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2014 Isle of Man TT zero

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Buckeye56:
Yes it is mind boggling! Bruce Ansty upped  the Zero record to over 112. Even though I would love to take a bike around the course there is no way I could ride anywhere nearly as fast as these brave souls do every day at the TT.

Buckeye56:
June 1


Today folks got to sleep in a bit as we were still determining the best course of action and sourcing materials to complete repairs to RW-2.x. We did have two more set backs. Both the high power charger and the one used to balance the pack have failed. On the high powered unit it looks like the on/off/breaker switch failed, the balancing charger did not show any obvious problems, it just stopped working. In a turn of good luck, ARC EV from the UK had exact copies of both of our chargers with the proper plugs and generously loaned them to us! Thanks guys! We charged the bussed part of the pack as high as we could and then started peaking up the replacement cells to the same level. Then balancing began. I was told this morning that it appears the replacement cells can be charged to a higher level than first thought. Every bit of energy we cram into the cells is a very good thing.

Modifications to the upper pack frame continue to accommodate the change in orientation of the cells. Final calculations are in progress to determine the best gearing to run on Wednesday. I don't understand the dynamics of the vehicle well enough to explain the choice options but it comes down to limiting top speed such that we do not run out of energy before the end of the race. Need less to say, there has been much lively discussions on this topic the last few days!

Monday we need to make a parts run early since the course closes at 10am. We hope to find a new switch for the Manzanita charger, a new PL8 (used for balancing) and some fasteners ended to finish the upper pack mods. Then it is back to beating RW-2.x back into racing condition. Wish us good luck!

Buckeye56:
June 3


Yet another busy day at the TT. The electrical team has bussed, charged and balanced the reconfigured battery pack and sorted out an issue with the rider display. We want to make sure Rob is able to monitor the energy in the pack so that he can go as fast as he can while not running out of juice before the finish line. Tonight they will be tweaking the data acquisition system.

The mechanical team modified and installed the covers on the packs, reinstalled the front wheel and did the final tightening and safety wiring of the fasteners. One of the things that had been the center of discussion for the past few days was what gearing to run. After crunching numbers and analyzing mounds of data, we pretty much took a WAG and threw a 40 tooth sprocket on the rear wheel. Actually we talked it over with Rob and he agreed with our choice.

So tomorrow we need to put the fairings on and go racing! We have serious competition for third from Sarolea, a team from Belgium who have made a beautiful machine that looks like a vintage cafe racer. As you might imagine, we are all getting just a wee bit nervous! Many will be glad once it is over and we know how well we did!

Once more I want to say how proud I am of the team. This year has been one problem after another and even though they were bummed out at times, they pulled together and refused to quit. They are the best!

Buckeye56:
Yet another busy day at the TT. The electrical team has bussed, charged and balanced the reconfigured battery pack and sorted out an issue with the rider display. We want to make sure Rob is able to monitor the energy in the pack so that he can go as fast as he can while not running out of juice before the finish line. Tonight they will be tweaking the data acquisition system.

The mechanical team modified and installed the covers on the packs, reinstalled the front wheel and did the final tightening and safety wiring of the fasteners. One of the things that had been the center of discussion for the past few days was what gearing to run. After crunching numbers and analyzing mounds of data, we pretty much took a WAG and threw a 40 tooth sprocket on the rear wheel. Actually we talked it over with Rob and he agreed with our choice.

So tomorrow we need to put the fairings on and go racing! We have serious competition for third from Sarolea, a team from Belgium who have made a beautiful machine that looks like a vintage cafe racer. As you might imagine, we are all getting just a wee bit nervous! Many will be glad once it is over and we know how well we did!

Once more I want to say how proud I am of the team. This year has been one problem after another and even though they were bummed out at times, they pulled together and refused to quit. They are the best!

Buckeye56:
So after months of design, fabrication and fighting with multiple battery and equipment failures, today we battled Team Sarolea the entire 37.73 miles of the famed Mountain Course. They started 10 seconds before us and Rob chased them the whole race and in the end we pulled out third place by a scant .037 seconds! The winners circle was kind of awkward as the stewards waved Sarolea in instead of us. It took about 5 minutes for race control to correct the finishing order. The problem was Sarolea's transponder was intermittent and no one was sure who was third until they reviewed the finish. Once again we were drinking champaign in the late morning, hugging, taking turns wearing the wreath and feeling relived that we were able to back up our podium finish in 2013. Props to Rob Barber for riding the wheels off RW2.x and bringing home another trophy! We ran the race in 24 minutes 12.23 seconds with an average speed of 93.531 mph. That is a little ore than 2 mph faster than what we ran last year.

Now we begin planning on next year's bike. We would love to come back to the TT to see if we can improve on the results we archived this year.

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