2009 EV-0 RR Electric Motorcycle - No Oil Leak from this British Bike

Rick Simpson and the crew at Evo Design Solutions know a thing or two about speed, having worked on grand-prix motorcycles and Le Mans race cars. Now they're applying that expertise to a race-ready electric motorcycle as unusual as it is innovative.

Everything about the EV-0 RR seems to break from traditional motorcycle design: the carbon-fiber monocoque chassis, the forkless single-sided front suspension and the twin electric motors propelling it all. The irony is these ideas have been around for decades. The first monocoque bike hit the track in 1967, single-sided front suspension appeared in 1949 and the earliest patents for electric motorcycles were filed in the late 1860s.

But Evo is updating all this technology and packaging it in a greener motorcycle promised to deliver the thrill of a fossil-fuel burning crotch rocket when it lines up on the grid at the TTXGP zero-emissions grand prix in June.

"It will offer the performance of a superbike," Simpson told Wired.com. "I'm quite confident of that."

It will have to if the British engineering firm hopes to stand out in the growing field of high-performance electric motorcycles.