san carlos california 2006 2006 founder richard hatfield headquarters san carlos california united states area served north america products lightning ls 218 website lightningmotorcycle.com lightning motorcycle corp. is an american manufacturer of electric motorcycles . ceo and founder richard hatfield started the company in 2006 from san carlos california . founder hatfield looked to convert a motorbike to electric with lithium batteries after participating in an electric porsche race team . lightning motorcycle then converted a former yamaha r1 race bike to electric in 2006 . the bike featured over 60 horsepower about 70 foot pounds of torque and a top speed of 100 mph . 1 in 2008 lightning developed a lithium battery induction motor atv to be used for military border control law enforcement and search and rescue . the lightning bike set a new land speed record with an average of 173.388 mph at the bub motorcycle speed trials on the bonneville salt flats . 2 it later set a new record in 2012 with a 2 way average of 215.96 mph and a top speed of 218.96 mph in bonneville . in 2012 the solar powered barracuda lightning bike won the joint egrandprix ttxgp and fim epower electric motorcycle racing series at the mazda raceway laguna seca with rider michael barnes . 3 rider carlin dunne and lightning s ls 218 superbike won the motorcycle field at pikes peak in 2013 making it the first electric bike to beat out all its gas powered counterparts . 4 richard hatfield said about the pikes peak win it was great . the lightning team and its sponsors did an incredible job bringing is all to its culmination of a goal we set ourselves fours years ago to compete head to toe against the best gasoline powered vehicles in the world . 5 with a top speed of 218 mph the ls 218 has been named one of the fastest motorcycles in production . 6 7 8 while the website and all of the marketing efforts imply that these bikes are being currently produced especially since they had a ceremony to honor the delivery of the first bike 9 these bikes are still far from production . this is evident by there only being places on the website to reserve a bike as opposed to any information on how to actually purchase one . 10 references edit crowe paul . electric yamaha r1 lightning lithium . the kneeslider . retrieved 20 january 2015 . lightning motors sets land speed record . motorcycle.com . sep 8 2010 . retrieved 20 january 2015 . yoney domenick . michael barnes wins joint ttxgp fim epower round on solar power . autoblog . retrieved 20 january 2015 . lavrinc damon . lightning s electric motorcycle dominates pikes peak . wired . retrieved 22 january 2015 . interview with richard hatfield lightning motorcycle and winner at pikes peak 2013 . carnewscafe.com . blain loz . too fast too strong too scary electric lightning ls 218 will be the fastest production bike on the planet . gizmag . retrieved 22 january 2015 . avant jason . world s fastest production electric motorcycle . ride apart . retrieved 22 january 2015 . keeshin ben . who cares that lightning s ls 218 is electric it s the fastest motorcycle money can buy . maxim tech . retrieved 22 january 2015 . http lightningmotorcycle.com worlds first electric street legal superbike delivered . missing or empty title help http lightningmotorcycle.com reserve now . missing or empty title help external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title lightning motorcycle & oldid 698467662 categories motorcycle manufacturers of the united statescompanies established in 20062006 establishments in californiahidden categories pages with citations lacking titlespages with citations having bare urls navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 6 january 2016 at 08 47 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view