Electric motorbike racing

[dazza]

well done,and nice work on the parts.makes me miss my mill/router

[Blackrat]

excellent !

[Jonathan]

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:



... and the obligatory action shots:



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.gime...6494572616962/

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

[CharlieRam]

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]

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:



Expecting a point cloud soon...

[Lachlan]

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

[Jonathan]

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:



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:



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.