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2014 Isle of Man TT zero

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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  8)  Will be following !! Who is the rider ??

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