Archive for June, 2012

Was there a worm in my cerveza?

Posted: June 30, 2012 in Blah, blah, blah
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I haven’t thrown out a wacky, speculative, what is he thinking post in a while.  So here I am just finishing off a single cerveza for the night and typing about tomorrow’s REFUEL event on the Brammo owners forum.  Of course I had to mention last year.  Now I don’t like mentioning Mission.  I don’t like giving publicity to people who have awesome bikes and don’t race them.  That, and nothing of interest ever comes out of their PR department, accept when the photos of their race bike in street trim came out.  Seriously, they use last year’s fastest elmoto around Laguna Seca e-superbike . . . to run errands.  I don’t hate them, I loath them, with searing white-hot jealousy.

Anyway I then thought about how the bike found itself on Jay Leno’s garage last month, and then an article by Alan Cathcart about the new Mission R showed up a month later.  Why now?  Coincidence?  An auto product coming out finally?  Or, and here is where I wonder just what exactly was in my beverage, will Mission be at Laguna?  Another path I thought of is that racing at Laguna could be the next PR “stunt” in a plan to build up to a product launch.  Either way, Laguna?  Will I be happy about it?  No.  If you have a sweet bike like that, I feel you should run in a championship.  To me, this is the best way to support the EV community as a whole.  But, I am biased.

For those who worried that my hiatus may have dulled my ability to come up with left field ideas on little to no information . . . need not worry.

Why you need to follow the REFUEL event this Sunday

Posted: June 30, 2012 in Blah, blah, blah, Events, Manufacturers, Tracks
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Yes, I just did a post about this,.  And no, I’m not trying to get put on their website again.  Although Empulse Buyer is right, it’s pretty sweet.

Here is the point that just hit me tonight and that I really felt I had to put out there to my fellow fans.  Laguna is pretty much the measuring stick for elmotos.  In MotoGP and World SBK, it is the measuring stick for the American riders as it is a track they know as well, if not better than, all the foreign competitors.  It evens the deck for them.  But in elmoto racing, Laguna is the one race that draws the most competitors every year.  It is also one of the few tracks that has been on the racing schedule the past two years, and now this year as well.  It is the course we use to measure the progress the elmotos are making.  From 2010 to 2011 the lap times dropped a staggering 16 seconds, and we saw how Europeans stacked up against the American teams.  Brammo is confirmed to be at REFUEL this Sunday, and apparently the field will be much bigger this year, all the way around.  Hopefully someone shows up with a Model S.

Last year Brammo’s times were a bit quicker on race day than at REFUEL, but not too much.  With them showing up with a revised bike we need to pay attention.  This is the first clear indication of just how far the bikes have come this year.  There were significantly faster qualifying times at Infinion, but the actual race times were not as fast.  But with some tech issues and highsides rearing their ugly head, it is unclear how much faster the bikes actually were.  This will be our first apples to apples comparison.

ESBK’s Roundtable Podcast #1

Posted: June 28, 2012 in People of the Press, Podcast
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Take a listen, and let me know what you think.

ESBK Round table #1

Way back machine: A (Rabid?) Fan’s Perspective of a TTXGP Race

Posted: June 28, 2012 in Blah, blah, blah, Events, Manufacturers, People of the Press, Riders, Series, Teams, Tracks
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This blog and podcast had been in the works for a long time before I finally got organized.  But the key event was me attending last year’s NA TTXGP final at Miller Motor Sports Park, as a guest of the TTXGP.   I originally wrote this as a way to pay the TTXGP back, but it never on published on their site.  Them and their trying to run an international series.  Anyway, all this talk about Eli’s bike reminded me I still had this, and it had yet to see the light of day.  I hope you enjoy!

A (Rabid?) Fan’s Perspective of a TTXGP Race

By Richard Dort

The weekend of September 3rd and 4th 2011, I was fortunate enough to be a VIP guest of the TTXGP at the season finale of the North American series at Miller Motorsports Park near Salt Lake City, UT.  When I was first invited I had a flood of ideas and goals I set for myself based off of their offer to run Twitter and a update Facebook for them.  My first thought was to do a live audio broadcast from the track.  But I gave up on that idea as I was going to have to work around broadcasting rights, and I was not confident I would be able to do so.  As it turned out, I am not sure I would have had the Wi-Fi available at a decent enough location to actually pull that off anyway.  Plan B was much more simplified.  Tweet practice, qualifying, and the race, and promptly write a report for each, after each session.  And when I wasn’t doing that, I wanted to grab audio interviews of racers.  Rupal Patel, the media director for the TTXGP, just asked that I make sure I have a good time, and this request rang in my head as soon as I arrived at the track. (more…)

Refuel is back on in less than a week!

Posted: June 26, 2012 in Blah, blah, blah, Events
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You may be thinking that the above picture is from last year’s Laguna Seca race.  But you would be wrong, mostly because the Brammo in front of the Mission.  This photo is from last year’s Refuel event.

Primarily a car event, last year’s Refuel actually played a pivotal role in last year’s Launa Seca round of the TTXGP and e-Power series.  It was EV only track time at a track what has become the single best attended elmoto race in the world mere weeks before said event.  Last year Brammo and Mission looked fairly close in times.  But in the week or two following the Mission dropped about 10 seconds a lap, and went on to crush the competition, while getting within 10 seconds a lap within the fastest MotoGP qualifying time.

While nothing drastic or revolutionary came of this specific event, it did provide a back drop to see just what a significant event last year’s Laguna Seca was.  Make no mistake, this is an event we will be keeping our eye on.

esbk’s Podcast naming contest!

Posted: June 26, 2012 in Blah, blah, blah, Events, Podcast
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Ok folks, I need help.  I’ve asked everyone I know, and no one has com up with a solution.  I need a clever new name for my podcast, so I can move on with the whole re-branding thing, as mentioned in my last podcast.

As you may, or may not, have noticed, the address changed from ttxgpmatters.wordpress.com, to esbk.co some time ago.  The site will be renamed “esbk.co”.  I haven’t moved forward with the re-branding because, as I have mentioned, I haven’t come up with a clever name yet.  The soon to be released round table podcast will be called, “The ESBK Round Table.”  I think that has a nice ring.  Super Bike Planet has the “Soupkast”, I am already using a variation of MotoPod, and ElMoto, while maybe not used for a podcast, is taken.  My roommate came up with ESBKast.  Ehhh, close but no cigar.

So, if YOU come up with a name I want to use until the end of time, I will make you a podcast.  That’s right!  Do you have a subject you want covered, a particular interview, and maybe even a round table.  Now, I only have so much power and influence (OK, none) so somethings may just be impossible to do.  but I will work with you.

So my minions!  Get creative! :D

Richard

TTXGP Press release: Motoczysz withdraws from todays race.

Posted: June 25, 2012 in Series, Teams
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TTXGP Press release:

Motoczysz withdraws from todays race.

24th June 2012

The local team and favourite to win had experienced some technical difficulties at the end of yesterdays qualifying that coupled with very little set up or preparation time meant this announcement from the teams General Manager this morning came as no surprise…

 

Hello Everyone,

I’d like to thank those of you that braved the rain and came to the track today. We are truly lucky to have so many supporters.

Due to delayed of our bikes from Isle of Man, and after only getting a few hours to prepare for this weekend’s races, we have decided to not to participate in the TTXGP race tomorrow, Sunday 6/24. Unfortunately, our e-Grand Prix machines still have in their IOM battery packs in and we frankly don’t have enough time to replace them with short course pack. And, although our riders were the fastest in qualifying today, we were looking for much, much more in the way of lap times and feel that we are capable of delivering one minute, twelve second passes. If we can’t do our best, we’ll wait to come back when we can.

We were very proud to be on the track with our OMRRA combustion-engine racing friends and look forward to being out there again soon.

For now, we would like to again say thanks to the many supporters that cheered and waved as our special bikes sprinted around their home track. We love Portland and we love the motorcycling community here :)

 

Electric race news gets the details on this weekend, including the MotoCzysz story.

Posted: June 25, 2012 in People of the Press
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The big points I take from David’s must read article are :

1) The Lightning guys weren’t there because the bike wasn’t back in the US from the Isle of Man yet.  This makes sense, as Micheal Czysz mentioned while color commentating the race today,their bike only came back this Friday night from the Isle of Man.

2) It was Chris Ancien’s MotoCzysz bike that had the issue.  There was no fire, as I had been told.  But, before I throw my source under the bus, the bike was engulfed in smoke in the pits after the race.  The logical assumption is, if there is smoke, there is fire, but the MotoCzysz crew acted quickly.  There is video footage of the event that  should make its way to the internet.  This story is corroborated by Travis Gintz who was there, with his comment on post on this blog.

Fire or no fire, there was a catastrophic failure of a pack.  Although I am very glad to get the complete story, as I never thought we would.  This means the MotoCzysz team worked their butts off, and pushed their bikes to the limit.  This also means a satisfying and well earned weekend for Brammo.  They were only 3 seconds a lap off of the MotoCzysz bikes in practice, and ran a full second faster in the race, consistently.  Although, the track was reported to be dryer than it had been on Saturday and their bike ran flawlessly, as it did all year last year, making their bike the most reliable bike on the grid, in the post Moto Electra era.  They are very much in the hunt with the other GP bikes which only means better racing to come.

Because of all of this the two TTX75 bikes took second (VT Bolt) and third (ProtoMoto), and the battle for the eSuperStock award was fierce and entertaining.  It is a real shame that there weren’t 10 bikes on the grid on race day but 7 is one more than round one, and a sign that things are growing.  Thank you to the TTXGP, all of the teams, PIR the OMRRA, and all of the sponsors for an exciting weekend of racing!

Brammo handed pole for Sunday’s race at PIR

Posted: June 23, 2012 in Blah, blah, blah, Events, Manufacturers, Series, Teams, Tracks
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UPDATE(ed):  I just got word that one of the MotoCzysz packs caught fire the battery pack on one of the bikes almost went into thermal runaway and started smoking really bad after qualifying.  They doused it with water for about an hour and then went homecalled it a weekend.  How no one bothered to mention this last night I don’t know.  This would be one of the issues with the TTXGP series, Twitter, and me trying to cover it from a remote location.  And makes most of this post irrelevant.  For transparency I have not erased what I wrote earlier, but have crossed out what I believe to now be irrelevant or inaccurate.  My condolences to the MotoCzysz team.  Clearly a hard fought battle.

No, the sheet above doesn’t have the riders in their starting order.  You have to look at the times and put them in the right order.  But if you do that (and/or if you follow twitter) you will notice that Brammo is third.  The team that was in first and second is going home.  Right now it looks like they simply left because they didn’t go as fast as they felt they could with their “short circuit” battery pack.  This will mean that team has yet to finish a race at PIR, this being their second attempt.  This just happened on twitter and I doubt I will ever get the whole story.  This could just be them bowing out as not to interfere with a points championship they had no intention competing for in the first place. Or they had technical problems that hasn’t been mentioned.  Who knows.

But I do not believe I am overstating things when I say that this is a massive blow to fans everywhere.  And, too big a blow to the series and weekend in general for me to be OK with.  But it is my luck that a I take a hard stance and then find out someone’s family is sick, or something of the like.  So, we’ll just wait and see.  On the upside, it’s pretty much a gimme for Brammo as both the rider and the bike ran very well today.

P.S.  TTX75 bikes are (way) faster than eSuperstock bikes who have bigger packs.  And, I bet the TTX75 bikes didn’t cost as much.  Hmmmm.

Watch Round 2 of the NA TTXGP live! (I think)

Posted: June 23, 2012 in Events, Series, Tracks
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Ok, here’s the “scoop”.  I had heard some mutterings that the races would be available from track cameras that stream live.  No commentary or anything, just live low res video.  So after a tweet posted ny the Bolt team I did some digging.  Go to www.pirlive.com to check it out.  I am making the assumption the cameras will still be on during the race.  It also looks like someone will have to man some sort of control to change from one camera to another, as it doesn’t seem to be under user control.  I am sorry I don’t know more,  I completely forgot about the whole thing.  The race is scheduled to start at 2:05PM Pacific, so 5:05PM Eastern on Sunday.

But, this could also mean we can watch the elmotos take on the gassers in one of the OMRRA races.  Watch this post for an update.

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