2014 Isle of Man TT zero

[Buckeye56]

In one week Buckeye Current, the Ohio State University electric motorcycle team will be heading back to the Isle of Man for the 2014 TT zero electric race. Last year we finished in third place and we hope to do as well this year.


We are still using the 2006 CBR1000RR frame but we completely rebuilt the battery assembly and in the process reduced the weight by 30 pounds even though we added three more battery cells. We did a lot of Dyno testing and believe we have excised the software demons that plagued us the entire time last year. The software simulations are showing a substantial increase in lap average speed. It would be great to top the ton on lap average but that remains to be seen if we have enough energy in the battery pack. Lots of back and forth in emails on gearing best and worst case aero drag and other fascinating topics.


Anyway I will try to post to the forum to keep you all up on our progress. You may also follow us on the web at http:/current.osu.edu, on Facebook at Buckeye Current Racing or on Twitter at @BuckeyeCurrent

[Brick]

Excellent! I'm rootin for y'all!


Brick

[DirtFlier]

[...Last year we finished in third place and we hope to do as well this year...Buckeye56]

He's being modest as the OSU entry was 3rd overall but 1st in the "University" class. 

1st and 2nd place bikes were high dollar efforts with one of those being from Mugen in Japan, a company that creates a lot of prototype stuff for Honda and is owned by Mr Honda's son.  If I'm not mistaken the OSU entry had lots of EE student labor and dedication but was built for only about $50k with all that coming from outside donations. 

[Buckeye56]

Yes we were the highest placing university team by about 40 seconds! What we spent seems to be a moving target, but it was on the order of $58K. The students come from multiple disciplines. But the majority come from either electrical or mechanical engineering. What is most interesting to me is less than half of the students ride motorcycles. However two of the young ladies just bought their first bikes, neither of them have family members who ride. Their generation seems to be OK with alternative power sources and see EVs as a variable option. Anyway I have had a blast working with them on this and will be curious to see what hey come up with for RW3.

[motodog650]

Very cool    Will be following !! Who is the rider ??

[stevegrab]

Cool since I now have Velocity I'll get to see the IOM and whatever little coverage they may give to the E-bikes.
So no STAR for you this year?

[Buckeye56]

Very cool    Will be following !! Who is the rider ??

Rob Barber is riding for us again this year. He and his crew are great folks.

[Buckeye56]

Cool since I now have Velocity I'll get to see the IOM and whatever little coverage they may give to the E-bikes.
So no STAR for you this year?

I will fly into Rapid City Sunday night. So I do get three days to see the sights. The wife is trailering the bikes out there.

[stevegrab]

Cool since I now have Velocity I'll get to see the IOM and whatever little coverage they may give to the E-bikes.
So no STAR for you this year?

I will fly into Rapid City Sunday night. So I do get three days to see the sights. The wife is trailering the bikes out there.

Yeah I saw you mention the "fly-in" elsewhere Cool that you can do the IOM thing and still make STAR.

[Buckeye56]

Having passed through the area several times and not seeing anything, I was determined to get to STAR come Hell or high water!

[Buckeye56]

Hey guys, I saw this on ADVrider regarding the TT. I have no clue if it will work but it is worth a shot for folks who don't have cable



You could try using this, if it works coverage will begin from the middle of next week on channel ITV4.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9Ul4w_wK4U
10 Nov 2011 - Uploaded by bbflboy
UKTV-VPN.com that enables overseas users to watch ITV Player abroad. ... UKTV-VPN.com and ...


No live coverage but 1 hour highlights programme each day.




YMMV,
Bill

[stevegrab]

Having passed through the area several times and not seeing anything, I was determined to get to STAR come Hell or high water!

And you've got a peach of a wife trailering your bike up there for you   Hope she has some help at home with the loading or even with the driving (its a long trip).

[Buckeye56]

We made good progress in fixing the buss board that was damaged last night.the electrical team had to by pass two burned traces with wires and coated the rest with RTV to prevent any more incidents. The mechanical team figured out the brake vibration we have had all year. The new rotors we bought are not the right ones for our bike. So we have to use  rotors off of a CBR600 as that's all we have available. Not a big deal as the 600's are only 10 mm smaller in diameter. We also re-geared for the first practice on Friday.


We won't be able to use the Jurby track due to a car event being held they this weekend. But the folks we are staying with work at the local driving school so we can do some testing there. Lee also said that there may a blanket exemption that allows the race bikes to run on public roads outside of scheduled practices. If that is true we can get a feel for how the bike handles and what ground clearance issues we have if any.


The electrical guys are reinstalling the buss boards and reconnecting the damages sensor connector. After that we need to fill the cooling system with water and we are ready to get a little run time on RW2.x.

[Buckeye56]

Today we took the bike to the driver training school in Douglas so Rob could test the brakes. Good news is swapping out for the 600RR rotors has taken care of the brake issues. Plus Rob is really happy with the way the bike handles with the revamped suspension. But we have a problem with one of the cells being way out of balance to the point that we have to swap in another battery cell to take its place. It is at the bottom of the pack making the job very difficult. And we need to have the bike at Laxey for a PR event at 1pm. Time is getting short for us to have the bike ready for the first practice on Friday evening, the pressure is definitely ramping up.


Update:
We hit the paddock at 6am and the swap went better that I could have imagined. The cells above the bad one slid right out and we were done in less than one hour! Props to Polina, Will and Brody for being willing to get up at 5am to get this done. It is now in the hands of the electrical team to finish up bussing the pack, balancing and charging. Hopefully this is the end of the gremlins!

[DirtFlier]

Keep the updates flowing!