For comparison purposes
That equates to about the performance the petrol fuelled bikes were getting in the mid 1930s (and also 1947 as immediate post war petrol was extremely sub standard!)
TTXGP e-bikers finish qualification run
The first official practice and qualification runs for the upcoming zero-emissions motorbike GP – TTXGP - have taken place on the Isle of Man. AgniFastestQuali1 Rob Barber (above) finished the TTXGP qualification in first place Of the 14 bikes that lined up for the first qualifying session, 10 managed to complete the …
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Friday 12th June 2009 07:18 GMT John Smith 19
For comparison purposes
What was the performance of ther 1st petrol TT engines?
IE When the race was first staged?
http://www.ttwebsite.com/history/
Says it was 1907.
That suggest that the 1st generation electric race bike is *25* years ahead of the 1st gen petrol bike.
Does anyone think this will stand still?
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Friday 12th June 2009 07:18 GMT LuMan
Sure, they're slow now...
...but give it a few years and these things will be hammering it around the track. A lot of motoring innovations come from sporting roots (and vice versa). Creating competitions for electric vehicles can only push the tech forward and make 'leccy cars and bikes more and more viable.
Now if only we can convince the low-life, bad-boy hoody brigade who ride their crappy hairdrier scooters around our estate to use 'leccy scoots!!
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Friday 12th June 2009 08:14 GMT TeeCee
Re: For comparison purposes.
The trouble is that you are comparing Apples with Pears there.
The 'leccy bike boys have over 100 years of suspension, frame, brake, tyre and such development to draw on. The lads working between 1907 and the 1930s had to start from scratch with every single component.
Let's see 'em stick the same power unit in an iron frame with cantilever leaf springing at the front and no suspension at the rear, no dampers, 2" crossply tyres, drum brakes (rear only) and ball bearings packed with cart grease where required and see what they get then.
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Friday 12th June 2009 10:07 GMT spam 1
Does anyone think this will stand still?
No it won't stand still but I consider it unlikely to get anywhere fast.
Leccy tech is not fundamentally green and equally modern IC engines are not polluting enough to justify the cost of moving the pollution elsewhere.
We have been trying to develop better batteries for decades and I predict there will not be any major technological break throughs (unlike the idiot government who's long term transport planning seems to rely on them).
I predict when dino oil really starts getting scarce we will be using power from nukes to manufacture liquid fuels. Planes are never going to fly on batteries and the vastly greater energy density of liquid chemical fuels will remain attractive for other applications.
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Friday 12th June 2009 10:55 GMT Grease Monkey
Hmmmmm?
The fanboys keep telling us how much faster EV's are than IC powered vehicles. And then when they are proved to be slower then we're told we've got to accept that they're new technology and will be faster one day. I accept that they are going to be slower, but not because they are new. Bear in mind that they've been around for a century and they were largely forgotten about because they weren't as good as their IC brethren. In other words it's not that they are new technology, it's that they have a hundred years or so of development to catch up on.
On the subject of performance 102mph should only require about 35bhp which is easilly possible with a 125cc petrol engine.
Much more worrying that the performance is that only 70% of the field managed to complete qualifying. It's hardly good PR for the EV as a whole that 30% of the bikes entered couldn't even manage to enter a time. Whether it's reliability or battery life neither makes good PR.
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Friday 12th June 2009 11:02 GMT ledmil
What about the crash in practice??
This was the funniest, slowest (and probably most historic) practice session I've ever seen. We were on the corner where the first TT electric bike crash occured, looked like a mechanical fault causing really low speed high side (rider looked ok, thankfully). The marshalls couldn't touch the bike (even after laughing their heads off) until thick rubber gloves were available and it took 4 of them to lift the bloody thing. With regards to the speed, yes top bike was >102MPH, 4th or 5th was sub 60MPH. I can't weight to see the highlights on ITV4.
On a serious note I can see the potential here for the future, but there needs much more development, particularly with safety (bikes fall over much easier than cars) and weight (not to mention NO engine braking).
Paris becuase when she goes down she does it fast and hard.....
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Friday 12th June 2009 19:22 GMT John Smith 19
@Grease Monkey
"The fanboys keep telling us how much faster EV's are than IC powered vehicles."
Not really.
But they do point out that the torque curve for an electirc motor and lower inertia of a properly designed drive system means an EV (of the same mass as an IC vehicle) will *accelerate* faster than an IC powered vehicle. With a properly designed power management unit it will also do regen braking and recover braking energy. While not so important on a race with no top speed accleration and regen braking count for quite a bit in urban areas.
A good start. I hope this does become an annual event and improvement continues.
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