New British company White Motorcycle Concepts is aiming to prove its radical aerodynamic idea by taking the land speed record for electric bikes . Founded by Robert White , an engineer with a quarter of a century ' s experience in race vehicle development ( on both two and four wheels ), White Motorcycle Concepts has developed a machine with a huge reduction in both frontal area and drag coefficient . The company hopes to use it to establish a British land speed record for semistreamlined electric bikes later this year , hitting around 200 mph on a tarmac runway , before heading for Bolivia in 2022 ( Salar de Uyuni - the world ' s largest salt flat ) to target the world record , aiming for more than 250 mph on the salt flats . The record bike , dubbed WMC250EV , clearly shows the aerodynamic concept - there ' s a huge duct running all the way from the nose to the tail . This duct

reduces the bike ' s frontal area , but just as importantly it means that air hitting any part of the front of the bike doesn ' t have to be moved far , either laterally or vertically , to either slip past the bike or through the duct . That gives an edge over traditional speed record bike designs , where the rider lies almost prone over a long , low chassis to reduce frontal area . The duct also means that the bike ' s seat is at a conventional height , which means it has potential for future roadgoing bikes to reduce drag , a requirement that ' s likely to get increasingly important as bikes move towards electric power - less drag equates not only to more performance but also increased battery range . In its most extreme form on the WMC250EV , computer simulations and real-world wind tunnel tests have both shown the bike to have 70 % less drag than a Suzuki Hayabusa , often

cited as the most aerodynamic road bike on the market . Although White initially considered small-capacity combustion engines for the project , including the idea of a turbocharged version of Yamaha ' s YZ450F motocross engine , he soon switched to the idea of electric power , which gives much more flexibility in where components are mounted . He ' s also aware that electric technology is rapidly improving , with smaller , lighter batteries and motors coming in the future , which will make it even easier to implement the idea . As well as the duct , the WMC250 uses two-wheel drive , with four electric motors in total - two driving the rear wheel and another two inside the front hub . In its initial form , the bike has a total of 100kW ( 134 hp ), but that figure will rise considerably before the attempt at the world record . White also believes that the 2WD system will be a huge help in reaching record speeds , as on salt flats the battle for high speed becomes a fight

between drag and traction rather than a quest for ever more power . With minimal drag and both wheels driving the bike , the WMC250EV should have an edge over conventional designs . Additionally , testing has shown that the aerodynamic duct massively reduces front end lift at speed , meaning there ' s as much as five times more load on the front wheel than on a normal motorcycle at the same speed , adding to the argument that the front wheel should be driven as well as the rear . Even before the WMC250EV hits the salt , White Motorcycle Concepts is preparing to reveal a second machine using the aerodynamic duct idea . Called the WMC300FR , it is a threewheeled scooter , based on Yamaha ' s Tricity 300 , to show that the aerodynamic gains are worthwhile even at city speeds . The 300 cc engine will be assisted by a hybrid system , and along with the duct , reducing drag by 25 %. The intention is to achieve performance near that of a 500 cc bike while slashing CO2 emissions by 50 %.