Orange County Choppers And Lawless Industries Break The Quarter Mile World Record For Battery Powered Motorcycle

Legendary drag racer Larry ‘Spiderman’ McBride rode the 363 volt, 4000 amp electric bike assembled by Orange County Choppers to a 7.469, 177 miles per hour quarter-mile pass shattering the existing world record of 7.82 seconds at 168mph. The historical accomplishment was recorded at Virginia Motorsports Park located near Petersburg, VA on September 24, 2010 (video after the jump.) The team says that a speed of 200mph is quite possible with this bike once they manage to find more horsepower to put to the pavement. Next up is the current land speed record for an electric motorcycle recently set at 179 miles per hour this past September at the famous Bonneville Salt Flats in northwestern Utah.

The Lawless Electric Drag bike is sponsored by AEK Packaging and Aaron Equipment Company, both companies are based in Bensenville, IL. The bike puts out over 600 horsepower, contains an electric DC Drive System, and a GE 13 inch Motor with a double Zilla controller. The  OCC building of this drag bike and the record attempt will be featured in an episode of American Chopper, “Senior aginst Junior” tonight, Thursday, October 7 at 9PM ET/PT on TLC.

22 Responses to “Orange County Choppers And Lawless Industries Break The Quarter Mile World Record For Battery Powered Motorcycle”


  1. 1 CHOPMONSTER66 Oct 7th, 2010 at 2:41 pm

    DAMN !!!! THAT THING HAS SOME BALLS!!!

  2. 2 chicagojohn Oct 7th, 2010 at 6:02 pm

    WOW!

  3. 3 Irish Rose Oct 7th, 2010 at 6:07 pm

    I noticed the bike fishtailed a touch at the start. I wonder how fast it would have been if it didn’t do that.

  4. 4 Iron Horse Oct 7th, 2010 at 6:28 pm

    Pretty impressive, but that electric motor whine will never replace the thunder of a nitro Harley or the smell of burnt nitro fumes no matter how fast it goes.

  5. 5 Bob Walker Oct 7th, 2010 at 10:09 pm

    Wow – OCC does something new. What other amazing thing feat can Sr. attempt? I know…make peace with his son.

  6. 6 justthetruth Oct 7th, 2010 at 11:05 pm

    it was not built by occ. it was assembled by them…… and paul sr. makinng the comment on american chopper id like to see paully build that. WHAT??? ya its so hard to order a frame and make some electric motor mounts order wheels and tires and forks and assemble them while the other company comes in to make it work by connecting the batteries and all electical. so occ did what anyone with a toolbox and a phone(to order parts) could do for this bike

  7. 7 bajerry Oct 7th, 2010 at 11:13 pm

    I’m still not going to ride an electric bike, Please help me..understand what this is all about, they also make turbojet bikes with helocopter motors, Leno has one, but I ain’t going to ride one of them eather. Most normal bikers aren’t gizillionars..BFD occ is still a joke.

  8. 8 Martin Oct 8th, 2010 at 12:28 am

    I thought to be a record holder it had to be at a race event .If this was not a sanctioned event they did not break the world record in drag racing and lawless knows this if he is s drag racer . To break the world record it has to be at an event by NHRA or IHRA to break it , maybe in the guiness world record but not in the eyes of NHRA or IHRA so I think im right but could be wrong

  9. 9 Doc Robinson Oct 8th, 2010 at 6:21 am

    I was there at the unveiling and the first demo at the Sturgis drag strip. And boy, it does go like a cut snake. And yes, the bike is the answer, to a question that nobody asked. As usual, anything about OCC brings out the haters in droves. Get a life guys. As for justthetruth’s weird comment that it was not built by OCC, say what? And for him to say that building a bike is just a matter of ordering parts and then bolting them together, well that displays a total ignorance of the planning, craftsmanship and high level of skill that is required to build something like this. And c’mon people, Paul Sr’s baiting of Paul Jr has always been an integral part of the show’s appeal. Not to me and not to many bikers maybe, but it’s the same deal that wrestler’s put on and it still drives up the ratings. Ratings = Dollars.

  10. 10 LeftTenant Oct 8th, 2010 at 8:02 am

    Whoa! A lot of hummmmm about what this bike can do on a tankful of electrons. It’s all good with me–we are seeing new possibilities with the hybrids and electrics. Who knows what all this will open up?

  11. 11 burnout Oct 8th, 2010 at 9:20 am

    I wonder how much the batteries cost. Also, how long does a battery last? Just wonderin. peace

  12. 12 rat shop Oct 8th, 2010 at 9:21 am

    bring that bike at the next level guy!!!!!

  13. 13 Mike Tomas Kiwi Indian MotorCycle Co Oct 8th, 2010 at 9:59 am

    We had an electric dirt bike rider on our antique mc road run in Death Valley a few days ago. In about 30 miles it was done. It had to be loaded onto the trailer and taken to home base to be recharged. 9,000.00 worth of mc. Its easier to bring a can of gas to a mc and then go on your way than haul a mc to an electrical outlet and wait for it to charge.

  14. 14 burnout Oct 8th, 2010 at 11:48 am

    I know the future. One day we will be able to pull into a charge station and still get two dollars worth!!! peace

  15. 15 aaronxs400 Oct 8th, 2010 at 12:25 pm

    Martin, you dont know what your talking about. There is no sanction for these guys unless you count NEDRA. Killacycle holds the record there at 7.86, but its still not as fast as the 7.82 that the killacycle has ran before (at an AHDRA event i believe). with something like this NHRA and IHRA has no sanctioning rules. its anyones game.

  16. 16 RecordedRecord? Oct 8th, 2010 at 4:54 pm

    Ummm, the video above does not show what the article states…the time in the vid was 7.77 and the speed was 165 something…

  17. 17 golfish Oct 8th, 2010 at 11:15 pm

    “we had an electric dirt bike rider on our antique mc road run in Death Valley a few days ago. In about 30 miles it was done”

    Pretty much raps it up, Doc…….right?

  18. 18 Hugh G Rection Oct 10th, 2010 at 11:37 pm

    I watch American Chopper, and OCC no longer just orders parts and assembles a bike…. they seem to make pretty much everything on the bike, including the frame, wheels, tank, and so on. Ya ya ya, the used to order a lot of that stuff out of a catalog, but now they have the machinery and expertise to build pretty much anything.. So ya, the haters out there are just jealous of OCC’s success.

  19. 19 Drew Oct 11th, 2010 at 9:59 am

    2010 BUB Speed Trials – Bonneville Salts Flats
    There were two electric bikes competing

    “Lightning Motors”
    AMA National Record (pending ratification)
    173.36MPH

    Granted, most of us are used to internal combustion, but how can one not admit the awesome power from these electric machines. There is no power curve to speak of. Press the button and within a millisecond they go from off to full capacity power.

  20. 20 david Oct 11th, 2010 at 11:41 am

    @ Bob Walker
    something new ?
    maybe nobody here ever heard about Killacycle ?
    come on guys, do your homework (Cyril) and refer to the real electric dragster bike
    http://www.killacycle.com/

    cheers

  21. 21 J Oct 12th, 2010 at 10:09 am

    Yawn- moving past the point that it’s fugly (seriously, does this crew do anything more than ugly, circa 1975 “old school” anymore?), it’s rather pointless to even care about records for electric bikes;

    Need more power? Hmm- turn up the voltage, stick more batteries on it- whoopie. Why not run a 3 sec quarter? Just need enough volts and batteries….. Why not put a JATO on it, too- that would be just as relevant as electric.

    At least the kid is building bikes with some style, even if the Geico bike is a Teddy Jr homage……. But this electric bike is completely pointless- won’t convince anyone to buy one, won’t generate any interest in electric that already doesn’t exist- because this bike doesn’t solve any problems inherent to electric vehicles, and most importantly, won’t impress anyone with OCC’s ability to craft sharp bikes.

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