American motorcycle brand Curtiss has revealed the images of the V8 battery electric concept motorcycle called ‘Zeus Radial V8’, inspired by the Glenn Curtiss’ 1907 V8 motorcycle which had set a land speed record of 219.35 kmph (136.3 mph) on Ormand Beach, Florida.
The brand has claimed a battery capacity of 16.8 kWh at 399V which uses a Cascadia Motion PM100 Propulsion Inverter producing 217 HP of power and 199.3 Nm of torque. The V-shaped gasoline engine design has been created by a unique V8-style battery arrangement using 8 cylindrical battery packs that stick out of the central terminal of the motorcycle. The design has been created by Curtiss designer Jordan Cornille and the open design helps cool the batteries faster without having a complex battery cooling system. The powertrain is still under development and other specifics such as top speed and acceleration figures have been revealed yet.
In terms of styling, the electric motorcycle gets a sculpted swooping skeletal frame, and the hot-rod is expected to be made out of high-quality materials. The bike is kept minimal and has a see through design.
For the mechanical hardware, the Radial V8 gets a 1.75-inch Titanium or Chromoly tubular, hand welded and machined 6061 aluminium-fusion chassis and rides on a double-wishbone parallelogram fork with machined 6061 aluminium girders cushioned by a RaceTech monoshock, fully-adjustable for high and low-speed compression and rebound damping with 6-inch travel on the front and a machined 6061 aluminium swingarm with centerline RaceTech monoshock with two-speed compression and rebound damping on the rear which also has a 6-inch suspension travel. The wheels are 18-inch BST carbon fibre shod in 110/80 front and 160/60 tubeless tyres. The braking duties are performed by 230 MM Beringer floating aeronal cast iron discs with four-piston Beringer radially-mounted Aerotec callipers on both front and rear wheels.
The Zeus V8 is expected to go in production by the year 2020 and is likely to come with a hefty price tag of USD 75,000.
