Archive for May, 2012

TTX75 teams will be no shows for this weekend’s race

Posted: May 2, 2012 in Blah, blah, blah, Events, Manufacturers, Riders, Series, Teams, Tracks
9

As I said in last night’s post, only one of the two TTX75 teams that were scheduled to race this weekend will be showing up.  Well, now make that none.  On a hunch I posted on VA Tech’s Facebook page, and this is the thoughtful reply I received:

Virginia Tech BOLT

Unfortunately we will not be making the trip out to Infineon this weekend. While we were testing at PIR on April 12th we discovered several issues the most prevalent being feedback in the motor when the rear wheel was unloaded, and unexpected shut off. Without these issues resolved our rider was not comfortable riding the bike in a race setting and so we decided to postpone our TTXGP debut to one of the later races this summer (most likely Miller). That being said we made another trip to PIR this past weekend for the NESBA track day where besides thoroughly confusing the safety technician we made considerable headway against our problems. The shut off issue has been eliminated as an overheating issue that only occurs in a testing scenario after several cycles of charging and discharging. The motor feedback is inherent to the method of motor control we are using and has been diminished but not eliminated completely. On a brighter note the handling of our bike more than surpassed our expectations and several of the gas bikes could not keep up with us in the corners. While the design process has already begun for our ’13 bike it is our plan to keep the current bike intact because it is so close to race readiness. So keep your eyes out for it in the near future.
21 hours ago · Like

Micah Lee PIR=Pittsburgh International Race Complex, not Portland International Raceway

In typical elmoto racing style entrants are falling by the waste side.  However, there still should be 7 bikes showing up.  It is a hard line for us to walk here at esbk.co.  At least for me, as I don’t want to discourage the new teams as they do what previous teams have done (Mission, Lightning [only this race last year], and Amarok, to name a few).  I will be straight, it is very disappointing.  But at the same time stuff happens.  It’s just harder to watch the second time around.

Well, the chase for the Award will still be close as neither team will be there this weekend.  I guess the moral of this story is build your bike in the fall and test it all winter and spring.  So far in the TTX75 vs. eSS face off, the eSS appears to be winning.

The first NA TTXGP race is 4 days away and it’s snowing in LA, Cats are sleeping with Dogs, and Zero has 4(!!!!) bikes showing up!

Posted: May 1, 2012 in Blah, blah, blah, Events, Manufacturers, People of the Press, Riders, Series, Teams, Tracks
11

Thank you to David Herron and his Electric Racing News website for the heads up.

So, the synopsis is that there are 8 bikes (it was 9) committed to come this weekend.  This also might be the final word on the rider silly season which has been pretty quiet and hush hush.

TTXGP Class

Lets start with Lightning.  After putting in some serious work over the winter I really thought Ted Rich would be in the line up for my favorite team [to watch thrash on their bikes last minute in the pits].  However, according to the TTXGP’s press release it will be Barney (aka Micheal Barnes) and Tim Hunt.  Don’t confuse me with someone who is reading anything into this.  However, if Ted is that good a development rider (as I am sure he is) and there are 2 guys that are faster still it means Lightning has some seriously deep and a comparatively large talent pool backing their small effort.  We know this bike is fast.  We know they are capable of 240hp, at least.  And, as of last fall, it could run flat out around Chuckwalla raceway for a half hour straight.  We know that they seem to have found a solution to their weight distribution quirk that Ted talked about in his podcast interview with me.  The thing will now go around corners in a manner more suiting a proper race bike.  It is going to be the bike to beat and Mr. Hatfield clearly wants his North American title back from Brammo.

Brammo.  Well it’s going to be a very busy week for them as 3 days after the race and their head to head battle with Lighting, they are releasing their new Empulse and Empulse R . . . finally.  Now, we know the 2012 Empulse RR will have about twice the power, which will put it at about 2/3 of Lighting’s peak power.  The question is, will it be enough bike for the young Steve Atlus to take on the veteran Micheal Barnes, and keep the the NA championship?  I believe they have the better handling, and lighter bike.  Do they have the better balanced bike for the job?  We’ll only know after the checker drops Sunday. (more…)