This year, however, was different. From July 10-12, RIT was the only college that showed up. It represented the underdog in a race of one of six experienced bike teams to compete in the all-electric vehicle race. Although competitor’s bike components were normally top secret, I was able to gain some insight as to what the RIT bike ran on from an exclusive interview with the EVT (Electronic Vehicle Team).
Here’s what I learned: The REV1 (RIT Electric Vehicle 1) was designed around a 2005 Kawasaki Ninja ZX6RR chassis. The bike’s gasoline components were gutted until the inner chassis was bare and built from the ground up.
For power, the bike utilizes a Zero Z-Force 75-7 motor paired with a Sevcon size 6 controller, which takes the DC current from the batteries and converts it to AC for the motor to utilize. This also allows the bike’s top speed to vary from 100-120mph. The motor generates a maximum power of 54hp at 4300rpm and 68 foot-pounds of torque, making this bike capable of launching from 0-60 mph in just 5.2 seconds.(Barry Allen would be pleased with this speed.)
Not only did the team fabricate their own battery management system, battery containment modules, and structural framing for the powertrain, but they did it while utilizing in-house data collection and analysis software to enable for maximum efficiency.
Before the race began, I had the chance to meet the team’s designated rider, Karl Smolenski, an Engineer at the Cornell Laboratory for Accelerator-based Sciences and Education and a true bike enthusiast. Both he and the crew were ecstatic as the underdog team wheeled the bike to the track. The bike was equipped with two Go Pro cameras; one in the middle of the front fender (embedded below) and the other on the right rear fender for different angles.
Saturday’s race started strong as the bike dominated through its first two laps, but as time progressed, the batteries started to die down quickly. This caused a significant decrease in power output and the bike to fall behind. The same inevitable results occurred the following day. (See the Race results for Saturday and Sunday’s eSuperSport race here).
The Team’s spirits were far from crushed when they received fifth place, though. Instead, the they celebrated by discussing improvements to be made next year, cheering as they watched the GoPro footage and sharing the good sportsmanship as they took photographs with their competitors:
In spite of the commotion, I had the opportunity to follow up with Jeffrey Botticello, EVT’s Administrative Leader, to discuss what had gone wrong with the bike and how they planned to fix it. His response is as follows:
“We determined that the reason why the bike dropped speed so much in the later laps was because the battery voltage was dropping below what the motor controller was expecting from them. This caused a dip in power. We plan on remedying this problem by adding two extra battery cells to increase the total voltage of the pack.”
Next year, after several planned modifications have been made, the team endeavors to compete in the race and take home the win.
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