Time for me to squeeze another blog from my reluctant brain.. J

Since my last enthusiastic warblings after my first encounter with electric motorcycles there has been feverish activity behind the scenes at Darvill Racing, the support given to me by Alex has continued and grown to ridiculous proportions! After that initial ride on the Zero at Le Mans there have been all manner of planet alignments, fog knitted, cats herded and opportunities maximised.

We’ve committed to a season racing electric bikes along side our traditional ICE (Intenal Combution Engined) bikes and have entered into a contracted factory support agreement with American electric vehicle producer Brammo. From this relationship we’ve decided the future of these things is so inevitably bright we’ve actually started a distribution company to sell and distribute the bikes as well as race and develop them. We’ve got a whole bucket load of history and experience in pushing motorbikes to the limit and we have some very interesting ideas for our R&D….I hope to be able to give sneak previews here when I have permission but they’re likely to be pretty game-changing so don’t expect schematics! J

We’ve got our ICE bikes all prepped and ready to go, the venerable MiniTwin spec SV650 has been freshen-ed with new fairings and some minor upgrades, taking care to keep it within the MinTwin regs and we’ve built a monster  Kawasaki Z1R Darvill special for the post Classic racing classes. It’s a mega brute. Its got more power and torque than we were expecting and its still jetted safe for it’s run-in period! It looks lovely too, a real nod to the Moriwaki specials of the 70s with the added class of a Darvill finish..:)

Here it is almost finished waiting for sponsors logos and numbers…

 The electric racing is becoming a global priority, that said there have been some teething problems getting the originally intended World race series ideas off the ground but we’ve been working with the good and the great of established race series’ to include electric bikes in their programmes…Race club legends Dave and Bernadette Stewart have demonstrated their well known open approach and have been really helpful trying to include us in their Thundersport GB series. A real Historical scoop is that we’ve had agreement from the Southern 100 club and ACU to allow us to start on the grid in the same races as the ICE bikes in the 125/400 class for the Southern 100 races, although electric bikes have ridden on mixed grids on the short circuits before this is the first time ever on a closed roads circuit. We’re also in the very late stages of getting final agreements from some very high profile European circuits for a fully supported and sanctioned European championships for electric bikes.

The racing prototype TTX P2

Other plans in the Darvill schedule will be various shows and exhibitions for racing and electric vehicle expo’s that will be shown on our websites and social media when they happen; Darvill Racing and Darvill Distribution

We’ve also scheduled in some private test days at The Jurby race track which will include the Darvill experience days which give people (anyone) the chance to join us when we test and ride the bikes which is something you just cant do anywhere else! Darvill Shop

The season started with our 1^st test and experience day this month with our 1^st race last weekend with a very successful start to the season. Write-up here: Race Report

A slightly less successful start to the season was when I had a coming together with a pick up truck on my road going Zx7. I’ve broken a few bones and tendons and been ruled out of the racing for at least the first half of the season. Healing seems to be pretty rapid though and I’ve got high hopes for an earlier than expected return..maybe even the Southern 100!.. J

I know this one’s pretty business like, there will be a return to my usual opinionated waffle in due course… J