WMC250EV: Land Speed Record Bike

[KungFooBob]

That's different!

https://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocial/n ... R8fKfJXcco

[Dickyboy]

Hollow be thy name

[Horse]

As someone said recently, electric bikes offer the opportunity for major design rethinks.

[Skub]

The model name doesn't roll off the tongue....

[Bigjawa]

The flying tampon....

[weeksy]

While it might have been possible to get some of the same aero benefits by simply placing the rider in a prone position and making the entire bike lower, WMC’s idea is intended to be one that could be carried over to a road-going bike. Indeed, apart from the ultra-high position of the rider’s feet on the land speed bike, the riding position isn’t too extreme. The seat height is about as high as a Yamaha R6’s. “We want to demonstrate that the concept could be adopted into the real world,” said White, “And in that case you need the rider and centre of gravity to be high enough to allow the rider to turn the bike.”

I couldn't even get into a similar riding position, let alone ride a bike ! Whilst i'm sure some people may ride that, it won't be many fat 50 year olds.

[Horse]

If they wanted downforce increased on the front wheel, could that have been achieved by altering the aerodynamics of the front wheel mounting?

[Horse]

If they wanted downforce increased on the front wheel, could that have been achieved by altering the aerodynamics of the front wheel mounting?

It's not for downforce, article says it reduces coefficient of drag by 70 percent. Wow

Read further:
“What we have got is a bike that has got nearly 70% less drag, an equivalent rear wheel load and five times more front wheel load.”

I'm suggesting that if they needed more than 5x, then design of the fairing attached to the front suspension might achieve that. Also it would be acting more directly on the front wheel rather than via the main bodywork/chassis then on to the front suspension.

Perhaps my initial description wasn't that clear.

[Mr. Dazzle]

You know, I often think that most journalists and enthusiasts don't actually know what a billet is.

That aside, s'a neat idea for a bike. I can't see any mention of cooling though. They won't need it for their 100s runs I suppose, but a road bike would. You'd peg it back a bit for the road (you can temporarily de-rate electric motors pretty easily) but still - it'll need something. I wonder if the top of the battery pack / bottom of that duct gets really hot.

[Horse]

I wonder if the top of the battery pack / bottom of that duct gets really hot.

Hole (sic) new meaning to 'underseat exhaust'

[cheb]

You know, I often think that most journalists and enthusiasts don't actually know what a billet is.

That aside, s'a neat idea for a bike. I can't see any mention of cooling though. They won't need it for their 100s runs I suppose, but a road bike would. You'd peg it back a bit for the road (you can temporarily de-rate electric motors pretty easily) but still - it'll need something. I wonder if the top of the battery pack / bottom of that duct gets really hot.

AFAICT a billet is always aircraft grade aluminium.

[Mr. Dazzle]

It just means a lump of material.

People generally assume 'Billet' means CNCd from a piece of material, but even that isn't an indicator of much at all. It's assumed that "Billet" parts are stronger or whatever but that's generally an assumption based on nothing at all. I'd even go as far as saying that much of the "Billet" stuff you see in the aftermarket is just cheese.

You see alot of machined stuff in motorsport that's true. But that's 99% because it's the quickest and cheapest way to make stuff. Casting and forging has long long lead times and high set up costs, just not worth it even in F1.

BTW "Aircraft Grade" doesn't mean high performance either. It just means it's got lots of QA around it and you can trace it back to the foundary etc. You can get aircraft grade cheese too.

[Horse]

Like when companies point out their quality control accreditation.

All it does is ensure that the output is consistently of brown, smelly and sticky quality.

[The Spin Doctor]

Interestingly, they are claiming a drag coefficient of 0.11. "That's a significant reduction in drag" they say. They contrast that with a Hayabusa, which they state is around 0.35-0.36.

It's significantly less than the world's slipperiest cars, Mercedes-Benz claim their new EQS has a drag coefficient of 0.20.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Maybe they mean CdA...drag times area....I can see how that really would be miles lower. 0.1 is not really a feasible number for that though, unless you're talking weird units.

0.1 seems nuts low. It's down in the range of those solar powered race cars you see. I dunno....maybe.

[cheb]

How true are manufacturer's drag figures? As true as their fuel consumption figures? As true as their dynamometer charts?

[Mr. Dazzle]

Bikes are much worse than cars in that regard cause the rider is such a big part of it. Plus you never actually know what the frontal area is and without that figure the Cd is pretty meaningless.