Chip Yates electric bike

http://www.newspress.co.uk/public/ViewPressRelease.aspx?pr=26420&pr_r
ef=3161

http://www.newspress.co.uk/public/ViewPressRelease.aspx?pr=26420&pr_r
ef=3161

Chip Yates grabs two podium spots on the way to making history at Auto
Club Speedway in California
SWIGZ electric superbike matches gasoline-powered pace achieving a
fastest lap of the race along with a 158mph top speed
Promise to match gasoline lap times delivered in thrilling fashion
Chip Yates and his SWIGZ Racing team have achieved the seemingly
impossible, with two podium finishes for their electric superbike on its
global racing debut, competing against a competitive field of
highly-developed gasoline-powered race machines.

 

I did a long interview with Chip Yates last night for MotoPod. We
should have the full show out by late Saturday...

-jim

 

I'm in a group that is hoping that the development of electric bike
racing is the opportunity to get much more radical with the rules and
allow real streamlining and alternate riding positions. So we're very
unhappy (like Chip) about the maximum weight limit. Also a bit sad that
nobody can find the money to get properly radical. So far everyone going
Electric racing is sticking with what they know and building motorised
bicycles even though the current rules do allow a more radical approach.

Cedric Lynch[1] especially wants to do this. He's got riders prepared to
ride them. But he can't get the money for a streamlined FF electric
racer. Sadly it's probably not helped by his personal transport being a
hilariously Heath Robinson device or by him being a classic English
eccentric.

[1] Designer of the Agni motor used by almost everyone. Technical
advisor to the first IoM TTXGP winner.

 

Sorry, I don't see the relevance. Explain?

 

The interview with Chip is up, if you're curious... It's pretty deep,
clocking in at some 67 minutes...

http://www.motopodcast.com/

-jim

 

Hey Julian
It's pretty self evident. Howard's point is that you don't need to
reinvent the wheel every time. Building on tried and true technology
is a whole lot more likely to be a real world solution.
This probably works as better than the product in Howard's link and
makes the point pretty clearly and is an apt comparison IMO.

http://domsoutdoor.com/Stansport+Folding+Camp+Toaster/p/1-016099/sid/Froogle/eid/FR1/

"Just set the Folding Camp Toaster on top of your stove or on a grill
over an open fire and in minutes you'll have great tasting toast to
eat.
• Great for your motor home, camping and backpacking"
Bill C

 

Here's the original context.

Ok. So if you're going electric racing, then electrifying an existing
race bike chassis is more likely to end up as a real world solution.
Yes, that's what happened in the 1st year of the TTXGP. But in the
second year, Czysz won with a bike that was new from the ground up and
used an unconventional front fork.

Most racing is won by teams that make small incremental improvements.
But every so often, especially in car racing, somebody somewhere makes a
radical jump. It often takes a few years for that jump to be copied by
everyone. Going from head first to feet first, limited streamlining to
real streamlining is probably comparable to the switch from front
engined to rear engined racing cars. It's a big leap. But it's overdue.
And not just for racing but for utility road transport as well.

 

"Eccentric" is being kind. Cedric is right out on the edge of the Bell
Curve and by a normal standard, he's completely barking! But he's also
an exceptional electrical engineer which is why most of the early
entrants to the Electric championships used his motors.

Motorcyclists are a very tribal and hide bound bunch. We don't like
things that are too different and there's few real engineers and an
awful lot of experienced mechanics among us. Even something eminently
sensible like the big scooters get treated with scorn. So it's a good
thing that there's a few people out there like Cedric, Craig Vetter,
Royce Creasey and others who simply don't care what anyone thinks. Craig
especially is pushing boundaries and his goal of 100 mpg at 70 mph, into
a 30 mph headwind, with four bags of groceries is worth following. His
current ride is a truly horrible Honda Helix made interesting by some
fairly ugly streamlining. Just like Cedric's weird machine, you have to
look beyond the ugliness and hack build to see the beautiful, practical
commercialise machine waiting to be born.

Meanwhile, back in racing. The Electric championships are a moment in
time where we could perhaps release racing from the artificial
restrictions on design imposed in the 50s. But with each year and with
nobody trying it, the regs are being brought back in line with GP regs.
The latest is the weight limits (max 250Kg) that are causing Chip Yates
problems. It won't surprise me in the slightest if a couple of years
down the line the concessions about bodywork and riding position are
also brought back in line.