Electric Bikes Win at Altitude

[rmatt8748]

From NYT


A cool benefit of new technology in both performance and cost savings.

Rocky Mountain High (Speed)

BY KRISTEN HALL-GEISLER
Published: October 22, 2009

RACING at a high-altitude track like Bandimere Raceway, outside of Denver, can be maddening for competitors used to tuning their engines for sea-level conditions. Simply, piston engines lose horsepower in the thin mountain air, and there are few options for adapting.

But conditions that handicap a gasoline-burning machine can give a big advantage to one powered by electricity.

That was the case last month, when a world record for electric vehicles in the quarter-mile was set by the KillaCycle, a 500-horsepower motorcycle that smokes its tire but barely makes a peep. The bike ran through the timing lights in 7.864 seconds at 169 miles an hour with Scotty Pollacheck at the controls.

For electrics, Bandimere Speedway is the best place on the planet to drag race. “Electrics don’t breathe, so the horsepower is the same as it is at sea level,” said Bill Dube, the bike’s owner. “However, there is about 20 percent less air to push out of your way, so E.V.’s go significantly faster.”

Mr. Dube said that while he enjoys making constant improvements on his electric racebike and working with cutting-edge electric vehicle technology, he has a broader goal: to get consumers to realize that electric vehicles, or E.V.’s, can be fun and fast.

“For E.V.’s to make a difference in the environment, people have to want to buy them for some reason other than guilt,” he said.

It’s a mission he’s been on for more than a decade. In the mid-1990s, Mr. Dube participated in Electrathon, a battery-powered endurance competition.

He also raced his everyday car, a Volkswagen Rabbit converted to electricity. In 1998, tired of blowing out the motor in his Rabbit, Mr. Dube set out to change the nerdmobile perception that clung to electric vehicles by building KillaCycle. One year and $15,000 later, Mr. Dube said, KillaCycle became the first E.V. to break 150 m.p.h. in the quarter-mile.

Mr. Dube, who is a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has chased dragstrip records ever since building the bike. KillaCycle is powered by lithium-ion batteries from A123Systems, in this case connected to a direct-current motor modified for drag racing by Jim Hustad of Hi-Torque Electric in Redmond, Ore. The motorcycle tips the scales at 653 pounds and makes the sprint from a standing start to 60 miles an hour in 0.97 seconds. KillaCycle can do at least seven runs per charge, with a four-minute recharge time, Mr. Dube said.

KillaCycle’s nearest competitors aren’t electric bikes, but the gas-burning Pro Stock motorcycles. While Mr. Dube built KillaCycle on a drag bike frame, and it does have two wheels, the similarities between electric and internal combustion power end there.

For one thing, KillaCycle is nearly silent. For another, it costs about $120,000 a year to race, compared with the $1 million to $1.5 million a year the Pro Stock racers require, according to Mr. Dube. Using seven cents’ worth of electricity to get from the pits to the track, race the length of the drag strip and return to the pits certainly helps the bottom line.

For the rider of KillaCycle, performance comes first; any green aspects are a bonus. Mr. Pollacheck, KillaCycle’s rider since 2000, also races gasoline-powered drag bikes.

When he climbed aboard KillaCycle in 2000, he set a record almost immediately. But, Mr. Pollacheck pointed out, not on the first pass.

“I never thought KillaCycle was going to be as fast as my bike,” he continued. “Bill’s been telling me for five years that he could have the fastest motorcycle on the planet. I’m starting to believe him.”

Mr. Dube may make more believers this winter. KillaCycle will travel to New Zealand in an attempt to set the overall drag bike record with a bleeding-edge battery pack from A123Systems. Mr. Dube isn’t allowed to give numbers on the new batteries, but he summed up their performance tersely: “Jaw-dropping.”

[Brett C]

That's pretty awesome. I'd never thought of the benefits of electric motors in a drag bike application.