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[evtricity]

Some of you may be aware that I race a 2014 Zero SR on the track in the Australian electric Formula Xtreme Challenge. I've created a web site with details about the Zero customisations, race reports and photos.

It's located at http://evtricity.com.au. If there's other information about the SR or racing you're interested in let me know.

[PhreaK]

Nice work! I'll have to try and make it along to one of the Winton meets (to spectate). Maybe if I fit that supercharger I can get the SR there.


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[rayivers]

The bike looks great!  I bet the forced-air cooling solution works well.

If you don't mind my asking, who did your sprockets and triple clamps?

Ray

[NEW2elec]

Looks awesome man.  If you don't mind I don't want you to give too much away to your competition but would love to know some of the setup specs and stats. If I could survive the plane ride I'd like to go down under some day.

[Cortezdtv]

Do you ever run into controller temp issues or batt temp issues?


I do have an idea for you about motor cooling something we have been using,pm me

[evtricity]

Thanks everyone for the positive feedback.

To answer a few of the questions.

rayivers - Danny Ripperton made the custom sprockets and top triple clamp. You can find him on DIY Electric Car. I run an RK 428SO chain on the sprockets he made. He has all the software and machinery to cut different size sprockets if you're interested.
rayivers - the 40mm EDF fan helps a little bit with cooling but not as much as I hoped. So the motor still overheats (goes over 130C) after about 7-8 minutes at race pace and cuts the power to a Sevcon size 4 controller equivalent (Zero S) which prevents the motor from overheating any further.
Cortezdtv - I have never had a problem with overheating the controller however battery overheating is also an issue on track days and I have pushed it as high as 56C which resulted in the bike shutting down until I got it down to 55C. When on the track the bike heats approximately 1C per minute. So I could ride maybe 35-40 minutes on the track (starting at 15-20C) before hitting battery thermal limits. Since track sessions are only 15-20 minutes at most and there's an hour between sessions so the battery can cool a few degrees I can usually get about 90 minutes on the bike over an 8 hour day and leave the track with the battery temp reading over 50C. With the cells packed so densely together they do tend to retain heat and it's very hard to cool them with a fan/ice etc. I have considered forcing some air into the battery box but it's not a problem on race days (where there is less track time) only on ride days where if I miss the last session of the day it's not a disaster.
Cortezdtv - Happy to hear alternate options about motor cooling but the best option at this stage would probably be the new 2016 Zero motor.
PhreaK- Will look to race at Winton again next year and can provide a free entry ticket to make the long drive/ride a bit cheaper.
NEW2elec - In terms of setup specs and stats let me know what you're interested in. I'm happy to share the controller changes I have made - they're mostly around increasing the torque at higher RPMs.

[rayivers]

Thanks for the sprocket / TC info - much appreciated!  At some point I may look into 48mm front forks and a different TC offset, so it would great to have a source for custom TC's if Danny has the time.

Regarding the motor cooling - it seems to me that in a PMAC motor, the magnets themselves are by far the most vulnerable to overheating damage, which apparently is the main reason for the new IPM motor design.  Unfortunately, the temp sensor is in the stationary assembly, so even if the rotor is blasted with ambient air - Harlan told me it can shoot out of a ventilated motor several feet - the coils & sensor are still hot, so the hi-temp protection kicks in anyway even though the rotor is surely much cooler.  Has anyone tried - in a ventilated-rotor motor only - raising the temp limit, or modifying resistance in the sensor circuit to achieve the same thing?   I'd think a relatively small change here might make a big difference in both onset and recovery times of the protection circuit.  I don't know what the temp ratings of the Motenergy coils are, but I've seen air-cooled transformers on the ship rated for 200C continuous (nearly 400F) that ran smoking hot for years on end without failures.

Ray

[Cortezdtv]

1 24 oz co2 bottle can effectively bring the motor to basically ambiant temp and give you a "fresh" start but probably not factory endorced

[Electronpusher]

When i was racing a EV we used to build a duct around the motor and the have a seperate chamber with dry ice and we would force air from the chamber thru the motor.  It worked fairly well.  We did it for many years with the same motor, and we never cracked the motor housing due to a thermal shock.  Might be worth a try with a vented motor.

[CScalpeL]

The bike looks great!

I am considering installing a front cowl fixed to the frame of my 15 SR (not to the forks). I was curious how you got the front fairing stay onto the neck of the bike. Specifically, how were the fairing stay tabs installed? Was it done by welding (TIG or oxy acy), aluminum brazing/soldering, metal adhesives or some other process?

I'm looking for a low temperature process and I've seen some processes for 6061-t6 aluminum (what I think is the grade used by zero) that maybe very applicable but it would be great to get some feedback from someone who has already done it.

[evtricity]

We simply drilled and tapped two holes at the top and bottom at the front of the fork steerer (there are two bulges that come forward at the top and bottom). There's enough alloy there to be able to get some good sized bolts in there. Can post some photos if that helps.

You shouldn't have to add anything onto the frame, just need to make some custom brackets to fit the fairing and attach to the two new bolts in the fork steerer.

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[Erasmo]

Some photos would really be appreciated. There are a lot of people interested in putting fairing on their bikes.

[evtricity]

The first two photos below are of the top bolt and then the bottom bolt. Both are screwed into drilled and tapped holes in the fork steerer.

You can see the silver alloy brackets coming off each bolt.

The third photo is a bit busy but you can see the two allow brackets coming from the top and bottom bolts on the left and then bolts to a U shape bracket which attaches to either side of the fairing half way up the windscreen.

[mrwilsn]

We simply drilled and tapped two holes at the top and bottom at the front of the fork steerer (there are two bulges that come forward at the top and bottom). There's enough alloy there to be able to get some good sized bolts in there. Can post some photos if that helps.

You shouldn't have to add anything onto the frame, just need to make some custom brackets to fit the fairing and attach to the two new bolts in the fork steerer.

Is it pretty solid? How much does the fairing shake around when you go over bumps?

Is the tank metal?  Do you have a power tank battery under there? Do you know how much the bike weighs the way you have it configured?

[CScalpeL]

Awesome, I'd say that's as low temp as you can get. Never noticed that the steering limiter is also up top! How convenient...

Thanks for the info!