We got the bike on a dyno this morning... it was a chance to get the motors up to speed and make sure there were no issues in our last rebuild.
Dave at Evomoto has a nice clean shop, and got us in and out in about 15 minutes.
Here's what our power curve (HP vs. speed) looks like. This is one of the features inherent in electric motors... constant torque.
Back in Allan's garage, we started working on the upper fairing for the bike. We got it set up while in Boston, but we still had to get it off of the mold and do some tweaking to get it to fit right and look good.
Lennon and Radu experimented with different tools to get the foam mold out of the carbon fiber shell.
Allan's wife Jan kept us supplied with English tea while we worked.
Allan also worked on his bike... he has his first practice session on the mountain course this evening. In order to ride in the TT Zero (our race), Allan has to complete 6 laps of the course. At least one of those laps has to be on our bike, but there are only two practice laps scheduled for the electrics. That means he has to ride a gas bike for at least four laps, which means signing up for one of the gas races.
Radu, working away on that foam. He eventually found a good technique involving a hack saw blade, putty knife and elbow grease.
Checking the fit on the upper fairing. Still a ways to go.
Even with the fairing only half-mounted, our rider Allan wanted to check it out.
It feels great to have our rider and bike together. Now we just have to get them out on the road for some practice!
I'll write more later about where we're staying, but this is the view.
Lennon taking a quick snooze over lunch.
To take the bike out for testing on public roads, we have to cover up our race number.
We also have to swap out tires (tyres), so I got to put our new front stand to use.
Allan polishing up his bike for the practice this evening.
We have to extend the top fairing on one side, so Radu improvised on the mold release...
...with cooking spray.
We've been talking about gear ratios since our track day earlier in May (more on that later), and finally decided to give up a bit of top speed in favor of better acceleration. We'll see how Allan likes the slightly larger sprocket we put on.
Right now Radu is still working on the upper fairing and Lennon and I have come down to the start/finish to help Allan with his practice session, meet some folks here and hopefully see some of the other electric teams. It's getting exciting!
-Mark
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