Brammo Owners Forum

Well... I've decided that 2 race bikes is one too many.  If anyone is interested in purchasing this electron powered speed demon to race in the eMoto series as an eSuperSport class bike, please PM me. 

There are several options that influence the pricing, so I'm not going to list a price here without determining which options a potential buyer would/would not want.  For instance, the Manzanita Micro charger... 

Here's the end result as it sits today... Waiting for the weather to clear to get a track test in! 





Eventually, I'll need to get that front wheel painted white to match the rear...

Charging was successful using the Manzanita Micro PFC-40 off-board charger! I was able to dial in the correct top of charge voltage and watch the SOC climb from 86% to 100%.  I can definitely charge faster (i.e. provide more current) than the capabilities of the stock on-board charger even at Level 2, but the cables running to the battery aren't rated for much more than the system they were designed for could provide, so I intend to keep the charge rate right around 28-30A, or 3kW actual power into the batteries.  Still, this should improve turn-around time at the track after practices and allow me some more flexibility for charging locations.  One of the worst things to be dealing with between sessions or before a race is trying to find a place to charge. 

Here is the little dongle that connects the charge cable connector on the bike to the Anderson SB 50 connector on the output of the Manzanita.  I replaced the Anderson Power-Pole connection on the bike with a two-pin Deutche connector that's now used in production.  It's just a better connector all around. The Manzanita is plugged in a 220Vac / 30A outlet similar to what you find at tracks for RV electrical hook-ups. 



And here's a shot of the Manzanita on the seat.  The dongle is fairly short, so I may need to extend it as this is a bit precarious with the charger balancing on the back of the seat...



While this worked out well for me, I would just caution others that this would not be something you'd want to do if your bike was going to be used for street duty as well as you lose the convenience of "plug and play" J1772 charging. 

Quote from: BrammoBrian on October 08, 2015, 09:31:00 PM

In other news, the HVR lives again after a gearbox rebuild. The decision was made to switch over to some Bel-Ray Gear Saver 80W oil over the lighter weight racing stuff I had been using. 

Interesting... I've got a bunch of expensive synthetic gear oil in my garage, left over from my BMW shaftie days, but I've always been afraid of dumping it in the Empulse tranny since it doesn't have the JASO T904-MA or MA2 wet clutch rating on the label. Does the Bel-Ray?

The Bel-Ray is formulated for wet clutches.

http://www.belray.com/bel-ray-gear-saver-transmission-oil

Ok... not too much progress to report as it turns out I'm actually expected to work on real projects during the day... 

I was able to do a quick dyno test (52 RWHP) and then roll her up on a set of scales to see where I ended up.



421lbs, a 40+ lbs reduction over stock.  I'm pretty pleased with that.  I've got some parts to add and subtract, so I think I'll end up pretty darn close to my target weight for the bike.  The production TTX bikes we built back in 2013 were a couple of lbs lighter, and I think this was mostly down to the forged magnesium OZ Racing wheelset. 

I'm a little concerned about the weight balance, but looking at some records on the TTX, I think with rider it balances out to near 50/50 weight distribution.  I'm not too concerned about it yet.  I'll know more after the first track test. 

I've got my charger cable extension dongle now, and I ran the bike down to about 90% SOC on the dyno, so I should be able to do a test charge with the Manzanita Micro tomorrow.   

In other news, the HVR lives again after a gearbox rebuild. The decision was made to switch over to some Bel-Ray Gear Saver 80W oil over the lighter weight racing stuff I had been using.  Initial impressions are favorable and it doesn't feel as though I'm sacrificing much power to the thicker stuff.  If it helps me finish races, I'll happily trade some HP.

Brian,

What are you going to do with your original tank cover? Wanna sell it? Need a spare to paint or convert to carbon fibre.

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I'll be keeping my original tank cover, but if you email Adam Lukoic @ Brammo, he can probably get you what you're looking for. 

A couple other mods I'm considering:

I really like the idea of a full length belly pan for fluid capture on a race bike sharing the track with others. I bought a vintage belly pan from Airtech Streamlining for my HVR bike and liked how it turned out, so I'm thinking of picking up another for this bike.



Here it is mocked up. It would most likely be painted white to match...



I'm also considering replacing the stock radiator with the same KTM 690 unit I used on the HVR and moving it to the same location, which you can see in the photo above.  You probably couldn't do this on a 2013 bike based on the location of the VCU, but looks like it could work on the '14 bikes.

As I reported in my write-up from Miller, I half-way converted my 2014 street Empulse R to an eSuperSport race bike when my HVR bike broke in Race 1.  When I got the bike back to the shop, the prudent and logical thing would have been to convert it back for street duty, especially because I won't be attending Barber.    Being neither prudent or logical, however, I decided to keep going with the conversion from street bike to eSuperSport racer... 

Here's a couple of photos of the work in progress... 

Original Bike:


"White Noise" in process:




So far, I've lightened up the wheelset by using a 4.5" Aluminum Marchesini rear wheel we had from the Isle of Man program in 2009 and a front wheel from the new Victory Empulse TT.  I'm still planning on running a single caliper and disc on the front based on the performance at Miller and the weight savings (roughly 5lbs). 

I've also removed the on-board charger underneath the seat, which pulls 12.3 lbs out of the bike.  It's not a simple task as you end up having to remove the entire seat subframe, but the weight savings is significant.  I've left the main terminals for the B+/B- connection hanging out of what used to be the charge port, and it's my plan to charge with an off-board Manzanita Micro PFC-40.  I haven't actually done this yet, so I'll report back on how well (or IF) that works out.



I'll post some progress photos as I have time.  I'm hoping to get down around 420lbs for the complete bike without resorting to anything a "normal" racer wouldn't be willing to do with their bike.