WATCH: Enclosed electric motorcycle spotted testing on the road!

PERFORMANCE electric motorcycle maker Lightning is working on a new, fully enclosed motorcycle that has been spotted on the road for the first time!

The bike features an unusual design, that sees rider (and presumably passenger) sitting in a tandem riding position, in what we expect to be a feet-forward position like sitting in a car.

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The machine is powered by an electric drivetrain that is more than likely derived from the firm’s exiting Strike electric sports bikes.

While the unusual design might be off-putting to some would-be owners of an electric motorcycle, it also brings with it some benefits too. The car-like layout of the means the batteries of the bike can be laid into the floor of the machine, much like they do currently with most electric cars. The move would not only help the machine to carry a greater number of the cells, increasing the range exponentially, it could also hide some of that extra bulk nice and low in the chassis. In doing this the excess weight can have less of a negative effect on the handling and may even increase stability.

Lightning enclosed electric motorcycle spotted on the road!

While the video goes some way to proving that the new bike is much more than just a rendering on a computer screen, it still doesn’t answer some of the fundamental questions that accompany the design – the main one being: How do you stop the thing toppling over when you come to a stop?!

It’s not clear from the video whether Lightning has elected to go with some complex system of outriggers or legs that extend when the bike slows to a desired speed, or if there is some kind of advanced gyroscopic system at work – similar to the system that Honda unveiled a few years back.

If one thing is for sure, if the Lightning enclosed bike does make it beyond the working prototype stage, its likely to be one of the most unusual motorcycles released this decade!