The world’s fastest woman biker

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The world’s fastest woman biker
Wednesday, 11 February 2015

Eva Håkansson is the fastest woman motorcyclist in the world (270.224 mph top speed); what’s more amazing she did it on the world’s fastest motorcycle sidecar.

But wait, there’s more –  the bike concerned, KillaJoule,  is also the fastest electric motorcycle in the world with an official speed record of 240.726mph set at Bonneville.

Oh, and did we mention Eva is also an engineer and designed and built the KillaJoule herself, with help as crew chief from her partner Bill Dube, who built KillaCycle the world’s quickest electric bicycle – 0-100 km/h in less than 1 second, and the standing ¼ mile in 7.82 seconds at 168mph.

We chatted to Eva and Bill in New Zealand at the EVolocity event held at Ruapuna Speedway in Christchurch late last year.

An initiative of the Association for the Promotion of Electric Vehicles (APEV), EVolocity aims to promote the use of electric vehicles while also encouraging New Zealanders to innovate, invent and become involved in the future of transport.

This year’s event highlights included:

  • A race between the world’s fastest electric drag motor bike and the fastest drag motor bike in the South Island. 
  • An action packed event featuring 16 Canterbury high school teams who have developed their own custom design and built electric vehicles 
  • A showcase of three world record holding electric vehicles from the US, plus New Zealand’s first Tesla S.
  • A race between a Ferrari and the high performance Tesla Roadster.
  • Kevin Clemens, who set 11 world, US National and US East Coast land speed records with electric motorcycles built in his Minnesota workshop.
  • A Dragon’s Den where inventors and innovators will go head to head for potential investor backing.

And, of course, there was Eva!

Some facts and figures on KillaJoule

Weight: 660kg
Length:  5.6 m
Height: 0.96 m
Motor: EVO Electric AFM-240 (AC)
Batteries : A123 Systems lithium nano phosphate 375 V
Total – power about 300kW.

KillaCycle was built by Bill and has the same battery technology, but driving two DC series motors, It can be recharged after each run in four minutes, and uses less than 10c of electricity each run.