FUTURE
Building a Zero racing bike from scratch means making compromises and learning from mistakes. The point is, that there's no one to ask about a specific problem you're encountering during design or construction. Of course there are lots of people standing aside, stuffed up with knowlege about electric vehicles - in theory. Ask three of them about a sufficient power facility. Thereafter you're left over with at least five diverging opinions.
"rapid prototyping" (September 2015).
During the years we've learned a lot about zero bikes. Compared to the old Zero bike with the new bike we are aiming for a dramatic increase in voltage so as to reduce amperage and wire cross sections and therefore saving weight. The battery compartment is a highly stiffened monobloc design interchangeable in a couple of minutes. With the old bike changing batteries lastet one day.
Developing the steel tube twin spar frame needed two years.
Preliminary destructive tests with several aluminium alloys seemed to be not that reliable.
Besides that there's still no option for magnetic particle testing (MT) of the TIG welded joints.
Traditionally we prefer a clutch and shifting gears. The engine incorporates of a 5 speed gear box
coupled to a watercooled EMRAX 228 brushless DC motor. When all those things appear to work reliably together
we'd like to go out on the race track for further testing in spring 2016.
Next stop IOM TT 2107.
Some design impressions to get an idea.