Green bikes take to TT track

The Isle of Mann TT — a 100-year-old festival of screeching tyres, throbbing engines and high-octane thrills and spills — may seem an unlikely showcase for green technology. But next June, if all goes according to plan, TT racing week will host what is being billed as the world’s first clean-emissions grand prix.

Although there is plenty that can be done to tweak and enhance the performance of electric bikes, Brandon thinks it unlikely that Kingston’s vehicle will use the regenerative braking systems featured on high-performance electric cars such as the Tesla.

He said: ’Racing bikes brake at the last minute because the braking is very hard. Most of the time the back wheel is just lifting off the ground and because you have a rear-wheel drive vehicle, regenerative braking isn’t easy. Unless we can find a way of hooking it up to the front wheel without incurring a weight penalty, the system is unlikely on a racing bike.’

Although Brandon is also keen to improve the efficiency of the vehicle through the use of lightweight materials such as carbon-fibre, he admitted these are not likely to be particularly ’green’.

So, while the use of emissions-free propulsions systems is a good place to start, Brandon anticipates future outings of the TTxGP. That way bike manufacturers can look at every aspect of a vehicle’s carbon footprint and take into account factors such as the emissions used to generate the electricity, or the environmental costs of manufacturing the materials, motors and batteries.

’One thought is that we could say to the competitors “you could have this many-mega joules of energy in whatever form you like and you use it as efficiently as you can”.’