Brammo Owners Forum

Never fear: R&D for drive trains MUST involve racing!

Very true... we will continue to develop our drivetrain (battery, motor, inverter, transmission) technology through Racing as it has been a successful strategy to date. 

This bike is my pet project running back to about the middle of last year when I saw the potential to combine the best of two worlds - the high performance of the RR prototype along with the high reliability and low stress racing of the TTX production based racer.  So... this bike could be seen as a spiritual successor or natural next step in the development of production electric motorcycles; or at least as I envision it.

I did attempt to run the bike in the final AFM race of the season this past October, but it ended prematurely when we discovered a bad seal in the motor end cap that was allowing gearbox oil into the air gap between the rotor and stator, and thought it best to return to base rather than repair at the track.  Since then, I've done some upgrades with the help of friends to further prepare the bike for racing.  This track test was opportunistic and perfect for a "shakedown" to ensure the problems encountered last October had truly been remedied.  Jaiden Armstrong, a promising young AFM racer, and Ely Schless were on hand to assist me with the riding.

Here's some more photos of the bike from the test:







I'll provide more details as the 2015 race season develops and I determine if this bike is racing under a corporate banner or simply as my hobby outside of the office.  Stay tuned...



 

Good stuff, looking forward to hearing more about this project. The bike looks fantastic btw!

No complaints allowed if you can get away with a test in January!  It was about 70 degrees and very windy. 

The rider in the video is an up and coming AFM novice racer named Jaiden Armstrong.  He grew up with Ely Schless' son.  Ely was instrumental in the build of this bike. 

This bike is roughly double the power of the production bike at 100hp and weighs in under 400lbs. 

100hp...nice

Is this the bike Polaris will be building?

G

Ely Schless - a name I hadn't heard in a while. I did, however, just see him last week in an old youtube video of a test ride involving an Enertia fitted with knobby tires that occurred on a dirt track.  I met him at Laguna Seca several years ago and he was filled with an infectious enthusiasm about electric bikes. I hope he is doing well.

HVR? High Voltage Racing?

100 hp = 75 kW is a pretty serious draw on a ~9 kWh pack. The standard Empulse pack doesn't give a lot of options for reconfiguration, 84S3P is the only real option for ~310V. But maybe it's not using the same number or type of cells as the Empulse. I wonder what controller it's using, and if it's production-intent.

Is the multi-speed transmission identical or nearly so to the standard Empulse? With double the power, the HVR should have an impressive top speed.

Yes - HVR = High Voltage Racer. 

75kW is roughly an 8C discharge on a 9.33kWh pack.  High, but not unreasonable for a modern Lithium-ion cell. I would say that the standard Empulse pack gives a lot of options for reconfiguration - including the 84S 3P option.  Each module is 36 cells, with the standard configuration being 4S9P.  You can create a lot of voltage options with this module - by design.

Yes - the 6-speed transmission is identical to the production bike and the top speed is significantly improved over the stock bike.