ElectricMotorcycleForum.com
Makes And Models => Zero Motorcycles Forum | 2013+ => Topic started by: MostlyBonkers on January 06, 2016, 02:20:05 PM
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My local bike club held a talk given by the Auto-Cycle Union last night. These are the folks who organised the first Isle of Man TT and have been organising motorcycle sporting events since 1903.
Each year they hold the National Road Rally, the first one was held in 1933. This year's event will be on July 2nd-3rd. It starts at 12pm on the Saturday and ends at 10am on the Sunday. You can choose how many miles you want to ride and how many checkpoints you visit.
I don't know if anyone has done it on an electric motorcycle before, but it would be fun to get a few of us together and give it a go. With the right planning, I reckon we could make a go of it. Fast charging will be a must though. The Diginow charger being the only practical option I can think of to make the rally worth considering. Power tanks too, ideally.
Does this event appeal to anyone?
https://www.nationalroadrally.co.uk/2016/index.php
It would be a great first for electric motorcycling - one for the history books!
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Tapatalk has managed to post this twice, please ignore the other one and post to this topic.
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Yeah why not, could be good for a laugh.
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Excellent, I knew you'd be up for it Justin! [emoji4]
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I'm entrant 46 on the Zero SR :p
Lets just hope their are some charging stations on the route... ;)
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I haven't registered yet. It's in my calendar though and I'm planning to do at least a short route.
Have you ordered a fast charger yet Justin? I'm going to need a windfall of some magnitude to stump up for one before the summer. Not likely though. I'm keeping your Elcon on my shopping list, if it's still for sale in a couple of months or so.
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I'm waiting for them to go on general sale, as the first batch are now sold.
At this point with the uncertainty of when I can get hold of a Diginow supercharger, I'll need to hold onto the Elcon.
You have first refusal on the Elcon once I get my hands on the Supercharger however.
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Thank you, sir. By the way, you may have already made history by being the first person to register an electric motorcycle for the national rally. I reckon the Chief Marshall and Archivist will be able to confirm. Fortunately he's the chap who gave the talk the other night. I'll drop him a line.
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Got this the other day
"Rachel from the BMF- It would be really good if you could write us an article, with some nice piccies, about your experiences on the Rally, as both a newbie and riding an electric bike. What do you think? "
;D
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That's really good. I dropped a line to Stephanie, the contact for the rally. I've asked her to forward the query about electric bikes on the rally to Peter Hooper. He's the chap I mentioned earlier. It'll be interesting to see what comes back.
I hope I can join you on this little adventure, even if it's just for a few miles. It would be nice to put something together about it and get it published somehow.
There's 20 hours to do a theoretical maximum of 540 miles. A chap from my club who's done it a few times says you often do a lot more miles. That's partly because people get lost but also because there's some kind of quirk in the way distances between checkpoints are calculated.
I've heard it's best to go all-in and go for the maximum mileage allowed even for first timers. Apparently those that do less on their first rally always wish they had done more. I assumed that with a Zero a shorter route would have to be planned. Certainly without any form of fast charging available, but what if you manage to get hold of a Diginow in time?
Your estimated range of 120 miles between charges means a minimum of 5 stops for charging. It might not be wise to expect to be able to charge at any more than 6kW at charging stations, even though the charger is capable of more. That's approximately 2 hrs per stop, so ten hours at least to charge. There may be 20 checkpoints, so another two hours for those should be plenty. Hmm, ten hours of riding isn't enough to cover up to 600 miles.
Perhaps a 350 miles course would be more realistic?
Any thoughts folks?
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I might just hop over the canal to do it if I can combine it with another trip. But how's the charging infrastructure along the route? If there's enough Chademo I might be able to finish it.
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I did the Wales 240 mile round trip fairly easily, using a single Elcon, if the diginow super charger becomes a non-starter, I can always go for plan B and go with a twin Elcon setup, thats a total of 6.3kw of charging power which is pretty good.
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Erasmo, if you get time to explain a little more about your Chademo solution I'm sure a lot of folks here would be interested.
There are quite a few Chademo stations on the Plugshare app, so you might manage with careful planning.
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Erasmo, if you get time to explain a little more about your Chademo solution I'm sure a lot of folks here would be interested.
There are quite a few Chademo stations on the Plugshare app, so you might manage with careful planning.
I'm still working on it, first I need to get the bike registered and the power tank installed. The inlet will be in a top case because there isn't enough place on the bike itself for the generic inlet.
Apart from the inlet there's also a little box that talks to the station and some switching gear, but that's about it.
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Thanks, Erasmo.
I received a reply from Peter at the ACU:
"As far as I know this would be the first electric-bike entry. Is there a problem regarding charging en route? I will try to find out if any controls have this facility but I am sure many will not. Please let me know whether this is a problem.
Thanks
Peter"
It looks like you've got a first there Justin. As long as you manage to show up on the day, I would say that the title of 'First person to ride the NRR on an electric motorcycle' goes to you! :)
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I strongly suspect there will be a couple of us to be honest... :)
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I thought I'd resurrect this topic as the event is this weekend.
I'm a bit scuppered because I've got no fast charging. Are you still planning to do the rally Justin? I hope so.
Has anyone else signed up?
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No I've had to pull out. Multiple events have conspired against me. Not hugely sad though, as if this weekend goes well I may be on the way to starting a new small buisness (nothing to do with the Rally or motorbikes)
I'm planning to do the NRR next year though.
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That's life, but the prospect of starting a business sounds exciting! If you need any help on the DBA side, let me know.
I've been feeling bad for mentioning the rally and not really being in a position to participate. I would have loved to have joined you for a few miles at least.
Hopefully 2017 will be the year that the NRR gets it's first electric motorcycler(s). At least by then we'll have the potential to charge in under an hour. Perhaps I might just be able to manage a second hand Elcon. :-)
The Diginow is the ideal goal for me. Hopefully Sterling won't have devalued to the point where I'll have to remortgage by then...
Best of luck this weekend. If you are ever in the area and fancy cup of tea and a few electrons, let me know.