Monday, May 26, 2008

KIDAM 2008

26-05-08
There is a new speed bike in France and it is the result of hard work from the studiants of Annecy IUT.(Engineering school)
The fairing is pretty and very well finished. To improve reliability, they decided to use a highly modified TOXY bike. I had the opportunity to try the bike for 50minutes and I must admit that it is very fast. The chain system appears to work well with a massive chain ring and the fat tire designed for ultra low friction (Michelin says that it only has 50% friction compared to a normal tire) and usually used by the 'Eco Marathon Shell' cars. I had the feeling that the fat green tire from Michelin( inflated at 8 bars and mounted on a mountain bike rim-20'' custom made by MAVIC) were at least as good as tube inflated to 10-12bars but with a lot more side grip.
Baraba Buatois could not try the bike with the fairing due to a technical problem on the driving system.
The Studiants will join Francesco and Damjan on the SERAM track on the 12 of July for a full scale test of the bike.

The trail is very fine and the volume distribution looks perfect. The shape has been tested in a numerical wind tunnel by a partner. (ACE Engineering)


The first Carbon/Kevlar faring. The front canopy (2mm PTEG sheet supplied by PSI and thermo formed by the studient on the plug) will probably need changing as it is good enough in my opinion. Side view is perfect so they should have no problem will balancing.


The frame with its massive chainring.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Don't call me Baby!

13-05-08
At last! Barbara is riding her new training bike. The frame is custom made on a foam former. The boom angle looks a bit strange but the bottom bracket is 50mm under her CoBRA ultralowracer's position.
The complete bike weighs about 8.5Kg and is quick up-hill.
Barbara is now training for the long distance Bordeaux-Paris (622Km)on the 21st of June.