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Jonathan
15-12-2014, 08:00 PM
This was not a project particularly relevant to this forum, but since it involves machining and is generally an exciting project, I think people here might be interested in hearing about it...

Over the summer this year I was involved with building and racing an electric motorbike, for the University of Nottingham PEMC research group. We started with an existing motorbike frame (Suzuki GSXR-600) which had been raced as an electric bike previously, but stripped down so we started off with a heap of parts:

http://www.mycncuk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=14075&stc=1

1 month later:

http://www.mycncuk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=14074&stc=1

Our rider was Jeremiah Johnson, a professional rider from Hawaii. He arrived in Nottingham shortly before the first race and stayed for the whole season. The bike was not quite finished when we had to leave for the first race in Assen, so the finishing touches, connecting all the batteries and battery management system, were only completed in the early hours before the first race in Assen. During practice Jeremiah told us that the bike had much less power than expected. We found that this was due to a fault with the motor controllers, which after working late into the night again we managed to fix in time for the race, securing 3rd place.
The subsequent races, in Anglesea, Hockenheim, Donnington and Silverstone were just as eventful. After each race we fixed any broken parts and made improvements. The first upgrade was to lighten parts of the frame, by cutting metal out where not needed and replacing some parts with carbon fibre. Another member of the team put a lot of effort into the bodywork and painted the fairings - something we didn't have time to do before the first race. Later on I added ducted fans to increase the airflow over the motors in the hope that this would let us extract more power from them.
Racing was quite an unfamiliar experience for most of the people involved. Compared with having plenty of equipment in the lab it was a stark contrast to be at a race track with only what we had remembered to take. This meant there was much improvising to keep the bike working whilst at the track. The electric bike racing attracted a lot of interest from some petrol racers and fans. I was frequently asked what the top speed and range of the bike were - about 105mph and 120 miles, though not at the same time! The race at Donington included petrol bikes on the track at the same time as us though in a separate race. It was good to see the electric bikes proving they were competitive against petrol, though less good when a petrol rider blocked Jeremiah on the penultimate corner, preventing him from taking 3rd place.
We achieved third overall in the race series, which was pleasing given the short timescale available to work on the bike and considering also that this was our first racing experience! The race series has given us valuable experience and data which we can use to improve our standing next season.

For next season I have negotiated a sponsorship deal with Parker for the motor and the plan is to race the bike in the Isle of Mann TT Zero in 5 months time. According to my simulation the new motor should get the bike to approach 180mph without much difficulty, for short periods at least.

I have got plenty of pictures of the bike, inside and out, so if people are interested I will post them. There are some videos and interviews featuring the teams that participated, including us, here (http://mycommunity.theiet.org/groups/blogpost/view/55/223/1864#.VI8skCusWSx) on the IET website.

http://www.mycncuk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=14076&stc=1

We're currently looking for sponsorship for the parts required for the upcoming races (TT zero and moto-e), so if you're reading this and works for a company that manufactures something related, please do get in touch.

gavztheouch
15-12-2014, 09:50 PM
Cool project. This sounds like something channel 4 would be interested in for their programme about speed with the TT racer Guy Martin.

m_c
15-12-2014, 11:39 PM
I think Cool Project sums it up!

kingcreaky
16-12-2014, 09:27 AM
I think Cool Project sums it up!

A while ago; whilst visiting Jonathon at his house, he let me have a go at an electric push bike he had made. I would consider myself to be quite a "daring" individual, also overweight.

However, I lost my bottle at half-throttle. this thing went like a scalded cat


The work you have done on this motorbike is a credit to you Jon; I cant think of a better person to be involved in such an exciting project. well done.

Dont "sell out" for an office job like I did!!!

JAZZCNC
17-12-2014, 12:27 AM
SACRILEGE BLOODY Sacrilegeeeeee I'm still in mourning for smokers and sweet smell of "Castrol R" and adjusting to those valve murdering strokers was bad enough but if they end up making everyone go to these Silent whinners I'm coming to hunt your lot down and wire your balls to those lithium Ion assassins and drain every last bit of juice into your ball sacks.!! . :livid:

BUT well done and excellent just the same hats off to you all. . :applouse: (Just keep off our noisy smelly bikes we love so much.!)

mekanik
17-12-2014, 03:21 PM
Know what you mean Dean, have tried to persist with Formula E but it's S***e
without the whine of an internal combustion engine.

JAZZCNC
17-12-2014, 04:06 PM
Know what you mean Dean, have tried to persist with Formula E but it's S***e
without the whine of an internal combustion engine.

Ye exactly and only so long you can sit in front of TV screeching Wahhh Wahhh as you go thru the virtual gears sniffing josh sticks and candles oaked in Castrol R. . . .Lol
(Ah there's a money making Idea for Us OLD Racers.!! . . . Instead of Yanky Candles company could be called Cranky Yankers. . :hysterical:)

EddyCurrent
17-12-2014, 08:34 PM
Here's a Vincent 1000 I converted :whistle:

14101

Jonathan
19-12-2014, 04:30 PM
Thank you for the, er.. varied comments so far...


(Just keep off our noisy smelly bikes we love so much.!)

It's a bit late for that. In some of the practice sessions and one of the races at Donnigton we were racing at the same time as petrol bikes. They started us off 10s after 600cc (I think) petrol bikes and if you compare the time the electric bike who won our race got with the petrol race, he'd have been in the top 10.

Eddy, I'll see you and your bike at the next race then?

Here's one part I machined for the bike. I didn't actually machine many parts as the health and safety rules prevent me from using the workshops at uni, so I mainly did electrical stuff. The part is a heatsink for the speed controller on the ducted fan that helps cool the motors - one on each side. Wall thickness is 1mm or less:

http://www.mycncuk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=14147&stc=1http://www.mycncuk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=14148&stc=1http://www.mycncuk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=14149&stc=1

Thermal image from after a race and testing batteries:

http://www.mycncuk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=14150&stc=1http://www.mycncuk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=14151&stc=1

Jonathan
07-05-2015, 09:21 PM
This project is progressing, only 23 days to go until we go to the Isle of Mann so I'm very busy along with the others I'm working with. We now have the new custom frame, but there's still a lot to do.

My bank holiday weekend was busy on one part:

http://www.mycncuk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=15282&stc=1

I'm currently waiting for the cells to get through customs, then they need testing and soldering into packs.

More info here (https://www.facebook.com/UoNElectricMotorbike). Will post more information if there are particular things people here are interested in.

Boyan Silyavski
07-05-2015, 10:00 PM
Judging from the videos of the acceleration of the Tesla car / youtube/ i can only imagine what is the acceleration of electric bike with a nice motor.

Maybe that will be the turning stone in car and bike history, when they can really offer something that's better than their petrol counterparts. I see that more difficult done with bikes, cause petrol bikes accelerate really fast. However not having a gearbox will really help.

What is the weight to HP of that bike?

Jonathan
07-05-2015, 10:25 PM
Judging from the videos of the acceleration of the Tesla car / youtube/ i can only imagine what is the acceleration of electric bike with a nice motor.

The difficulty with a bike is the tendency to wheelie limits the acceleration obtainable, but still the acceleration will be substantial. We have a fixed gear ratio, so for example if we gear it for a top speed of 160mph we will, according to my calculation,easily get 0-60 in under 2.4s and 100mph in about 4.2s. Compare that with these figures (http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FLis t_of_fastest_production_motorcycles_by_acceleratio n%23By_0.E2.80.9360_mph.2C_3.5_seconds_or_less&h=-AQFVvjGO):



Time[note] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fastest_production_motorcycles_by_accelera tion#endnote_time)
Make and model
Year (model)
Time (seconds)[note] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fastest_production_motorcycles_by_accelera tion#endnote_verified)


2.35
Suzuki GSX-R1000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_GSX-R1000)
2005
2.35[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fastest_production_motorcycles_by_accelera tion#cite_note-PerfIndex2013-1)


2.5
Yamaha VMAX (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_V-Max_and_VMAX#VMAX)
2010
2.5[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fastest_production_motorcycles_by_accelera tion#cite_note-VMAXvs3MAX-2)


2.6
BMW S1000R (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_S1000R)
2014
2.6[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fastest_production_motorcycles_by_accelera tion#cite_note-NAKEDSUPERBIKECOMPARISONTESTREVIEW-3)


2.6
Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14R (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawasaki_Ninja_ZX-14R)
2012
2.6[4] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fastest_production_motorcycles_by_accelera tion#cite_note-KAWASAKI_ZX-14R_.E2.80.93_ROAD_TEST-4)


2.6
Honda CBR1000RR (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_CBR1000RR) (Fireblade)
2008-2014
2.6[5] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fastest_production_motorcycles_by_accelera tion#cite_note-Honda_CBR1000RR_Performance_per_dollar-5)


2.7
Ducati 1198S (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ducati_1198)
2010
2.7[6] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fastest_production_motorcycles_by_accelera tion#cite_note-MT2011-6)


2.70
BMW S1000RR (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_S1000RR)
2011
2.70[7] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fastest_production_motorcycles_by_accelera tion#cite_note-2011SS8C-7)




I see that more difficult done with bikes, cause petrol bikes accelerate really fast. However not having a gearbox will really help.

Yes - if we gear it for a torque of just over 1000Nm at the rear wheel, we'll have that torque available all the way up to 180mph.


What is the weight to HP of that bike?

Around 1000W/kg. Compare that with these (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-to-weight_ratio):



Honda CBR1000RR (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_CBR1000RR) 2009
133 kW / 178 bhp
199 kg / 439 lb
668 W/kg / 2.5 lb/hp


Ariel Atom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_Atom) 500 V8 2011
372 kW / 500 bhp
550 kg / 1212 lb
676.3 W/kg / 2.45 lb/hp


BMW S1000RR (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_S1000RR) 2009
144 kW / 193 bhp
207.7 kg / 458 lb
693.3 W/kg / 2.37 lb/hp


Peugeot 208 T16 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peugeot_208_T16) Pikes Peak 2013
652 kW / 875 bhp
875 kg / 1930 lb
745 W/kg / 2.2 lb/hp


Koenigsegg One:1 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koenigsegg_One:1) 2015
1000 kW / 1341 bhp
1310 kg / 2888 lb
763 W/kg / 2.15 lb/hp


KillaCycle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KillaCycle) Drag racing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_racing) electric motorcycle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_motorcycles_and_scooters)
260 kW / 350 bhp
281 kg / 619 lb
925 W/kg / 1.77 lb/hp


MTT Turbine Superbike (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTT_Turbine_Superbike) 2008[143] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-to-weight_ratio#cite_note-143)
213.3 kW / 286 bhp
227 kg / 500 lb
940 W/kg / 1.75 lb/hp


Vyrus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyrus) 987 C3 4V V supercharged motorcycle 2010[144] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-to-weight_ratio#cite_note-144)
157.3 kW / 211 bhp
158 kg / 348.3 lb
996 W/kg / 1.65 lb/hp


Kawasaki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawasaki_Heavy_Industries_Motorcycle_%26_Engine) H2R (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawasaki_Ninja_H2) Motorcycle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle) 2015[145] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-to-weight_ratio#cite_note-145)
223 kW / 300 bhp
216 kg / 476 lb
1032 W/kg / 1.43 lb/hp


BMW (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW) Williams FW27 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_FW27) Formula One (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_One) 2005[146] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-to-weight_ratio#cite_note-146)
690 kW / 925 bhp
600 kg / 1323 lb
1150 W/kg / 1.58 lb/hp


Honda RC211V (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_RC211V) MotoGP 2004-6
176.73 kW / 237 bhp
148 kg / 326 lb
1194 W/kg / 1.37 lb/hp


Boeing 747-300 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747)[10] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-to-weight_ratio#cite_note-gelm6000-10) at Mach 0.84 cruise, 35,000 ft altitude[disputed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Disputed_statement) – discuss (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Power-to-weight_ratio#Jet_Engines)]
245 MW / 328,656 bhp
178.1 t / 392,800 lb
1376 W/kg / 1.20 lb/hp

Washout
29-05-2015, 08:55 AM
Hi Jonathan,
.
A bit of metadata mining and found what you were referring to on my Build Log thread. Very nice and I'll be following this one with interest, given some of my parts have also made their way into the motorsport field, although the vehicles in question can "stand up by themselves" ;)

Jonathan
30-05-2015, 04:57 PM
Thanks for the interest. Co-incidentally I'm also working on a project to self-balance a motorbike for disabled riders, so maybe one day it will fit your criterea!

We're at the TT now - arrived yesterday. All set up in the paddock, so now it's a race to get the bike finished in time and resit the temptation to play with our pit vehicle - a Segway.

Clive S
30-05-2015, 04:59 PM
Thanks for the interest. Co-incidentally I'm also working on a project to self-balance a motorbike for disabled riders, so maybe one day it will fit your criterea!

We're at the TT now - arrived yesterday. All set up in the paddock, so now it's a race to get the bike finished in time and resit the temptation to play with our pit vehicle - a Segway.How about a few pics.:encouragement:

Jonathan
30-05-2015, 09:04 PM
Here you go ... I was preparing some cables:

http://www.mycncuk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=15440&stc=1

Jonathan
03-06-2015, 11:54 PM
We're almost ready now. First qualifier is on Friday...
http://www.mycncuk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=15449&stc=1

JAZZCNC
04-06-2015, 12:06 AM
How much does it weigh Jonathan.? The squareness makes it look heavy but sure it's not.!

Good Luck to the Team.!

Jonathan
04-06-2015, 12:15 AM
How much does it weigh Jonathan.? The squareness makes it look heavy but sure it's not.!

Got any scales?

Seriously, we've not had the bike all together yet so it's not been weighed and it doesn't look like there are scales for bikes on this island! We'll weigh it when we can, but I guess about 230-240kg. The batteries are the main weight at ~87kg. The frame hardly weighs anything - it's 7xxx series aluminium.

Can anyone spot the bits I made ;)

JAZZCNC
04-06-2015, 12:45 AM
Can anyone spot the bits I made ;)

Would that be for hanging onto.?

Don't they have a Minimum weight classification for Electric bike racing.? They do for the smelly versions.!

Skipsoaring
04-06-2015, 12:16 PM
Brilliant work Jonathan and team!

From an ex superbike smelly racer!

Jonathan
12-06-2015, 05:12 PM
I've had a mad last two weeks or so - but we did it! The bike survived the TT ... we blew up plenty of bits between races in testing and had problems with the bike cutting out (10 times!) during the race, but were still the fastest university.

http://www.mycncuk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=15513&stc=1http://www.mycncuk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=15514&stc=1

Must remember to buy more cooling hoses for next time, or hire the same van :playful:


Would that be for hanging onto.?

Yep, I also made the water cooling block below by borrowing my friend's (http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/6484-A-sufficiently-strong-machine?highlight=sufficiently+strong+machine) CNC router. We were nowhere near finishing so we took my mini lathe in the van. Almost everyone who passed our box said 'look, they have a lathe!'... you'd think they'd never seen one before. The lathe proved just as useful to other teams as us - I think I helped out 5 different teams with it, including skimming a shaft from a sidecar.

http://www.mycncuk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=15515&stc=1

Next we're racing in a series called 'Moto-E' in the UK and Europe.

Boyan Silyavski
12-06-2015, 05:15 PM
That's a beautiful piece of aluminum. Must be fun at the competition.

Skipsoaring
13-06-2015, 11:12 AM
Congrats to you and the team Jon. Fantastic achievement and enjoy Moto-E!

GEOFFREY
13-06-2015, 09:27 PM
Well done Jonathan. I have been in Plymouth to celebrate? our golden wedding aniversary since Tuesday, so have only just seen your posts. The pics look fantastic, the bike, ally part and the crew, but why were the others all in shirt sleeves, and you in your winter woolies? Seriously though that really is a great perfomance and I hope that you repeat your success in Moto-E. G.

AndyGuid
14-06-2015, 03:30 AM
Excellent stuff Jonathan!

dazza
14-06-2015, 09:27 AM
well done lads some great shots...jonathan looks to be supervising again:peaceful:

Jonathan
14-06-2015, 09:26 PM
Thanks for the comments. If any of you are going to be near one of the races let me know and I can show you the bike close up. We'll be at Silverstone, Donnington, Anglesea, Portimao (Portugal) somewhere in Germany and maybe Assen (Netherlands). The first race is in the very beginning of August - ish, dates have not been confirmed yet.


The pics look fantastic, the bike, ally part and the crew, but why were the others all in shirt sleeves, and you in your winter woolies?

I think I was still recovering from earlier in the week:

https://www.facebook.com/UoNElectricMotorbike/videos/458654824299305/

Here are some more parts I machined for the bike - some sprockets:

http://www.mycncuk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=15525&stc=1http://www.mycncuk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=15527&stc=1http://www.mycncuk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=15528&stc=1

They were surprisingly easy - I just used a 6mm cutter for the main profile and a simple V-shaped tool I made from silver steel for the chamfer. Next time I will add some pockets to save weight. For these I was in a hurry so didn't bother.

They worked, but were a bit wobbly as the aluminium plate wasn't terribly flat! The bike has done about 100 miles on the TT course and the 6082T6 aluminium hasn't worn much at all, so it doesn't seem worthwhile splashing out on 7075 grade. I think I'll just order some tooling plate to guarantee sufficient flatness and make plenty.

Jonathan
04-08-2015, 02:56 PM
We just won at the Nurburgring!!

http://www.mycncuk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=15740&stc=1http://www.mycncuk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=15741&stc=1

Had some weird problems with our motor controller (resulting in us taking the bike to bits 3 times over the course of the weekend), so we had to limit both the torque and speed to 66%, but even so we were still just only 4 seconds a lap behind the superbikes.

For this race I made a new rear sprocket plus some titanium M12 bolts so that we can have data logging of the suspension:

http://www.mycncuk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=15742&stc=1

dazza
04-08-2015, 06:15 PM
well done,and nice work on the parts.makes me miss my mill/router :thumsup::thumsup:

Blackrat
05-08-2015, 06:21 AM
excellent !

Jonathan
08-11-2015, 08:13 PM
About time I updated this...

We won the races in Anglesey and Pembrey, messed up in Cadwell and won all three races in Portimao which meant we won the overall championship. We got a top speed of 145mph in Portimao, though still limited to 50% power output due to issues with the motor controller, so the focus is to make our own now.

In terms of machining, I made several more sprockets - this time from tooling plate and they held up well. Also modified the water cooling block on the motor, as the rider ground it down a bit when leaning the bike over.

Some pictures here:

164931649416495164961649716498

... and the obligatory action shots:

1649916500

Can't wait for the TT next year now - so many things we can work on and improve. The current plan is to make some small changes to this bike and make a whole new bike, so we can take two to the TT. I'm keen to design a frame that could be machined from only CNC milled parts, so no welding and bending aluminium tube. I think it would give some useful design possibilities, in addition to making it easier to replace parts when the inevitable crash happens.


https://www.facebook.com/miquel.gimenofabra/videos/10206494572616962/

P.S. If anyone has ~£5000 sloshing around, let me know and you can sponsor us :tongue:

CharlieRam
08-11-2015, 11:48 PM
I must say this is pretty cool, I wish I'd seen this earlier, I live in Derby and Donnington isn't that far, congratulations and I look forward to your success next year.
Cheers, Charlie

Jonathan
26-11-2015, 12:09 AM
I must say this is pretty cool, I wish I'd seen this earlier, I live in Derby and Donnington isn't that far, congratulations and I look forward to your success next year.
Cheers, Charlie

I will try to remember to post the dates for next year's races when they are set, so anyone here who is interested can come and see.

Today we found the lazy way to draw your motorbike:

16635

Expecting a point cloud soon...

Lachlan
08-12-2015, 12:57 PM
Really enjoyed reading this thread Jonathan! Keep us posted on any updates and thanks for all the effort with the pics.

Jonathan
29-02-2016, 12:09 AM
The bike project is getting going again. One of the nice things is getting to machine some more interesting materials, e.g. a £300 piece of titanium bar for the motor shaft:

1776217763

I chose titanium purely for the 'easy' weight saving. We're getting the motor core length a little longer for more power, so the increase of weight from this will be offset a bit by lightening the shaft. My lathe seems to be coping OK so far. I first made sure the tailstock was properly aligned as the tolerances are pretty strict on this one and spent the rest of the weekend doing the roughing cuts.

More fun than millions of battery terminals:

17764177651776617767

I programmed those using Octave (though just about any language would have done), parametrically so I just have to enter the dimensions and the rest is worked out. It seemed worth it to get an efficient toolpath - probably wasn't, but more interesting!

Next thing will be some parts from aluminium and carbon sheet to make a new tail unit packed with batteries.

Jonathan
14-03-2016, 11:23 PM
Quick update, I made some progress with the titanium shaft this weekend. I almost finished the lathe work:

179271792817929

I used a CBN tip for the finishing as it was able to take extremely light cuts, so no "hand finishing techniques" required. The tolerance on the part measured above was 50.003-50.015, so I made it to 50.010 as the young's modulus of this material is lower than the steel that fit was specified for, so making the interference slightly greater seemed the safe option (though it probably wont matter in reality).

Next weekend I'll do the last bit of turning on the other end, then it needs a few slots miling and some holes drilling to mount the sprocket.

In other news, we should be getting the new bike frame delivered within a week, so watch this space. Race dates have also been confirmed, so I'll be in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK!


Really enjoyed reading this thread Jonathan! Keep us posted on any updates and thanks for all the effort with the pics.

You should check out the "Voltron" bike on endless-sphere.com, made by someone near you (Australia at least).

Jonathan
21-03-2016, 07:15 PM
I almost finished the lathe work:

Famous last words ... took me most of last weekend to actually finish the turning:

17983

I double checked all the diameters now it is off the lathe and it's well within tolerance - e.g. the longest diameter is 0.011mm different from end to end, but the drawing specified up 0.04mm here.
Next step is to mill 3 keyways in it and drill some holes for the sproket.

We also got some new brakes delivered from PFM. Apparently they're really good ... I don't know about brakes.

Jonathan
20-05-2016, 11:55 AM
7 days until we leave for the TT...

18479

dazza
21-05-2016, 01:31 PM
looking good jon

Wal
09-06-2016, 09:25 PM
Well done on your team's podium finish, Jonathan. Excellent result for Nottingham Uni in the 2016 ZeroTT.

Wal.

magicniner
09-06-2016, 10:39 PM
Well done on your team's podium finish, Jonathan. Excellent result for Nottingham Uni in the 2016 ZeroTT.

+1
Reliability and good design work shone through on the day, Outstanding!

- Nick

Fred
10-06-2016, 10:12 AM
Great work. I watched it on ITV4 last night. I thought the commentary about the general state of the zero class was a bit harsh.

magicniner
10-06-2016, 12:13 PM
Great work. I watched it on ITV4 last night. I thought the commentary about the general state of the zero class was a bit harsh.

The TT haven't embraced electric at all, they shunned the chance to be a part of a worldwide electric bike race series in order to invent their own "Brand" simply to make more money, which I assume they haven't.
Greedy stupid wakners, as per usual!

Jonathan
11-06-2016, 06:40 PM
Thank you for the comments - I didn't see that coming! It was so tense standing near the finish line waiting for our bike, seeing the Mugen and Victory bikes go past and realizing that if Daley brought it home we would be third. As it happens, Daley didn't spot that Mc Guinness had broken down, so he was still going flat out, clipping the curbstones and letting the bike jump, until he was directed to the winners enclosure.

It was a shame we didn't get the second bike working for Peter Hickman to ride. We tried really hard as the new bike has a higher battery capacity that the Victory bikes and a better motor, which I'm confident will make it a challenger for Mugen. The motor drive was our own design. I did the current sensing and mechanical design, whilst Marco did the rest. I think we were having issues with static electricity damaging parts, as as soon as we got part of it working the rest would fail until eventually we ran out of spares and time just a few hours before the race.

Still, for Daley to get 3rd place on the old bike bodes well for next year. We messed up somewhere with how much power we gave him for the race, as the top speed was 10mph less than in qualifying, so only 121mph - yet somehow he still got an averegae of 99.9mph. Crazy...

I was going to post a few pictures of parts I made just before I left but didn't get time, so I'll post them now along with a few photos taken during the races. Except for the bearing mount, these are all parts I machined in the 1 week leading up to the TT:

Bearing mount (supporting front sprocket):
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Rider's newborn baby - Daisy:
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Various sprockets, water cooling manifold, front axles and chain guard:

18650186511865218653186541865618657186581865918660 1866118662186631866418665

Not every day you blow a 500 amp fuse:
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How many engineers does it take to start a van?
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I was disappointed by the coverage Sarolea got. We asked the team afterwards what happened and got a different answer from each person. They didn't go out in any of the practice sessions or qualifying and the riders looked like they expected not to start. One didn't even sit on the bike ready to go.

Jonathan
16-08-2016, 12:28 PM
We're racing again in Moto-E, a championship just for electric bikes. We had various issues getting the second bike to work, but it's going quite well now:

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[Photo @ Assen]

I've not had many parts to machine recently, it's mainly been a case of fault finding and improving the electrical system, e.g. improving the current sensor board:

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We got some interesting new pistons in the suspension - made from carbon fiber with a ceramic coating. It saves 1.6kg in unsprung weight! CeraCarbon have done it for us to test:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KI-MDPV_QA

Daley was OK after that crash - fingers crossed he doesn't do it again! The next races are on 17-18th of September, in Pembrey (Wales).

CharlieRam
16-08-2016, 03:28 PM
When are you at Donnington park next, I'd like to pop down and watch. Looking good though :)