Comments on: Exclusive Specs On The SWIGZ.COM Pro Racing TTXGP Bike

By: SWIGZ.com Pro Racing Out For Seca, Shooting For VIR | PlugBike.com

SWIGZ.com Pro Racing Out For Seca, Shooting For VIR | PlugBike.com — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:16:39 +0000

[...] On his website Chip also talks more about the electronics that control the electric race bike. I posted a while back about SWIGZ.com Pro Racing’s “Race Finishing Algorithm” that computes throttle usage trends, [...]

By: Albert

Albert — Mon, 31 May 2010 20:57:26 +0000

there was recently presented a PhD thesis on dynamic battery arrays with switching capablities (up to 64 levels of series/parallel)

By: KCS

KCS — Sat, 08 May 2010 18:44:42 +0000

Yes the bike seems heavy but i think chip must designed it and then this should be a calculated move ….or otherwise this would be senseless…

By: De Ridder Thijs

De Ridder Thijs — Sat, 08 May 2010 14:49:42 +0000

The bike looks very heavy and not easy to handle.
I think with electric race bikes it’s very important to have high corner speed this can results in fast lap times.
It seems that a lot of electric race teams don’t think about this.
I builded a electric race bike; 165 kg 9.5KWh batteries power 50kWatt and it’s very fast on a race track.

By: OMX

OMX — Fri, 07 May 2010 20:12:18 +0000

IANAEEng but:

Wouldn’t it be possible to have a block of cells that is ready to collect the charge and divert the regen electricity to those cells rather than the cells being used to power the engine? Then juggle the use of power from these recharged cells when the you have an appropriate window of opportunity (i.e: for a boost as you run down a straight)?

The SWIGZ team’s specs mention a patent pending KERS system and a custom battery management system. Complex yes – but ultimately software will win these races as much as hardware or pilot.

By: Christian

Christian — Fri, 07 May 2010 19:32:28 +0000

There are two types of reactions in the cell:

1) chemical to electrical (discharging)
2) electric to chemical (charging)

When you are discharing the cells with the maximum power the reaction goes from chemical to electrical with the maximum speed, on racetracks you close the throttle and a millisecond later you are going hard on the brakes, so the chemical reaction turns to charging, but this is impossible, because you have to stop it and wait a bit otherwise the voltage goes (shoots) to the maximum and the power will produce no charge, just a lot of heat.

I tested this in Calafat/Spain.

For road use kers (kinetic energy recovery system) is absolutley ok, but for track use it is absolutley senseless.

They never ever tested these before.

The next point is the location of the cells in the bike, behind the rider in this height is not very good for track use.

My cells are to high, but a lot lower then here.
My bike handles like a Honda Goldwing, how will this bike feel?

weight of the cells: 115kg
weight of the chassis: 90kg
motor: 25kg
controller: 12kg

total minimum: 242kg

thats nothing new…

let`s wait for the Indy performance

By: skadamo

skadamo — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:50:35 +0000

Thanks for the technical breakdown and additional information Christian. Is the heat you mention a result of the cells inability absorb the energy generated from KERS as fast as it creates it?

By: Christian

Christian — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:43:11 +0000

The cells are headway 38120s 10Ah, 120 in serial = 1 strange and 3 strange in parallel, so he has a 384V/30Ah battery, the cells are rated at 10C = 300Ampere

Power = Current * Voltage

300 Ampere * 384V = 115kW = 156BHP

but if you go to 100 Ampere for each cell, the voltage goes down to 2,6V for each cell, 120*2,6V = 312V * 300 Ampere = 93,6kW = 127BHP

the total weight of the whole pack is around 115kg!

recovering energy with this type of cells is senseless, the kers will not work, a kers with this cells will just heat the cells…