232 HP electric superbike to race gasoline motorcycles

[Disclaimer]

I'm kinda excited about this - not gonna lie. The bike is an ugly mother, but function > form.

232 HP electric superbike to race gasoline motorcycles

http://hellforleathermagazine.com/2010/12/232hp-electric-superbike-to-race-gasoline-motorcycles/

Even more impressive is the interview with Chip Yates.

Chip Yates on putting electric motorcycle’s money where their mouth is

http://hellforleathermagazine.com/2010/12/chip-yates-on-putting-electric-motorcycle%E2%80%99s-money-where-their-mouth-is/

A little snippet from the article I thought was awesome

When we say we brought in MIT software engineers, we’re not kidding. The work they’re doing on the control algorithms and the race-finishing algorithms and the lean angle and traction control, the wheelie control.”“A 300 foot pounds of torque bike is unrideable, so all the stuff that makes that rideable and then the patented KERS system, we’ve spent our money on the powertrain and the software to try and make an unridable bike be rideable. In dong so, we’ve created the most sophisticated — from the standpoint that if you brought NASA engineers in here and showed them our wiring, our software, our ECU, our control strategies, it would pass a red face test with NASA or an aerospace company. That’s the level we’re operating at.”“Our motor and controller is a matched pair from UQM, they’re designed to work together and it works very well. UQM is a US government supplier, they supply these sorts of things for tanks, so I have a lot of confidence in it.”“It would be better if the battery pack was in the center, but there’s just no room to package that. To make 194bhp for 12 laps, you need a certain amount of battery. You calculate how many batteries you need and their size and where you’re going to put them. We could maybe fit 10 percent of the battery pack under the tank area, but it means splitting the high-power wires and splitting the battery managment wires and it added more complexity than it solved in weight.”

[TSB67]

I respect that the guy set out to build an electric bike to compete in motorcycle racing, not just electric motorcycle racing.

Some good interviews on roadracerx.com with him.

Latest (I think) interview:

http://www.roadracerx.com/features/between-the-races/between-the-races-chip-yates/

More:

http://www.roadracerx.com/sitemap/search/?cx=014078402921648249999%3Atjr5f8botpm&cof=FORID%3A11&ie=UTF-8&q=chip+yates#1036

[Disclaimer]

Via hellforleather: http://hellforleathermagazine.com/2011/01/video-electric-v-gas-the-complete-race/

On Sunday, Chip Yates made history by placing his electric superbike 2nd and 3rd in races against gasoline-powered competitors. Now, here’s video of the complete WERA Heavyweight Twins Superbike race, complete with commentary from both Chip and his electrical engineer, Robert Ussery.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkx1hMNiIRM&feature=player_embedded

[Disclaimer]

Double post? Nah....[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkx1hMNiIRM&feature=player_embedded][/ame]

[kawi kid]

From the tidbit in the first post it sounded like the bike will pretty much ride itself with the amount of stuff they had to do in power control lean angles and such.

[redkow97]

the electric bike did pretty damn well. "Experts" on RC8's and 848's were turning comparable times.

Clearly the bike makes significantly more power than the RC8, and a boatload more than the middle-weight Duc, but an electric bike turning that quick of a lap is damn impressive.

Now the question is can someone OTHER than Chip turn those times on an electric bike, or we crediting the bike for the rider's superiority?

[magley64]

is that the one they kept calling the banana bike during the elec-only race? it's quick...