Crossing the continent: electric motorcycles race across America

People have been making the North American transcontinental trip from sea-to-shining-sea ever since Lewis and Clark cleared the first path to the Pacific back in 1806. The journey has been managed on horseback, covered wagons, trains, planes and automobiles. Now, it's been done by electric motorcycles. Twice.

Last week, both the Moto Electra Racing expedition and Terry Hershner's solo effort traveled the length of the Interstate 10 – in opposite directions – to view both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans within the span of a few days. With the ultimate goal of finishing first, and secondarily, fast enough to set an enduring record, the race was on.

Each team took decidedly different approaches.

Each team took decidedly different approaches. Moto Electra towed a generator behind its chase vehicle to make up for the lack of charging infrastructure and keep the classic-looking Norton replica well fed. Hershner, on the other hand, took more of a hunter-gatherer approach, harvesting electrons for his streamlined 2012 Zero S from whatever source he could find, typically RV parks and charging stations.

This gave the Moto Electra guys an obvious advantage, since there was no need to track down charging stations that might be occupied, or worse, out of service. Still, out on the road, anything can happen and there could be no guarantee of success.
Hershner was the first to hit the road – perhaps unadvisedly, since he was already sleep deprived – and soon hit his first obstacle: Los Angeles traffic. Cars were backed up for miles, crawling along, whilst at the head of the jam, a California Highway Patrol unit had its lights flashing, inexplicably restricting vehicular flow. Nice.

Heavy duty congestion was to become a recurring them over the next couple days. A car and tractor-trailer made unfortunate contact, backing things up near Gila Bend, AZ. An impaired driver struck a bridge outside of Lordsburg, NM, precipitating the temporary closure of the highway to allow a helicopter to land and whisk the injured motorist to a hospital.

The motor was rendered useless and would need to be swapped out. Unfortunately, he wasn't carrying a spare.

Then came Texas. The Lone Star state had thrown a wrench in the works during Terry's previous record-setting trip and sure enough, it was there that the venture faced its biggest challenge. In the quiet burg of Katy, just west of Houston, the motor cooling fan failed after some previous tinkering allowed a bolt to come loose. The motor was rendered useless and would need to be swapped out. Unfortunately, he wasn't carrying a spare and didn't have access to a shop. Fortunately, Zero could ship one overnight and our protagonist, seasoned road warrior that he is, wasn't afraid to attempt open motorcycle surgery in a parking lot. Meanwhile though, the Moto Electra team had just left the beach at Jacksonville, FL.

With former AMA racer Thad Wolff in the saddle, team manager Brian Richardson and a small crew from James Madison University close behind to deal with the technical side of things, the Virginia-based team followed a conservative approach. Although they had a relatively sizable battery pack capable of at least covering 150 miles at a go, they chose to charge their retro-electro Norton at 120-mile intervals and avoid deep discharges.



With the traffic and weather cooperating, Moto Electra chewed up the miles like a dog on its favorite bone. Regular tweets from a Twitter account set up specifically for the trip showed an unrelenting progress towards the Santa Monica pier. Things were looking good. Mr. Hershner, however, hadn't given up.

The Zero back in one piece and rubber side down, Terry pushed on through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama. The battle wasn't quite over though. Despite being called the Sunshine State, Florida gets a lot of rain – torrential rain – and was freely dishing it out as the black streamlined bike entered the home stretch. Still, Hershner fought on and, thoroughly soaked, arrived on a Jacksonville pier the better part of six days from the beginning of his epic journey. Too tired, we imagine, to holler "Firsties!".

The next day, Moto Electra Racing reached the Pacific, exactly 84.5 hours after beginning their run, laying down a time that's going to be tough to beat in the near future.

Moto Electra Racing reached the Pacific exactly 84.5 hours after beginning their run.

So, what do these two trips signify? Well, Terry proved what can be done with a little ingenuity using the existing charging infrastructure. Long distance journeys are the historical weak point in electric vehicle ownership, but even with this electric revival in its infancy, crossing the vastness of America is not impossible. Perhaps, it's not yet ready for the mainstream, but the tide seems to be turning in the favor of electric mobility.

And when charging infrastructure is ready for the mainstream, what will such a 2,400-mile transcontinental trip look like? Perhaps a lot like the the three-and-a-half day adventure enjoyed by Moto Electra with charging available when and where you need it.

You can keep up with Tery Hershner's future two-wheeled travels (he has a lot more long distance riding planned for the near future) on his Off The Grid Facebook page. As for Moto Electra, you can similarly "like" its Facebook feed and get more details on its record-setting venture in the official press release below.