Electric Drag Bike
Electric cycle
had: “We launch the bike with both motors in series. We cram 2000 amps through
them to get about 400 ft-lbs of torque out of each one. This translates into
almost 2000 ft-lbs of torque at the 10 inch wide rear tyre."Could that last
sentence make more sense as "This translates into 800ft-lbs of torque at the 10
inch wide rear tyre." ???
Bob Wilson
United States
The rear tyre torque figure includes the torque
multiplication of the final drive gearing.
Welding
I just read Beginners' Guide to Welding, Part 1
and thought I could point out some recent experience I had. Using my
inverter type ARC welder I constructed an exhaust for a motorbike using thin
walled stainless tubing and mandrel bends. The trick is that using
"Weld All" rods makes it like welding steel which is much thicker. Next
time I go to make intercooler pipe for my car I will be doing all the
fabrication myself using the ARC. I found there was no need to even go use
my dads MIG welder, it was that easy.
Brian
Wiese
Australia
RC Cars
With enthusiasm as always, I recently read your
latest Driving Emotion describing toe and bump steer. I think I've
mentioned this before and I wouldn't be surprised if it fell on deaf ears but
can I suggest you get yourself a good hobby grade RC car (probably
electric). I know you have more than enough projects on the go but the
reason why I say this is that a good quality RC car has all the adjustments and
many more that you are ever likely to make to either a road car or in your case
your HPV - eg: Ackerman, bump steer, toe, camber, caster, anti dive, anti squat,
camber rise, dynamic caster, roll centre, spring rates, motion ratios, damping
(admittedly not particularly sophisticated), roll stiffness, ride height, wheel
droop - is there anything I've missed?.. Oh yeah - chassis
stiffness, LSD diff setup, aerodynamics......
The best thing is that they are all relatively
easy to make and you can get very good wheel alignment jigs for them as well so
you can measure what you are doing. The other great thing is that you can
test things at the limit and if you go beyond - it doesn't hurt! There are
the obvious downsides however such as not being able to "feel" for your self
what the changes do.
I recently got into RC cars for these reasons and
because with two small children I have neither the time nor money to pursue the
full sized thing.
Beware however, as I think there are more
mistruths going around in RC car circles and message boards than there are
in the full sized versions.
....... Just a thought.....
Peter Boden
Australia
Honda S600 Update
I'd just like to note that since your article
about the Honda S600 in the current issue was first published in 2001 that
Julius Electronic Injection has now moved premises, and has changed name to
Julius Performance to reflect the broader range of the business. raeme is still
very much an active part of the business.
Brogan
Lowe
Australia
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