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Max Biaggi: "at 470 km/h on the Voxan the leathers burn on your skin!"

"My leathers are very tight in every point, but obviously at those speeds it is all extremely relative. This minimal flutter of the leathers at very high frequency generates heat on my skin, almost to the point of burning"

News: Max Biaggi: "at 470 km/h on the Voxan the leathers burn on your skin!"

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Max Biaggi is truly a victim of what in America is called 'the need for speed'. You can understand this by reading his post on Facebook in which he confesses his feelings and emotions experienced in his recent (successful) record attempt riding the Voxan electric motorcycle he helped to develop.

You can read and comment on his FB profile.

 

Hi guys,

I haven't been heard from for a while. The World Championship ended and last week I flew to Florida to Cape Canaveral, precisely to the John F. Kennedy Space Center, which is the NASA spacecraft launch facility.

Obviously, entering such an iconic place is an incredible emotion and it is even more so considering that, on the same runways where the Space Shuttles landed, I would have reached speeds unimaginable until recently, riding a futuristic motorcycle, driven by an electric thruster.

In these eight days, together with the entire Voxan Motors crew, we prepared to break the records we had set just over a year ago and to set new ones. The weather didn't always help us, but in the end we managed to achieve 21 records!

It was an amazing adventure, which I experienced differently from the first time. I knew what to expect and I focused on some details, which I had not evaluated last time.

What an adrenaline rush guys! It is something that overwhelms you !!! In those moments when you are sitting on the bike and waiting for the green light to start, a thousand thoughts quickly pass through your mind. The grey ribbon of the runway seems endless and blends into the sky! You check all the procedures and try not to think about the fact that you will fly at half the speed of sound, with the wind trying to impose its will!

Then you set off and after endless moments on the instrument display you read 470 km/h! Crazy …… At that speed your leathers on your arms and back vibrate. And to say that my obsessiveness always leads me to take care of everything down to the smallest detail. My suits are super tight at every point, but obviously at those speeds it's all extremely relative. This minimal flutter of the leathers at very high frequency generates heat on my skin, almost to the point of burning. It almost seems as if I’m out and about with my Vespa in a t-shirt at 100 km/h. Incredible, I’ve never had so much adrenaline in the body!

Then it must be said that when you exceed certain speeds, the classic hiss coming from the electric propulsion is transformed, becoming similar to the roar of an airplane taking off. Wowwww!

Once the goal has been reached, it is not over, because "to go back down to Earth" you have to brake! Here at those speeds it is not easy at all, You have to take care of the rear tyre and take into account that the temperature, which in MotoGP is an ally for performance, could become your worst enemy here! In that moment you listen to the noise, the smells and your senses come into play in the service of your instinct. Furthermore, you have to brake at a specific point to avoid going off the track. This is why we decided to put cones in the braking corridor, which would indicate the exact point in which to start braking. Well you won't believe it, in the days when we prepared the various records, we had to progressively bring the cones towards the centre of the track and we increased their size! Incredible, it was so hard to see them. The brain is not used to travelling at those speeds and due to the strong turbulence, the contours of reality are often confused, partializing the vision. Moreover, you are crushed on the "tank" (grant me the term) and optical vision is already limited in itself. In short, guys, everything is extremely different, because all my benchmarks of speed, braking, sounds, gained in years in which I have ridden the best bikes on the planet, are cancelled out. You have to reset everything and write a new file, there is no other way!

At the end of these days, great emotions remain and the awareness of having done a good job with all the guys at Voxan Motors, as we achieved 21 world records.

In fact, in addition to having reached 470 km/h of maximum instantaneous speed, we obtained the highest speed ever achieved by a naked bike. An absolute record, considering not only electric motorcycles, but also those powered by an internal combustion engine.

Guys, I wanted to share this long story with you. In an age when everything runs fast, I wanted to stop time and write these lines, to try to convey even just a part of the emotions that I experienced in those days.

I hope I succeeded! I particularly want to know your opinion about it! I’ll read you and comment on you. A big hug to all of you.

Stay tuned

Max

 

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