I've been quiet for awhile and just wanted to check in about my electric
land-speed bike project.
First, the bad news. It won't be making the trip to Speed Week this year.
I'm still hoping to get it together for WOS, the World Finals, or maybe El
Mirage later this year.
Does anyone know if I can sell my entry for Bonneville? I pre-entered and
would be willing to sell it at cost.
The good news is that I will be at Bonneville for the first part of Speed
Week, and I'll be reviewing the bike's plans with some members of the
technical committee. I should be able to get some feedback while it's still
easy to make changes. I've mainly been working on the drawings for the last
couple of weeks, and feel like I've made some progress. Now I'm ready to
start cutting up tubing and putting the frame together. I thought I was
ready to start welding the frame a month ago, and thought I could just
design it as I went along. But my friends that have actually built
motorcycle frames kept telling me that every hour spent on the drawings
will save two hours in the shop. I believe them now because as I got more
detailed on the drawings I kept finding more problems with my original
plan. Problems like where was I going to put my legs? The kinda stuff
that's hard to fake if it doesn't work out. I also moved the rider up front
a little based on a suggestion from one of the above friends, Michael
Moore, a guy I used to race with in the 80's and who runs the MC Chassis
discussion list. Something about keeping the center of gravity ahead of the
center of pressure. I'm sure you'all know what I'm talking about. It's
supposed to help keep things going straight.
In lieu of actually working on the bike, I made some progress on buying
stuff. I now have the motor and controller for the bike, but I still need
to get the contactors for the controller bypass. I've ordered some bearings
that I'll need, and I finally figured out how to fabricate the steering
linkage for the double a-arm front suspension, as well as how to fabricate
the front suspension. One thing I'm thinking of doing is using rubber
donuts for the suspension instead of a regular coil-over shock. I saw some
at a F500 shop in the East Bay and I keep thinking about it.
Here's a question about tires: How important is it to have tires rated for
load as well as speed? I found a combination that'll work for my rims using
Dunlop D205 tires with a 140/80ZR17rear tire on the front and a 170/60ZR18
on the back. With me on it the bike will weigh just over 1000 lbs. I
couldn't find a Z-rated front tire that was rated for more than 565 lbs,
which I thought was just a little too close. The 140/80 is rated at 716
lbs, and the rear tire I want to use is rated at 803 lbs. I haven't
actually bought them yet but it's about that time. Anyone know of problems
people have had running a rear tire in the front? I'm not expecting any
problems with this setup.
Here's some details in case you're interested: 144 volt battery pack of
12-volt Optima yellow-top (deep-cycle) batteries. Curtis 144-volt, 500 amp
controller, Schabmuller series-wound DC forklift motor, rated at 4.5kw
continuous that I'll be seriously over-loading for about 2 minutes,
snowmobile CVT transmission (probably not necessary for Bonneville but itll
be easy to bypass if it slows me down), 108" wheelbase, 132" overall
length, 33" tall at the seat. The frame is being built out of 1x2" x .065"
rectangular tubing and 1" dia. x .065" DOM steel tubing. The width without
a front fairing is going to around 17". I may be fitting an old HD
roadrace-style fairing on the front and it'll definitely have a big
seat/tail section on it.
To make this all work I also need to put some kind of extension on the 4x8
foot trailer I'm using to pull it with. Seems like one project keeps
leading to another. I just put a tow hitch on the Bronco II that I bought
last month to pull the bike, and this weekend I'll be installing the
trailer wiring connections on the car.
Henry Deaton
(in cold, windy, and foggy San Francisco, and actually looking forward to
some heat and sun for a change)
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