A great and fun interview with Tyler Rowan of the Motorcycle project side of the Southern Polytechnic State University’s Electric Vehicle Team. Say that three times fast. his is the fifth University club/team I have found with serious aspersions of building an FIM eRoadRacing contending bike. Give them a listen.
From iomtt.com
June is going to be ridiculous when it comes to racing over the next few weeks. I think it’s a conspiracy to try to make me OD on racing, and they might just succeed. Here’s what is coming up for the next few weeks:
May 31: First TT Zero Practice
June 1: Second TT Zero Practice Brammo Practice and Qualifying at AFM Round at Thunder Hill
June 2: Brammo at AFM Races
June 3: Third TT Zero Practice and Moto Electra starts cross Continent EV record attempt
June 5: The TT Zero race
June 8: M1GP Practice and Qualifying
June 9: M1GP Races
So, for the Europeans it is a 6 week break from the TT to the first round of the eRR in Europe. In North America it is only a 3 week break for the Hollywood Electrics guys from the last M1GP round to Pikes Peak and the REFUEL event being held the same weekend. And then another 3 weeks to the first North American eRR race at Laugna Seca. Thank the lord because I’ll need the breaks. It looks like the Pikes Peak will be very well covered by both Ride Apart and Asphalt & Rubber, and @Pinkyracr will be hooning around Laguna Seca at the REFUEL event. So we have that to look forward too.
Hold on to your pantyhose kids. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.
Photo given by the Highland Canter
I am working on getting a little more info but in the mean time at least I found the press release. It pretty much says it all at this point:
Moto-Electra Racing to Attempt Coast to Coast Record for Electric Vehicles
Moto-Electra announced today that it is set to challenge the world record for electric vehicles in a cross-continent ride that is planned to cover 2,500 miles in just three days.
Blue Grass, VA (PRWEB) May 14, 2013
– Leader in electric motorcycle racing technology to cross the continent in a three-day 24×7 ride –
Moto-Electra announced today that it is set to challenge the world record for electric vehicles in a cross-continent ride that is planned to cover 2,500 miles in just three days. The event will begin on the beach of Jacksonville, FL, at dawn on June 3rd, 2013. Communications and media support will be provided by IceWarp, one of the team’s corporate supporters.
“We will travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean using only the batteries in the vehicle,” explained Brian Richardson, the manager of Moto-Electra Racing. “The event will conclude on the Santa Monica Pier in California. The race is against the clock and the motorcycle will be ridden by Thad Wolff, one of the great AMA Superbike racers of the 1980′s.”
The team will be making around 20 pit stops to charge the vehicle with an improvised “grid” — a generator carried along by the support crew of James Madison University engineering students. The team intends to demonstrate the capability of the current technology.
“At the turn of the 20th century, gasoline powered vehicles were useless for long distance travel,” says Mr. Richardson. “There were no roads, no filling stations, and the vehicles were not dependable. Our goal is to challenge perceptions about the useful range of electric vehicles, and set a world record in the process.”
The support vehicle for the ride is outfitted with an iPad-based IceWarp Messaging Server that provides native support for iPad that includes integrated Microsoft Active Sync. The combination allows real-time communication between the team, its supporters and fans regardless of what devices they are using, as long as they are based on universal standards.
“We wish Moto-Electra every success in this challenge,” said Ladislav Goc, IceWarp President. “As a company that has a decade-long innovations track record, we are honored to support a team of innovators that is rethinking the motorcycling sport technology.”
Racing technology enthusiasts can send e-mails directly to Moto-Electra team at motoelectra(at)icewarp(dot)com and get high resolution pictures signed by Thad Wolff.
About Moto-Electra
Moto-Electra Racing intends to re-invent the motorcycle as we know it. Started on a sheep farm in the Blue Grass Valley of Virginia, Moto-Electra Racing is developing some of the fastest electric motorcycles in the world. “You can silently accelerate to 130 mph or cruise along listening to the birds in the trees. This is an expansion of the sport of motorcycling. We invite you to visit our quiet Blue Grass Valley — To see for yourself the future of motorsport.” Brian Richardson
About IceWarp
IceWarp is an emerging provider of comprehensive messaging solutions for every business class, size and niche. Building upon a decade of enterprise e-mail platforms experience, IceWarp offers organizations an all-in-one highly secure solution that enables their mobile workforce to communicate through any platform, be it e-mail, mobile synchronization, chat, SMS, voice or video. The highly scalable product can easily be used by organizations of all sizes, from SMBs to large corporations, delivering ease of deployment, exceptional reliability and scalability. IceWarp’s solutions are available in over 40 countries through a comprehensive network of distributors.
For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2013/5/prweb10729441.htm 
Photo by Julian Walter of julianwalter.com, permission to use given by BE-EV.com Racing
I catch up with “JJ” while he was driving back across the country on his way back home to Florida.
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
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, “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.
I get the low down on the Gang from New York.
I get the low down on the Gang from New York.
Photo credit to Oxymoron Photography
Interviews with Jeff Smith of SRI about the EV1 desert racer and Briam Wismann of Brammo about the past weekend battling the gas bikes head on with the Empulse RRs, the Empulse TTX, and Engage Prototype. And some soap-boxing about a serious subject at the end.
Courtesy of Mugen
Hello all. I love having cool things in my mail box when I get home. I posted up their last press release and photos of the bike in plain back. In the last release they said. “work will continue to finalise the body work.” This caught not just my attention. Only I wasn’t so sure they meant anything other than paint. Well here’s photos of the final bike. What do you think? Photos courtesy of Mugen below the press release. Read the press release though. They too, are aiming for over 110mph.
TEAM MUGEN – PRESS RELEASE
Programme: TT Zero
Date: 09/05/2013
Release:Immediate
2013 TT Zero Challenger, MUGEN Shinden Ni Revealed
Mr Shin Nagaosa, president of M-Tec Co., Ltd (hereinafter called M-TEC) today publicly introduced for the first time the new EV bike “神電貳(ＳＨＩＮＤＥＮＮＩ)” designed to tackle the 2013 The Isle of Man Tourist Trophy TT Zero Challenge, which will be held from May 25th to Jun 7th, 2013. “神電貳（ＳＨＩＮＤＥＮＮＩ）” has been developed using the data acquired from the first challenge at the Isle of Man last year, and a series of wind-tunnel and engine bench testing programmes carried out since the 2012 event.Since the prototype build the motorcycle has been running repeatedly at Internationally certified circuits in Japan in order to gauge the performance improvement gained with the aid of, not only weight-saving to the motorcycle itself, and also of the EV system, but also the optimization of the motor output characteristics, and an increase of energy content. Furthermore, revised aerodynamic parts will complement the overall performance package of the machine.
For 2013 John McGuinness, already a 19-time victor at the Isle of Man TT will again join with Team MUGEN as race rider in the quest to win the race, targeting an average speed of over 110 miles per hour.
_____________________________
TT Zero Challenge started in 2009 as a new class requiring the entrants to ride motorcycles with zero emission engines emitting no CO2. The race is run in a time-trial format over a course of approximately 60km of mixed terrain around the isle.
previous 2013 photo of Mugen Shinden Ni
