Bizarro Corp’s online the store had a t-shirt that said “café racer is dead”. A bit of richness comes from a custom workshop with some cafe racer in their investment portfolio. Then again, the Spanish crew isn’t exactly known to be conventional.
If you need proof, we would recommend ‘Esputnik II’: electricity drag racing ‘bitsa’ doubles as a canvas for kinetic art. Crafted with parts by Zero and Suzuki, and painted by contemporary artist Felipe Pantone, it’s the perfect example of Bizarro’s relentless creativity. And it was one of the stars of the last Germseck 101 racing festival.
It was an evolution of the ‘Estputnik I’ – the bike that Bizarro built three years ago, when they decided to shift the focus to electric motorcycle. They start by pulling the brushless electric motor from the Zero DSR, which delivers 157 Nm of torque. It was crammed into a scratched steel frame, along with a salvaged electric vehicle battery.
Bizarro took the Esputnik I to that year’s Wheels and Waves event and finished fourth in the legendary Punk’s Peak race. Then, a global pandemic hit, and the team had time to put some extra thought — and grease — into their work.
Armed with a digital rendering of the look and feel of the Esputnik II, Bizarro stripped away the messy bodywork of the first version and started over. Work on the front end began with a wireframe, through which the team hand-crafted a new aluminum crank. It’s vaguely reminiscent of old-fashioned, much less rounded trash cans.
A sleek shell sits atop the backbone where you’d expect to find the gas tank. Behind is a slim tail section with the sound of modern hyper-bikes like the Kawasaki Ninja H2.
The original chassis of the Esputnik is barely changed underneath the new bodywork. It’s a long-lasting steel tie with a sturdy rear end, built specifically to go fast in a straight line. A raw chain guard covers the left side of the rear triangle, and the footpegs are just short pieces of pipe welded directly to the frame.
Supporting the bike are forks and wheels from a 2000 Suzuki GS500. There’s only one brake – a Brembo front-mounted unit – but there’s also a regenerative engine braking system that helps slow the car down.
Bizarro has also tweaked the powertrain on this Esputnik version. The original motor is still running, but the battery has been replaced for a new motor from Zero. And the gear shifting has been fetched to optimize the bike for sprint races.
The changes helped reduce the top speed from 195 km/h to 165 km/h. But the trade-off is that the Esputnik gets from 0 to 60 in 3.1 seconds – matching the Zero SR/S and Yamaha R1.
Power is controlled via a Domino throttle, connected to bare-bones clamps. With a brake lever, and no switches or speedometer, very little happens in the cockpit.
Most of the bike’s operations take place via a custom control box, mounted to the right of the battery. It has three fighter-style toggle switches; The first one turns the bike around, the second one starts, and the third does the equivalent of putting the bike into gear. There is a small charge indicator too.
As for out-of-the-ordinary artwork, that’s all Felipe Pantone is doing. Bizarro simply gave the bike to him, leaving him free to control to paint the bike in his signature style.
Then, they took the bike to Geraltseck to compete against other eye-catching electric racing bikes. They finished in second place, only losing to Energica 171 hp. It’s a respectable result, but Bizarro isn’t done yet.
Pay attention to the wiring and finish of the Esputnik, and everything looks a bit messy. But still methodical in the madness – this is really a test prototype, with more development planned.
Thanks to the simplicity of their electric powertrains and their modular nature, there are countless ways that Bizarro can reconfigure their racing bike to go faster. And faster To be purpose; the group is planning to tackle the famous Bonneville salt flats, with a goal of 262 mph.
How they intend to hit that target remains a mystery, but one thing is for sure: we can’t wait to see how Esputnik III plays out.
Bizarro Corp. | Instagram | Pictures of Bizarro Corp and Felipe Pantone
