It’s Here In All Its Glory
Lightning Motorcycles has teased its new Strike for weeks now, and the company finally revealed it. The bike gets three different battery configurations, each with its own range. The first is the Standard Strike and it has a range of 70 miles highway and 100 miles city per charge. The second is the Strike Mid-Range. It has a range of 105 highway miles and 150 city miles. The final version has a range of 200 miles in the city and is called the Strike Carbon Edition.
Only the Standard Strike gets the $12,998 price tag that was teased early on. The Mid-Range gets a $16,998 price tag, and the top-dog comes with a $19,998 price tag. That’s still considerably lower than the Harley LiveWire, but not quite as good as I was hoping.
All three models get a liquid-cooled, AC induction motor that puts out 90 horsepower and a massive 180 lb-ft of torque. That’s a crap ton of torque. All will work with Level 1 and Level 2 chargers. Level 3 fast charging can be added for $1,500.
With the Level 1 charger, you’re looking at an overnight charge. The Level 2 charger makes it take two to three hours. With the Level 3 charger, it’s only 35 minutes, and you can get 100 miles of range in just 20.
From a design and aesthetic standpoint, the Lightning Strike looks a lot like the LS-218. The Strike is less aggressive, but you can tell the two bikes are related. You can order a Performance package if you want that will add things like Öhlins suspension, Brembo brakes, and an AIM Strada racing dash. If I were buying one, that’d be on my list of options.
Overall, the Strike looks like a heck of a bike. The company priced it reasonably for what you get. I wish the base model offered a little more, but this seems to be where the technology sits at the moment.
Sounds like bogus advertising to me.
A far cry from $13,000 to $20,000.
I’m an internal combustion guy.
Screw electrics.
everyone was excited about the specs and price a month ago
it was incredibly obvious those specs would only be for the top version.
13k for 70 miles?
that’s a joke
Level 3 charging could be a game-changer for electric motorcycles. While I enjoy my ICE bike, I understand some of the issues that it’s wonderful sounding, carbon-based exhaust creates. We may be going to an all-electric infrastructure, and I’m betting that motorcyclists won’t be the ones to make that decision. If so, I’d rather ride an electric bike than not ride at all. Level 3 makes electric bike touring possible.
Agreed. If they can beef up the infrastructure so they’re readily available, people will not be so worried about range.
$20 grand eh? That’s decent cake for 200 miles, but still $5-$8k too high for it to see mass adoption.
But we’re getting there.
And if I made good cake, I might pick something like this up.
A lot of coin for a short ride, but more than 70 mi and your Butt would be crying with the wafer seat!