Forget thunderbolts, check out the Lightning LS218!

The Lightning LS218 is officially the world’s fastest production motorcycle, and the bad news – for petrol-heads anyway – is the fact that this is no conventional bike. It’s completely electric with one moving part in the liquid-cooled 380-volt motor.

There’s no traction or wheelie control on this production bike, and there’s no gearbox either.

Being permanently locked in top gear, the LS218 has no clutch and a direct drive system, means the drudgery of routine maintenance has pretty much been eliminated. Of course, you still need to clean the bike from time to time, to keep it looking good – and yes, it does look good.

What do the numbers look like? OK, you have a top speed of 218mph or 350kmh as recorded at Bonneville Salt Flats, which means the Lightning is the world’s fastest production bike to date. Oh yes, and it annihilated its competition at Pikes Peak as an encore, just because the Bonnie Salt Flats have a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ to limit recorded top speeds.

The Lightning weighs in at 225kg, err ‘wet’ and puts out around 200hp with 227.7Nm of torque on tap from instant.

It has three battery options to determine the range of the bike, which can be anywhere from 120 to 180 miles or 193 to 289kms. Charging the battery takes 30 minutes using DC.

With all of the data in funny measurements, you’ve probably worked out that the Lightning hails from Trumps-ville and you’d be right. A factory in San Carlos, California produces the Lightning, and so far, 150 have been built to retail at US$38,800 each, around NZD$52,977.

I’ll have two, thanks. Cheers Lotto.