Bizarro Corp.’s on-line retailer has a T-shirt that reads “café racer is lifeless.” It’s somewhat wealthy coming from a {custom} workshop with various café racers of their portfolio. Then once more, the Spanish crew isn’t precisely recognized for being typical.
For those who want proof, we’d prefer to current ‘Esputnik II’: an electrical drag racing ‘bitsa’ that doubles up as a canvas for kinetic artwork. Constructed with Zero and Suzuki elements, and painted by the up to date artist Felipe Pantone, it’s the proper instance of Bizarro’s unhinged creativity. And it was one of many stars of the latest Glemseck 101 racing pageant.
It’s an evolution of ‘Estputnik I’—a motorbike that Bizarro constructed three years in the past, once they determined to shift their focus to electrical bikes. They began by pulling the brushless electrical motor from a Zero DSR, good for 157 Nm of torque in inventory guise. That was shoved right into a scratch-built metal chassis, alongside a salvaged electrical automobile battery.
Bizarro took Esputnik I to the Wheels and Waves occasion that 12 months, and completed fourth within the fabled Punk’s Peak race. Then a world pandemic hit, and the workforce had time on their fingers to place some extra thought—and elbow grease—into their creation.
Armed with a digital render of what the Esputnik II ought to appear like, Bizarro stripped the primary iteration’s haphazard bodywork off and began over. Work on the entrance finish started with a wireframe, over which the crew hand-formed a brand new aluminum fairing. It’s vaguely paying homage to old-style dustbin fairings, simply a lot much less curvaceous.
A modern cowl sits atop the body spine the place you’d anticipate finding a gas tank. Behind that could be a slim tail unit that echoes trendy hyper-bikes just like the Kawasaki Ninja H2.
Esputnik’s unique chassis has gone largely unchanged beneath the brand new bodywork. It’s a stretched-out metal affair with a inflexible rear finish, constructed particularly for going quick in a straight line. A crude chain guard covers the left facet of the rear triangle, and the foot pegs are simply brief bits of tubing welded on to the body.
Propping up the bike are the forks and wheels from a 2000-model Suzuki GS500. There’s just one brake—a Brembo unit mounted up entrance—however there’s additionally a regenerative engine braking system that helps to sluggish the bike down.
Bizarro fine-tuned the drivetrain on this model of Esputnik too. The unique motor continues to be in play, however the battery’s been swapped out for a brand new one from Zero. And the gearing’s been fettled to optimize the bike for dash races.
The modifications have introduced the highest velocity down from 195 km/h to 165 km/h. However the trade-off is that Esputnik does zero to 60 in 3.1 seconds—matching the Zero SR/S and Yamaha R1.
Energy is managed by way of a Domino throttle, hooked as much as bare-bones clip-on bars. With one brake lever, and no switches or speedo, there’s little or no happening within the cockpit.
A lot of the bike’s operations occur by way of a custom-made management field, mounted to the correct of the battery. It options three fighter jet-type toggle switches; the primary turns the bike on, the second is the starter, and the third does the equal of placing the bike into gear. There’s a small cost indicator too.
As for the disruptive art work, that was all Felipe Pantone’s doing. Bizarro merely handed the bike over to him, giving him free rein to coat the construct in his signature type.
Recent off the block, they then took the bike to Glemseck to duke it out with different eye-popping electrical race bikes. They got here away with second place, dropping solely to a 171 hp Energica. It’s a good outcome, however Bizarro aren’t fairly completed.
Forged a watch over Esputnik’s wiring and finishes, and every part feels a bit slap-dash. However there’s methodology within the insanity—that is successfully a rolling prototype, with rather more growth deliberate.
Because of the simplicity of electrical drivetrains, and their modular nature, there are infinite methods through which Bizarro can reconfigure their race bike to go quicker. And quicker is the aim; the workforce is planning to sort out the famed Bonneville salt flats, with a goal of 262 mph.
How they plan to hit that concentrate on continues to be a thriller, however one factor’s for positive: we will’t wait to see how Esputnik III seems.
Bizarro Corp. | Instagram | Pictures by Bizarro Corp and Felipe Pantone
