The Inaugural Electric Bicycle Race

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Chicken or the Egg?

It's hard to bootstrap ebike racing when there are no true road racer bikes for sale. My goal is to develop the base racer and then build a business about selling them. That way (some years from now) most people will start with my product (which I'm sure will encourage competitors seeking to drive me out of business) and then take that bike to the track to race.

So one day people will have some "base" to form a road racing class around.

As it is today there are no real race bikes yet... so everything out there is just a bicycle with something electric attached to it.

So there is a "Chicken or the Egg" problem right now, there are no good road racing bikes yet, so no way to get the racing started. Hopefully I can break that logjam.

You ought to check out my video on YouTube: (my first generation road racer)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdrWpLQc-Kc

(that's 57 mph by the way)

 

[Fuzzo]

500km? Are there any electric bikes that can go that far? I guess if pit stops are allowed.

 

[safe]

500 km would be too far for existing batteries by a large margin.

100 km would be possible if you used the battery sparingly and pedaled the whole way providing most of the power.

20 km is just right for flat out racing with the throttle being wide open all the time. I do 20 km (10 miles) on my existing ebike and average about 30 mph on motor power alone. Top speed for 750 watts with decent aerodynamics is about 40 - 45 mph on flat land. (more with better aerodynamics)

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So there could be a "sprint" race and a "marathon" race. The "sprint" could be based on power limits and the "marathon" could be based on battery limits. All this is off into the future though because things are very primitive at the moment with no circuits to limit the bikes.

For now it's going to be ad hoc rules that are probably going to be frustrating to most people. For this reason what rules are used should be as minimal as possible.

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There was an ebike race in Australia a while ago that had so many battery rules that it was just silly. They had weight limits for each battery type. The whole thing was a mess.

(so really messy rules have already been done before)

 

[Fuzzo]

10 miles is more like 15 km, btw. So you're not going to make it to the end, unless you sort out your economy mode.

Lots of rules is in the very nature of motor racing. Unsurprisingly, because otherwise one vehicle just kills everything else, by virtue of some exploitation. Which is not particularly entertaining either, as exemplified by the Godzilla debacle at Bathurst.

That goes for fast races and slow ones. Also, apart from drag racing, economy is always a concern. If you burn too much gas, you have to do more pit stops, or carry more gas, which means more weight. F1 is still a highly strategic fuel-economy vs power balancing act. And that's all part of the entertainment. There's always going to be a point where adding more power just isn't worth the energy consumption, because you get diminishing returns in speed.

With electric it could be even more interesting, because the Wh remaining in the batteries is nowhere near as easily measured as the volume of petrol in a tank. It totally depends on the usage pattern.

It's hard to see how skillful a race can be if the driver runs on full throttle the entire way. That race will simply come down to who has the strongest lightest bike/rider combo, no real skill involved. The skill will be mostly at the constructor level.

 

[Fuzzo]

Hey Woody, are you the "The Electric Bicycle Company" guy? I saw your epigram "All I want is a warm bed, etc" for sale on some T-Shirts on TradeMe. Does Ashleigh Brilliant know you're using his epigram?

 

[mabman]

e power challenge

This went off recently but can't find any results. http://www.ohpv.org/HPC/ePowerEvents.html

 

[safe]

It's hard to see how skillful a race can be if the driver runs on full throttle the entire way. That race will simply come down to who has the strongest lightest bike/rider combo, no real skill involved. The skill will be mostly at the constructor level.

Well not full throttle all the time, but full throttle "when you can".

Racing is ultimately about the turns... the faster rider just has the better rider skill and that translates into faster lap times. The best riders can carry a smooth drift of the tires through the turns being on the edge of traction.

The more exciting road racing involves TRACTION as the limiting factor.

When the race revolves around conservation of energy that's more of the marathon style and tends to proceed with less excitement. Marathon style racing tends to be strategic and cerebral, but lacking in any thrills except when through exhaustion someone does something dumb.

Crashing happens when people get in "over their head" in a turn and lose it... we want that to be the fate of those that get too greedy, but at the same time we want to tempt people with the chance of victory to take that risk.

No risk, no reward, no trophy.

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All I know is that I'm personally committed to the "passionate" style of "sport riding" and if others want the more cerebral economy focused racing that's up to them. I'm just pursuing what is of value to me.

In bicycle racing their are "sprint" races and "tours". There's nothing wrong with "tours" in my opinion, but you can't force everyone into the same mold. Some people are naturally going to prefer short and fast racing while others will like the longer ones.

20 km and 200 km

Maybe the two races should be 20 km for the "sprint" and 200 km for the "marathon". That way you can use battery limiting for the marathon and it makes good sense. With a length of 200 km it would make no sense to be using full throttle because you would run out of battery after the first 20 km anyway.

Long Races - Battery Wh Limited

Short Races - Motor Power Limited

...200 km really pushes the limits and competes with the lengths that are used in the "tours". If you really want to prove that ebikes can compete in the "tours" you should make the marathon a real marathon of a race. However, 100 km is probably a more conservative length, you might not get ANYONE to finish a 200 km race. (it would not be a race, but a question of survival)

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Also, in motorcycle road racing there are no pit stops, so the racers carry a little extra gas along just in case. (they usually aren't trying to conserve fuel) The bikes are designed to run flat out for about half an hour on a tank of gas. Our electric bicycle road racing should also allow a race to be run flat out for about half an hour and that's what a 20 km length would deliver. Everything is just about right as a side by side comparison if the length is around 20 km.

 

[safe]

1000 Watt Power Limited Racing

Just so it's perfectly clear what I'm talking about when I'm saying:

"1000 Watt Power Limited Racing"

...this chart (attached) shows what the power input verses power output of a typical motor would look like if it was given a 1000 watt power limitation circuit.

The main point is that there is room for improvement in the motor design so as to make more power if the builder can find ways to increase the efficiency. (light blue area)

This might cause motors to be built that use a wider powerband (down low) and might mean that people eventually switch to something brushless and something that was inductance based since that makes a wider powerband. The switched reluctance motor is the LEAST expensive to build, but needs a sophisticated control device to make work.

The 1000 Watt Limitation would launch a new quest to create the most efficient small motor. (and that makes the bike more efficient) Eventually the "efficiency quest" will produce a motor that is so close to the ideal that all the racers would share close to the same power ouput.

 

[Fuzzo]

I guess I'm yet to see electric bikes going the kind of speeds where cornering is exciting. If you're designing a course where falling off is encouraged then riders are going to have to wear really good safety gear, in which case the pedaling becomes less of a factor.

 

[safe]

Long Distance Cycling

Bicycle Motocross (BMX)

Downhill Mountain Biking

...two out of those three use significant protective gear and involve the very high potential of crashing.

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I think there will be a natural evolution of protective gear where leathers will be designed so that pedaling is easier. Don't forget that for "sprint" type racing you aren't doing it for very long and I know that in the case of BMX and Downhill Mountain Biking that wearing leathers on the legs is pretty normal.

There is a place for the "marathon" in ebike racing, but I think the main reason for ebikes is that you can get the enormous bursts of extra power from the motor over short distances. Anything over 20 km and you start to get into the "marathon" mindset.

We all don't want the same type of riding.

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When I was young I raced BMX and got a few trophies from it. Even back then the "bicycle snobs" didn't like the BMX sport because they preferred their long rides. But the potential for mass interest is HIGHER with things like BMX or a street "Sport" road racer bike than with the long distance endurance stuff.

Regular people don't like long rides.

However, what makes electric bikes so great is that weak cyclists can get a really fast and exciting ride because the motor provides so much power. 750 watts is enough that no normal human (even highly trained atheletes) can compete with that for more than about 2-3 minutes. After 5 minutes event the pro's drop down to about 400 watts.

I'm targeting the "Electric Bicycle Road Racer" (EBRR) to the slightly out of shape suburban person that just likes to ride around his suburban streets for fun and then maybe race now and then. Someone who has excellent riding skills but is slightly out of shape could win in a short road race.

Endurance racers are "fitness freaks"... and those are not the same as "speed freaks".