The Buckeye Press Release: Ohio State Electric Motorcycle Sets Speed Record

Here you goes…  the official release:

The Ohio State Buckeye Electric Motorcycle Race Team has set an East Coast Timing Association (ECTA) record for electric motorcycles. The certified record is 112.349mph (180.79kph).
After only 11 months at work, the newly formed team of undergraduate and graduate students built an all-electric motorcycle to compete in ECTA’s Omega class, known as the altered partial streamlined class. Students used real-world engineering process to design, build, re-modify, and test the motorcycle, with the goal of achieving maximum high speeds.

“We’re very happy with our record of 112mph. And with further tuning, our motorcycle can reach even higher speeds with its current load of lithium polymer battery cells,” says Sean Ewing, team captain and fourth year electrical engineering student.

ECTA, located in Maxton, North Carolina, holds five meets per year, at which public, private, and student teams compete with various vehicles in an attempt to break speed records. Vehicles must pass inspections, then are given time on the track.

After this first experience the team is headed back to Ohio State to continue work on the motorcycle. “The ECTA record is an outstanding result, especially considering that the Electric Motorcycle Race Team has barely one year of life. The result obtained at Maxton represents a reward for the hard work and the commitment shown by the team members through the year, but also a great starting point to launch the team into an exciting new season,” says Marcello Canova, faculty advisor and mechanical engineering professor. The team plans to continue work on the motorcycle, improving battery management function and maximizing torque for next season.

Other competition results included James Madison University, which achieved 92mph on an all-electric motorcycle in the same class.

“Although we started as a small team, we have built a solid base of dedicated students,” said Ewing, noting that the team gets its cohesiveness from its diversity of majors, which include engineering, business, and photography. “With this record, we’ve set a benchmark for next year; we have a lot of momentum and a lot of talent.”

About the Buckeye Electric Motorcycle Race Team

The Buckeye Electric Motorcycle Race Team is a student-led team at the Ohio State University, based out of the Center for Automotive Research.

Specifications for the 2011 vehicle:

Vehicle name: RW1

Frame: 2007 MV AGusta F4

Motor: Remy HVH250

Motor Controller: Tritium WaveSculptor 200

Batteries: 460VDC (peak charge), 35Ah battery pack consisting of 784 Lithium Polymer Cells

Battery Monitoring System: custom, student-designed, on-board with SD card storage

Battery Management System: custom, student-designed, off-board

Data Acquisition System: Starlane Stealth GPS-3

About the East Coast Timing Association
The East Coast Timing Association located in Maxton, North Carolina was formed by two Bonneville racers, with the idea of providing its members a place to run speed trials in the eastern half of the United States. Originally a World War II air base runway, it is now an event race course. The one mile long race course has a hard concrete surface with an elevation of 210 feet above sea. The organization will be moving to Wilmington, Ohio for the 2012 season, with details released at a later date.

More Shots of Buckeye Team at ECTA

Great stuff…  check out the second batch of shots from the Buckeye Team:

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Buckeye Electric Motorcycle Race Team at the ECTA

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Sean Ewing sent this over to me yesterday, the Buckeye Team trucked on down to the ECTA this weekend to run their sincerely badass nasty MV Augusta.

The results are here, on the ECTA site at the bottom:

9849

APS/O

Buckeye Electric Motorcycle Race Team

Jennifer Holt

Sep-11

112.349

…unfortunately, they had some trouble delivering the torque they needed to hit the speeds they were hoping for, but a great effort by a great team. It sounds like controller issues…  but stay tuned.

Here are the specs on the bike:

784 Li-Po cells
35Ah 460 VDC charged
Remy HVH250
Tritium WaveSculptor 200
MV Agusta F4 donor

The ECTA Maxton event has an interesting history- an East Coast Bonneville.  Read more about it here, on the ECTA About Us page.

OK, don’t nobody tell my Editor I’m not working on her story, kthxBye.

EDIT:

This just in from Sean:

To all,

First off, I would like to congratulate the team and specifically the
team members that were able to come to Maxton. It was an amazing
experience that I hope we can continue many more time in the future.

So Thursday, the 9 of us packed up and left late in the night. We all
arrived around noon on Friday and began unpacking. Everything went
relatively smoothly with tech inspection and paperwork and we called
it a night.

Saturday we raced! We knew we were having torque issues before even
going out to Maxton, so we unfortunately knew we could not hit our top
speed. Our first run was 108mph, Joe Ball maxxed out the speed
probably halfway down the course. Not bad for a first run, given our
torque issues. This was a record for us! We modified gearing and some
motor controller values and went again later that day. We only did
90mph on that pass. So, overall not a bad day for the team. We got a
record and knew what we wanted to change next.

Sunday, we took the motorcycle out again with different gearing. This
time, Jenn made a 112mph pass WITH headwinds. Damn good in my mind. We
tried a second run but the course shut down early.

Not a bad weekend at all in my mind given our bugs in the motor
controller. We can continue to iron those issues out and continue to
improve our record.

Great job everyone,
Sean Ewing

P.S. Please congratulate Mr. Joe Ball as the idea man for this event
and our teams' FIRST record holder and Ms. Jenn Holt as our current
record holder and both got their licenses to go >150mph at any ECTA
event. Kudos to everyone!

P.S.S. Press releases and photo are being put together right now.

-- 
Buckeye Electric Motorcycle Race Team,
"Let’s win these races for Ryan!!" - L.W.
Team Leader and Co-founder
The Ohio State University

NEMA C Motor Mounts for Yamaha R5, RD250, RD350, RD400

Here you go…  one key step in the road to doing your own Yamaha Cafe bike conversion, I’m making these slick motor mounts available.

$100 for 1/4″ steel, unfinished. Aluminum (.34) is $60.

Email me at ted (at) evmc2.com for details…

Larz Anderson Green Day- Getting Ready!

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The folks over at Larz Anderson are hosting a Green Day event on October 10 and asked for some shots of the bike…  Take a look at the Green Day information page here, and take a trip on over to the museum on Columbus Day!

“Join the museum on Monday October 10, 2011 for Green Day: Bringing Technology and People Together through Green Innovations. A family friendly event to promote green driving and living in Massachusetts. We welcome those with any green modes of transportation; grease cars, electric cars, hybrid cars, solar cars, motorized and regular bicycles, segways, scooters, etc. Your vehicle can fly, swim or drive on land as long as it is green we would like for you to be involved. “

Here are the shots:

 

New Dyno Plots for Motenergy ME0709 (Mars)

Got this from John Fiorenza of Motenergy (Mars) for the ME0709 motor:

“…attached are some new dynamometer plots for the ME0709 motor at higher voltages.

For the ME0709 Motor:

The dynamometer plots are at 72 VDC and 96 VDC, up to 12 KW (16 hp).  The x-axis is Torque in Pound Inches.

We now have a larger dynamometer that goes to 12 KW, and a power supply for 100 VDC, 500 amps.

Note that these motors are set for CCW rotation.  The efficiency in the CW direction is not as good due to the timing adjustment on the motor.  If you need CW rotation, then the timing needs to be adjusted.“

Links to the pdf files below.  Thanks John!

72V ME0709 CCW 2011.9.1

72V ME0709 CW 2011.9.1

96V ME0709 CCW 2011.9.1

96V ME0709 CW 2011.9.1

MotoElectra: Blue Grass Bike takes 2nd in National Championship for 2011

Just got this from Brian at MotoElectra- a great piece from their local paper.  A little long, but a great story and well worth the read:

By Anne Adams • Staff Writer, Highland Recorder

SALT LAKE CITY — Highland County’s famous electric motorcycle went out in style last Sunday.
At Utah’s Miller Motosports Park, located on — believe it or not — Sheep Lane; pro rider Thad Wolff pushed Moto Electra’s battery powered machine to a great conclusion, taking second place in the overall points for the TTXGP North American National Championships. The Norton bike had been built, re-built, tweaked, re-tweaked, painted and repainted over the years by Brian Richardson, inside his sheep barn in Blue Grass. So, arriving at Sheep Lane for the bike’s final race of its life, he said, was a good omen.

Friday, they got to do some real testing on the track. Though previous study indicated the bike should be geared taller, Wolff wanted it geared down — way down.

“That was opposite of what we thought we should do,” Richardson said. “But we geared it down, and it ran faster and cooler than ever. I guess you can chalk that up to Thad’s experience … it was running really nice, and really cool.” Richardson had pushed himself the week before, repairing the faring that had been damaged during a crash earlier in the season. He knew he wanted that aerodynamics back to help improve speed. Then he called neighbor Wilt Simmons, who dropped everything to get the bike painted in one day. “We put it in the trailer almost wet, and let it dry on the way to Utah,” Richardson said.

Saturday before the big race, Wolff qualified third on the grid for the start. The Motoczysz bike, built with a million dollar effort qualified in first. “Motoczysz just gave an amazing performance,” Richardson said. “It was running the same lap times as 600cc gas race bikes — It just took everyone’s breath away.”
But Richardson and Wolff were happy with the Norton. After years of work, the Norton was finally running exactly the way they’d always hoped — fast, and cool.

The tech inspector took a look, and he had this list of little things he wasn’t crazy about, but one of them written on his list was: “Remove all sheep sh*t from foot pegs.” In fact, unlike all the previous racing events, Richardson found himself with nothing much to do for the bike before the championship race, except maybe scrape off any residue from his Highland farm.

Sunday finally came. It was so unusual not to have any last-minute engineering or design issues to address that Richardson said it was sort of nerve-wracking. “Everything was done … I didn’t know what else to do. I guess that’s as it should have been,” he said. “The bike was fully developed. Thad asked me about our strategy and I said, we’re just racing ourselves.”

As the race began, the Norton ran hard and fast, and didn’t overheat. During the second lap, one machine on the track broke down. Motoczysz stretched it’s commanding lead. Richardson stood by the track, and watched anxiously as Wolff pushed the Norton ever faster. “He was coming into out of the turn deep onto the front stretch, and then going all the way to the wall,” Richardson said. “It was very dramatic; he had to be going over 100 mph at the wall and I was just inches away from him. Then in one turn, he took one hand off the bars and threw up a V, a victory sign. I knew he was having fun and the bike was running good — I was so happy!

“Then, all of a sudden, on the next lap — it seemed impossible — the Brammo had pulled away long before, but now Thad was pulling up behind him.” The spread had been several hundred yards between Brammo and the Norton, but somehow Wolff had reduced that to only about 50 yards. “I motioned for Thad to go get him!,” Richardson said. “In the last turn, the Brammo was only slightly ahead — maybe a 2.5-second split at the end of 20 miles between our bike and the factory built and supported Brammo.” In the end, Motoczysz won the race. Brammo and Moto Electra secured first and second, respectively, in the national championship points standings. “It was a great finish,” Richardson said, elated by the outcome. “Brammo deserved to win, but we were gaining on him. Our bike was stronger than ever. One more lap and I think it could have been a different story.”

Richardson was particularly pleased all his design efforts had paid off on the temperature. While the Norton had previously heated up to 160-170 degrees Celsius, after Sunday’s race it was registering under 100c. “That’s our last race, and we’re going out with a bike that’s performing like we wanted,” he added.

TTXGP called Moto Electra a “fan favorite,” reporting that “Moto Electra has been a consistent and extraordinary team, having participated in every single TTXGP track event ever held in North America. This is an amazing accomplishment from this privateer team and testimony to the passion and drive of all involved as well as single minded determination and grit. Brian Richardson added that this had been an adventure of a lifetime. Being part of it had been a dream come true in bringing together his passion for Norton and the future drive train technologies into a single package.”

MotoCzysz Takes Miller- US TTXGP Finale

MotoCzysz RULED the Miller TTXGP race apparently, as reported by David Herron (FINALLY some decent coverage of the weekend):

“… a rematch between MotoCzysz and Lightning, and unlike their previous this time MotoCzysz led the whole race handily winning.”

Read the whole story here, and check out the great photos.

Thanks, David for some awesome coverage of the Miller race!

Moto Electra Racing Makes 2nd in TTXGP Points for 2011

Just got this from Betty, at my favortie, Team Moto Electra:

What a season it has been – 2 trips to California and now finishing up in Utah. Brian reports that Thad finished today’s race with only 25% left in the battery – used up more battery than ever before, but the bike ran very consistent and the engine ran cool!

By the last lap, Team electra was within 20 yards of Brammo – the bike that took 3rd in today’s race.

JMU team member Rob Prins didn’t make this race, for a really fun reason – -the newest member of Moto-Electra Team arrived last week — baby Jack! Can’t wait to meet him – congrats to the new family!

Reports from the team in Utah sounded happy and I think we’ll have some really fun pictures to share in the near future.

Below is a pic of our own # 37 from the Miller Motosports homepage – thanks Rob for pointing that out to me!

-Betty

Great stuff, and to the team that made it to more TTXGP races than anybody else: Team Moto Electra!  Can’t wait to see what comes out of the Sheep Barn next Spring!

The Electric Gardener: Lindentree Farm Lincoln and the Electric Tractor

My buddy Jon Chomitz sent over these shots from Lindentree Farm, in Lincoln, MA.  I’ve sent off an email asking for info, but here’s what I’ve got.

Looks like a 48V flooded lead acid rig from maybe a forklift or a golf cart…  definitely an Alltrax controller.  Looks like the motor is inside the little red box.

Update: Spoke with the farmer who built it, Ari, and he found everything he needed at the Flying Beet, here.  It’s an Allis Chalmers G, and apparently there’s quite a cult of them growing in all parts…  100 plus, by the Flying Beet’s count. Here’s a pretty hysterical video featuring the tractor:

Here’s the Niekamp Tool Company Electric G page, too.

…more to come!