
3 George Spence / ION HORSE 2011 / Ecotricity Kingston 88.435
4 Allan Brew / BMW / MIT EVT 79.163
5 Yoshinari Matsushita / Prozza TT Zero - 11 / Team Prozza 69.877

Please follow the link below to see the post race press-conference: