Looking towards an electric future will often mean breaking ground on the big stage, simply to get your name out there. Delfast is looking to do just this by resurrecting the Dnepr name from their native Ukraine, and hoping to smash an electric speed record at Bonneville Speed Week on the way.
With a recent-ish electric resurgence, the Dnepr brand has roots in Soviet-era post-war machines from 1946, and their wares were marketed in the UK between 1963 & 1979 as Cossack Motorcycles - a name you may recognise.
Delfast currently produces e-bikes with reportedly the longest range in the world, or so their Guinness World Record for distance on the Top 3.0 says; ‘Greatest distance by electric bicycle on a single charge: 228.066 miles on Delfast Top 3.0 in 2017’.
Fast forward to today, Delfast has received the full Dnepr trademark rights and is working on a new Delfast x DNEPR Electric prototype to take on the electric speed record at Bonneville Speed Week 2021 (in the category “A” Omega).
Based on a Dnepr electric machine that set the record at 104.78 mph at the very same Bonneville Speed Week in 2018, this collaboration hopes to take the electric speeds to new soaring heights.
Piloted by Serhiy Malik this year, who’s the ideologist and creator of this bike, things are looking promising as the press release notes that significant upgrades have been made to improve both overall range and power delivery.
Will this e-motorcycle set the new electric land speed record at Bonneville Speed Week?
Perhaps the future of electric speed lies in the history of classic motorcycle models as much as it does with groundbreaking new designs, such as the WMC250EV with its radical (and giant) hole in the middle all in the name of reducing drag.
We’ll keep an eye on the record attempt, best of luck to Delfast & Serhiy!
