New Australian record! End of an era. Start of a new era.

Posted March 8, 2019

In case you have been following us on social media, or in case you don’t want to read the whole story below, here is the summary: We are done racing in Australia for this time. We set a new Australian record for electric motorcycles at 216.199 mph (347 km/h) (pending ratification by DRLA). Not the fastest we have ever gone, but the main purpose this time wasn’t to set a new record, but to re-invent the wheel! We had very successful testing of the new “KiWieels”, and as icing on the cake we brought home another “Red hat” to the collection thanks to the 200+ mph record. We have also decided to officially retire the KillaJoule, and start building its successor “Green Envy”, with the goal of 400 mph! Stay tuned here (and on www.facebook.com/EvaHakanssonRacing) to learn how you can get your name on the world’s fastest (electric) motorcycle!

Bill and I can’t thank our Australia crew enough: Steve Lovell, Amy Elliott, Sam Elliott, and Kel Grayson. You are a real dream team!

Here is the whole story from the 2019 expedition to race at the Lake Gairdner Salt Flats, South Australia (originally posted on facebook). If you want the story in chronological order, start reading the posts from the bottom of the page.

Posted March 7, 2019

— New record. Red hat. End of an era. Start of a new era. —

It’s a wrap! We are done racing at Lake Gairdner in South Australia. It has been an exciting day, and I will try to summarize it. We started the morning with a nice 236.546 mph (380.6 km/h) run in a 15 mile cross-wind and securing a record above 200 mph and thus a new “red hat” from the DLRA 200 mph Club. The bike ran great and could have gone much faster, but the still crosswind pushed me to the left of the track and I didn’t want to be the one running over the last set of functioning timing equipment. I made an executive decision at mile 4 that 236 mph was fast enough for this time and I aborted the run. Keeping the shiny side up is always my number one priority.

There are four measured miles from mile 2 through 6, and you have to backup a record with the same measured mile. Because my fastest speed was in mile 2-3 yesterday, I had to match it with mile 2-3 today, which was significantly slower than mile 3-4. The result was a new Australian record at 216.199 mph, instead of something in the 226 range. But, it is still a record and I am happy as a clam. The 236.546 mph also made me the “Fastest Lady of the Lake”, which brought me a nice trophy (I wish it came with cash, but it certainly doesn’t).

Coming back from the record run, the entire crew was totally beat. It was a nice cool day, but it has been a long week. However, we couldn’t leave without trying the rear KiWieel. The team made a huge effort and changed over to the rear KiWieel in no time. We drove down to the starting line and back to see if we thought there was any chance the rear suspension would hold up for a solid wheel. It all looked great, so we made it back in line for a first KiWieel drive wheel run.

The KiWieel run was interesting, to say the least. The traction forward was great and it accelerated like it was on its rubber tyre, but the lateral stability was quite poor, so I was sliding back and forth like a pig on ice (this is something I will ask my students at The University of Auckland to work on 😉 ). I aborted the run at 100 mph, went back to the pits, and things were to get even more interesting. I thought I had heard some rattling sounds, so the crew took off the bodywork to see what had loosened up, and half my rear fender was missing! This is a 150 mm by 400 mm piece of aluminium, and would definitely hurt to run over.

When you lose pieces on the track, you immediately have to report it over the common radio channel. If it is a large piece, they close the track until the piece has been found. Long and behold, my fender was indeed on the track and had been passed by two other bikes already. Even more interesting was that it was rolled up and had tyre tracks on the _inside_. The fender had apparently come loose, I had run over it, and that had rolled it up (you can see it in the photos below). If I had had my normal pneumatic tyre that I had run on just hours earlier, it would most likely been cut open and blown up, sending me either airborne or sliding on my side.The KiWieel saved me from possibly crashing at land speed racing for the very first time! This clearly shows the increased safety of the non-pneumatic tyres, and definitely crowned this week’s experience. Green Envy will definitely run KiWieels! Even if I will make sure to inspect the fenders more closely for stress corrosion cracking next time, it could have been somebody else’s fender.

While the broken fender marked the need for a new era of tyres, it also marked the end of an era – KillaJoule is now officially retired! She is exactly 9 years old (we cut the first steel tubes in March 2010), and she has lived a hard life. Multiple things have broken this week (all three fenders, for example), and there are likely stress cracks in vital components that cannot be seen. She is due for retirement. When she gets back to Auckland, we will strip her on useful components (the entire power train, for example) and clean her up for display. Not sure where she will end up in the end, but we will keep her in the garage for reference and measurements for the next year.

Safety was our number one priority this week, and we are delighted to report that the entire incident record contains the following three events:
– Eva scraped off some skin on a finger by hitting a tube end while unplugging an electric plug.
– Amy got a knot on her head from being hit by a fibreglass radio mast snapping off by a wind gust.
– Sam cut his finger on the plastic clip on an ice bag.

Tomorrow is packing day, and hoping we can keep our safety record through that and through the drive home. We have had a very successful week, and the crew has been absolutely outstanding!

The DLRA puts on a fantastic event, and this will definitely be our new home track. Now I just have to raise the funds to build Green Envy and get back here next year. That overall motorcycle record is waiting to be beaten by an electric vehicle! 😀 Stay tuned here and you will soon learn how you can get your name on Green Envy, and be part of history.

Posted March 6, 2019

— Into the 200s! —

We had a great day at the salt today. Quite windy, but much cooler. We had to forfeit backing up our goofy 166 mph record run from yesterday for some needed maintenance and upgrades. We went back to the regular rubber tyre on the front, and with some clever outback engineering (which included stealing bolts from the container mezzanine) the crew managed to install the new Ohlins shocks in the front.

The new shocks gave a much smoother ride and better handling. We also installed the KiWieel on the sidecar. We are going to run all three wheels, we just won’t do them all at the same time.