Archive for the ‘Blah, blah, blah’ Category

Lots of News out of Zero for the Month of May

Posted: May 20, 2013 in Blah, blah, blah, Manufacturers
0

Three whole press releases have been posted up on Zero’s website for the month of May.  They have sold 59 bikes to the Hong Kong Police Department through their new dealership there, they won “European E-Motorbike of the Year 2013, and the have just release their Military version of their MX dirt bike.  Not mention is that they are moving (or have moved) to a new, bigger facility in Santa Cruz, and Racer X Illustrated got their hands on a 2013 MX.  Don’t read the comments on the Facebook post if don’t already know that young rednecks actually do have access to the internet.

First the news about the big 59 bike sale.  It’s great for Zero, and at the 2013 release back in January the VP of PR did talk about how good fleet orders had been, and this is at least one of them.  If Hong Kong sounds familiar it is because Brammo has had a relationship the police through Jackie Chan’s Brammo dealership there.  Hong Kong is huge (been there, but in a Las Vegas kind of way) so it would seem there is plenty of room for both companies.  The HKPD is getting 2012 Zero Ss which is still a step up on the Enertia+ in horse power but the Brammo fits in the middles between the two Zero models (ZF6 and ZF9).  In the press release Zero says, “The Zero S has an approximate range of 89 miles on a single charge with a top speed of 88 miles per hour.”  This makes me believe they have the ZF9.  Funny enough real world Enertia+ owners and testers have found it fairly easy to get 80 miles of range in city commuting.  So the bike are pretty comparable, if not the Zero having a fair amount more oomph.  It will be interesting if we ever remember to keep an eye on these two fleets and see how the bikes compare in the long run.

As far as the European award, they didn’t win it against Brammo, much like Brammo didn’t win the Playboy award against the Zero.  The Empulse is not available in Europe yet, however the Enertia is and according to this page it wasn’t compared to any Brammo, but a Mavizen.  That bike is what 3 or 4 years old?  MCN rode one and it seemed pretty good back then.  So while Zero has every right to pat themselves on the back, just as Brammo did over the Playboy Best Electric Motorcycle award, I just can’t give either award a whole lot of weight.  But fair is fair.

And lastly there is Zero’s MIL-Spec MX, the MMX.  It is water submersible up to 1 meter.  To be honest, it wouldn’t surprise me if the stock bikes are this water tight.  It really doesn’t read to be much more than a stock MX with a fancy headlight, some quick disconnects, a switch box, and a nifty reserve and a kind of BMS override when low on power.  It’s cool, and convenient even, but not OMG that’s freakin’ cool, cool.

Still, it is really cool to see so much news is coming out of Zero while Hollywood Electrics is taking it upon themselves to take on the racing effort, which has been dominating the headlines here at ESBK.co.  As well it should.

Here are all three press releases.  I recommend you read them: (more…)

RoadRacingWorld.com: “Cancer Treatments Will Force Michael Czysz To Miss TT Zero At The Isle Of Man TT”

Posted: May 14, 2013 in Blah, blah, blah, Manufacturers, Riders, Teams
0

Here’s RoadRacingWorld.com’s article.

Of all the teams that I disagree with and that give me the wtf’s the most, MotoCzysz, hell Micheal Czysz himself, is at the top of the list.  But bench racing is one thing, and life threatening illness is something completely different.  These day’s I am not sure if anyone reading this hasn’t had cancer touch their lives one way or another.  I know I have had it touch my family.  So to try to say something that communicates the seriousness of cancer would probably just end up sounding condescending.  If you have even met Mr. Czysz then you know he is passionate and pretty darn fit.  I am hopeful this will aid him in his fight, and is the way he will continue to be for a long time to come.  From the bottom of my heart I wish you, Micheal Czysz, and your family the absolute best and look forward to seeing you folks come out the other side if this fight with a big Win.

Sincerly,

Richard Dort

Why the 2013 Battle Between MotoCzysz and Mugen Might Not Be Just About the Bikes

Posted: May 14, 2013 in Blah, blah, blah, Manufacturers, Teams
0

As you may very well have seen in the moto blogoshpere MotoCzysz has not only done the expected and announced their 2013 TT Zero run against Mugen, but also announced their intentions of running this year’s FIM eRoadRacing series.  Now the first report came from Asphalt and Rubber and they said, “Also announcing its intention to race in the new 2013 eRoadRacing World Cup, MotoCzysz has enlisted the help of Shane Turpin and Steve Rapp for riding duties at Laguna Seca, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Miller Motorsports Park.”  This was followed by a David Heron story where he said, “The MotoCzysz press release does not commit to anything in the eRoadRacing series other than the Laguna Seca event.  And of course we had to wait until Moto-USA or RoadRacing World put their stories up until we could actually read the press release.  But confused yet?  I certainly was until Susanna Schick of Gas2 went to their offices in Portland, OR and did an interview with the general manager were she says, “Last week they announced their 2013 rider lineup, making it clear that they would like to race the full US season of the eRoadRacing series but for now are targeting IOM TT Zero and the Laguna Seca round of eRoadRacing.”  Ahh, OK, now we know the score.

He’s where the speculation comes in a bit.  If you listened to my interview with Colin Whittamore of Mugen then you know Mugen is a racing company.  They make parts to make your race car or motorcycle go faster.  They see electric technologies as being very much a part of the future and are embarking on this venture now to get a head start on ev technologies and how they apply to racing.  This is very similar to how the GM of MotoCzysz describes the direction they are going in with their company, in his interview with Susanna.  So now the TT Zero is not just the battle ground for who has the best bike around the island, but a battle between two companies vying for business.  One with deep roots in racing but new to ev tech, and the other a young American start-up who has demonstrated their engineering and design prowess by dominating the TT Zero for the past three years.  Last year they may have just been battling for the trophy and bragging rights.  This year it may very well be for business as well.

But why are they now making such an effort for the eRR?  I believe the list of reasons is as long as your arm.  Some of it maybe that they now see they have rivals worthy of comparing themselves too.  And another I am certain is because of the FIM’s backing.  Micheal Czysz (based on my conversation with him in 2011) has never been particularly supportive of the TTXGP.  Never negative mind you, but not what I would call supportive.  Is that wrong or right?  I’ll leave that to you, as I don’t feels it’s my place.  If you have watched the movie “Charge”, you will know the Czysz family has been involved in motorcycle racing at one level or another for a long time and they may very well have insights we are not privy too.  I’m just calling it, “it is what it is.”  Moving on, if they only race Laguna Seca then it really isn’t any more than the same ol’ same ol’ from the company, only with two bikes and two top racers on them.  They show up and people ohh and ahh at their gorgeous bikes, they win or get second, get a some coverage in the press, and go home and back to work.  Basically a press stunt based on some good racing.  I am not convinced these folks are really satisfied with this, but they have budgets and work at the office to do.  However, they have made it very clear they want to race the whole season, even if it turns out they can’t.  Which brings me to another point.  This year is different.  This year MotoCzysz has hired two riders, and will have two bikes out there, and neither of the riders are Micheal Czysz.  And they have announced they will be going.  They never do that accept for the TT Zero.  I always wondered why as it seemed to only ever pissed the few fans off who would have made the extra effort to make the trip had they had know MotoCzysz would be there.  I know when I found out, it was the extra motivation I needed to pull the trigger on the plane ticket to get out to Miller in 2011.  Also there has been more twitter traffic which I feel is good, but who am I?  This year is different is all I can say for now.

But since we’ve dived head first into the rabbit hole, I think Brammo’s actions this year may prove to provide some insight.  They feel confident they are within reach of Lightning and MotoCzysz but are not happy with being within reach.  They want to beat them on the track.  They have two Continental Championships and a World Final.  They have proven they can and will show up and that their bikes are reliable enough to do the business regularly.  Now they want to be faster than everyone else.  And I suspect doing it with less power, as that is not what the riders have been asking for.  They seem happy with the power, even if Parker (their motor supplier) isn’t.  So in order to reach this goal they are racing with gas bikes in the oldest club racing series in the country, the AFM.  While Shelina was busting all of her goals on the the Empulse TTX and Prototype Engage all to pieces, EBoz and Steve-O didn’t reach their lap time goals, but ticked every other box that weekend.  This means they will have 2 full race weekends under their belts before the eRR season starts in July.  I wonder if MotoCzysz isn’t looking to do the something similar by racing the eRR in addition to the TT Zero.  In the UK, Bennett’s Bike Social blog has reported, “The new bike will be run by the Honda Racing team for Mugen out of Honda Racing’s UK headquarters in Louth, and then eventually make it to the Isle of Man TT for the TT Zero first practice on Friday May 31.  Mugen has allegedly spent an alleged £3 million on the Shinden project, hoping that this could be the bike to help John McGuinness on to TT win number 20.”  That’s a lot of money to throw around.  Frankly it’s enough to make all of the other elmoto race programs very jealous.  For a small company like MotoCzysz to compete with a well established company like Mugen, much less with them spending that much money, is a pretty darn big hurdle.  I suspect if everyone has indeed brought the fight to MotoCzysz in the eRR it came at a good time.  It will obviously be too late for the TT Zero, but learning about their opponent there and then going head to head with the best electric prototypes North America has to offer afterwards may just provide a competitive enough environment that will spur development at MotoCzysz to a high enough level to warrant spending the cash to go racing.  In other words, hopefully the racing in the eRR provides enough bang for the small company’s buck, and proves necessary in order to develop their technology to keep up with and/or ahead of Mugen in this field.

MotoCzysz clearly isn’t standing still having developed what sounds like a very exciting “2D” suspension components, and they claimed on twitter that for 2013 they had 20% more energy on board than in 2012, while weighing the same.  Mugen’s bike looks like they may very well have spent 3M pounds on the project as it looks much less like a refrigerator, and more like what we recognize as a motorcycle.  Both teams have claimed they are aiming for 110mph laps.

We will find out how things shake out in 2 more weeks time.

Final Thoughts on Brammo’s first Assault on the AFM

Posted: May 6, 2013 in Blah, blah, blah, Events, Manufacturers, Riders, Series, Teams, Tracks
3

from Brammo’s Facebook page

I was a bit anxious after the last race Sunday.  The two Empulse RR riders weren’t going anywhere near as fast as I had thought they would.  I really thought we’d see low 1:40s, and even dared to think the AMA Daytona Sportbike class times of 1:38s per lap were possible.  Eboz got within 10 seconds of that time today.  What happened?  How did I get it that wrong?  More importantly did my unrealistic and very public expectations put undue stress on anyone?  And did I setup you, my audience, up for disappointment?  I have to be concerned, as people are reading this site now.  I broke both my highest one day and weekly traffic numbers today, which were previously set at the World Final in Daytona last October.  Then I focus on how the Brammo duo only got within only one second of Lightning’s qualifying time from the TTXGP round last year at about this time.  How did they not obliterate it?  Is power much more of an advantage at Sonoma than I thought?  Then I get a tweet from the man like he was reading my mind (or at least the blog).  They guy who seems to me to be set to become the Godfather of Electric Motorcycle racers, Eric Bostrom:

“@ttxgpfan Thanks for tuning in. Flawless weekend for the team and plenty of motor. Chassis is our focus to move forward in the field.”

OK, so the world wasn’t upside down.  Sonoma has proven to be a very different track than Thunderhill, but it’s still the chassis stupid.  Why then, when the 2013 Empulse RR is clearly a better handling bike than the early 2012 was it not able to match and crush Barney’s lap time when the old bike were so close at last year’s Laguna Seca round?  I went back and looked at the fastest AMA times from the previous year.  The 600 Supersports were running as fast as the 750 Superbikes were today.  Hell, the RR would have been lucky to brake the top five in qualifying for the Harley XR1200 class.  Turns out last year Barney was on fire there.  He didn’t get pole but still set 1:47 qualifying times on both the XR and Lightning, and then rode the XR to a 1:46 during the race.  So the Empulse has power on all of those bikes, accept the Lightning.  And it’s handling is much improved.  So what gives?  I think I have it . . . Weight.  If you look at the AMA classes and how close they are in lap times, I think you will see that less weight translates to faster lap times, mostly because of higher corner speed and quicker acceleration (change in speed not just going faster).  I am beginning to think this is the key to getting around Sonoma when compared to Laguna.  But that is a sketchy conclusion as Superbikes are always the fastest and the XRs are always the slowest no matter the track.  A better example can be seen when you look and see that the very lightweight eSS Zeros from last year would easily fall within the FIM’s qualifying cutoff scheme at Sonoma and but fell well short at Laguna (and were allowed to race anyway).  The Zeros had about 1/7th the horsepower and about half the weight of the Lightning bikes.  I suspect Laguna Seca hides weight and rewards horsepower more than Sonoma, and is why we have seen the prototypes take big chunks of time out at Laguna.  But we have not really seen that happen at Sonoma as weights haven’t dropped much but power has chassis have improved over the last few years.  However, from all reports the Lightning is heavier and more powerful and doesn’t have the handling of the Mission.  So this in counter intuitive.  All I can think of is that the Barnes used the Lighting’s power to counter it’s weight masterfully, and Sonoma may just suit the Lightning. I am certain the Brammo guys have taken every ounce out of the RR they could, so the only thing they can do is try to figure out how to get the bike to carry the extra weight through the corner faster, and that would be done through the chassis.  I think of as trying to make a modern Mustang corner like a GT40.  It’s a tall order, but there is room for improvement.  That is a pretty horrible analogy, but you get the idea.  There is more to this, and I am very curious about it.  As I have the time I will try to talk to people who have raced both tracks to try to get some more insight.

So all this “anxiety” and blabbering on about lap times is covering up what really happened this weekend.  Shelina Kicked some Gas on the TTX, and all the bikes ran flawlessly!  I didn’t hear of one hiccup.  None of the bike had to be reset mid race, a new charging scheme allowed flawless execution of charging all 4 bikes in a timely manner, and they prepped and raced 4 bikes for three riders in four classes with sometimes mad dashes to and fro from the SuperMoto track.  In none of the races today were these guys last!  Both RR’s did beat Lighting’s best race time and ran up to 9 seconds faster than at last year’s TTXGP race.  Although they got very few laps around the track as both Steve Atlas and Steve Rapp got launched in practice and qualifying.  Sonoma was a bad place for them last year and Brammo took its revenge on the track this weekend.  Also, we finally got to see the public racing debut of the Engage Prototype.  And it looks like Shelina took 4th if I am reading her twitter feed correctly.

From all accounts the team worked their tails off and didn’t spin a tire in the process.  The bikes ran flawlessly and the riders rode flawlessly.  There were no bobbles or flaws and they represented the elmoto world very well.  Bravo Zulu to those guys for what appears to have been a text book execution of a race weekend.

Why Electric Motorcycle Racing Needs to be US-Centric, Despite Tradition

Posted: April 21, 2013 in Blah, blah, blah
2

TTXGP World Final group photo

World Championship level ICE motorcycle racing is a European-centric sport.  Here are some facts for the upcoming 2013 season.  First, 61%, or 11 of 18, MotoGP rounds are in Europe.  4 of them, or 22% are in Spain alone.  For the first time in history 3 of them are in the US.  But given the size of both the US and the motorcycle market (or the size it used to be) that makes marketing sense.  The only explanation for Spain is that it’s motorcycle racing nuts.  In WSBK, again 11 rounds are in Europe, but there are only 15 for the year.  And of the 4 not in Europe 1 is in the US.  Just how Euro-centric are they?  One WSBK team came out and said that if they really wanted to reduce costs they should stop traveling to races outside Europe.  Clearly he doesn’t understand that would make it a European series, not a World series.  What is even funnier is that the sport is dominated by Japanese brands.  Why the Japanese are content with this I am not sure, but I am certain they are simply following the money.

Us Americans, we’re not so understanding or accommodating.  (more…)

Brammo News: Parker Puts its Money where it’s Motor is, Testing Tid-Bits, and AFM preview

Posted: April 19, 2013 in Blah, blah, blah, Events, Manufacturers, Riders, Series, Teams, Tracks
6

Alright, I’ve been waiting for this news for a while, although this has a twist.  Parker, not ICON, is the primary sponsor for Shelina’s and the Empulse TTX’s race effort this year.  Both Eric “EBoz” Bostrom and Shelina Moreda will be racing the TTX in the AFM this year, hence the 32 on the forks and front while Shelina’s 93 is on the side.  You gotta love the pink paint scheme with neon yello highlights.  Screams badass girl, while the Zebra lines echo those on EBoz’s RR.

OK, so ICON is the primary sponsor of the RRs. Now Parker has, and does, make the motors for all of the race bikes and the production Empulse R; which the pictured above TTX is, just with some trick bolt on items and a hot controller map.  They are sponsoring the TTX race effort.  So when referring to the RRs it’s Team Icon Brammo, and when referring to the TTX it’s Team Parker Brammo.  Got it?  Good.  Now explain it to me.  So Parker really is putting their mouth where their money is.  The only other motor company that was a primary sponsor was maybe Kollmorgen for VT Bolt.   Heck, what motor, controller, or battery company has a “Racing’ division/brand?  Clearly these guys get it, and are getting it a bit more than their competition.  It’s almost an embarrassment of riches over there in Brammo’s racing corner.  Almost.  If it was a real embarrassment of riches they’d have their own garage (hehe).

As far as testing Brian was happy to share: (more…)

ESBK Studios: Episode 21 (Full) Interview with John Marshal of VT Bolt

Posted: April 19, 2013 in Blah, blah, blah, Podcast, Series, Teams
2
The Virginia Tech Bolt Team

The Virginia Tech Bolt Team

A fun interview with John Marshal of Virginia Tech’s Bolt electric motorcycle race team.  We talk a lot about their GP bike they are building for this season on the success of their TTX75 bike from last year.  We talk not just about that but elmoto stuff in general.  Thank you for your time John.

Episode 21 (Full) Interview with John Marshal of VT Bolt

ESBK Studios: Episode 21 (Teaser) Interview with John Marshall of VT Bolt

Posted: April 18, 2013 in Blah, blah, blah, Podcast, Series, Teams
1
The Virginia Tech Bolt Team

The Virginia Tech Bolt Team

A fun interview with John Marshal of Virginia Tech’s Bolt electric motorcycle race team.  We talk a lot about their GP bike they are building for this season on the success of their TTX75 bike from last year.  We talk not just about that but elmoto stuff in general.  Thank you for your time John.

Episode 21 (Teaser) Interview with John Marshall of VT Bolt

ESBK Studios: Episode 20 (Full) Interview with Felix Lebel of Project EMUS

Posted: April 13, 2013 in Blah, blah, blah, Manufacturers, Podcast, Series, Teams
0

clip_image002_thumb.gif

I interview Felix Lebel of Sherbrook Universities, who is leading a project to build a competitive eRoadRacing race bike.  The first in a series of college team interviews for you folks to look forward to.  FYI, the commentary is a bit dated, the interview is over a month old.  Enjoy!

Episode 20 (Full) Interview with Felix Lebel of Project EMUS

ESBK Studios: Episode 20 (Teaser) Interview with Felix Lebel of Project EMUS

Posted: April 12, 2013 in Blah, blah, blah, Podcast, Series, Teams
1

clip_image002.gif

I interview Felix Lebel of Sherbrook Universities, who is leading a project to build a competitive eRoadRacing race bike.  The first in a series of college team interviews.

Editor’s Note:

When I started editing and producing these teasers for Richard, I promised him I wouldn’t “put words” into the mouths of his interview subjects by way of editing, making it sound like they said something they didn’t say. I never promised to extend that same courtesy to Richard, however. He starts off his ramble about transmissions with the phrase “quick and dirty” – I kept listening for something quick and dirty about transmissions, but honestly it was pretty interesting and insightful. Yes, I know it’s Richard we’re talking about, but trust me… So it’s this: he had a lot to say about transmissions, but most of it isn’t in this edit. You’ll have to subject yourself to the full podcast for the rest of what he said. That said, I hope you enjoy my take on Richard’s quick and dirty opinion of transmissions, and don’t give him too much crap about it until you listen to the full podcast. Or just laugh at what’s here, and move along….

Cotharyus

Episode 20 (Teaser) Interview with Felix Lebel of Project EMUS

Older Entries