NovaBike Newsletter - APRIL 2013
*artist impression of the NovaBike04 as shown at the design presentation
2 - NovaBike Newsletter - April 2013
FOREWORD
In this edition: MOTORbeurs Utrecht review of the MOTORbeurs 2013
4
The NovaBike04
5
Winter training Spain
6
lighter, faster, ready for production! the report of the winter training
Sponsors in the spotlight Two sponsors in the spotlight
10
Âť
Welcome to another edition of the newsletter of NovaBike Racing Team Delft. This is edition April 2013. This newsletter will kick off with a summary of the MOTORbeurs Utrecht 2013. NovaBike attended the fair from 21st till the 24th of February. After
that,
summary
of
you
can
the
design
read
a
short
presentation
of
NovaBike04, which took place on March the 8th. Lastly the newsletter will be concluded with a report of the winter training, which took place from the 10th of March till the 19th of March, in sunny Spain. Happy reading!
Follow our progress on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube!
3
MOTORbeurs utrecht a shor t review
»
Like previous years NovaBike Racing Team Delft attended the biggest fair in the Netherlands for motorcycle lovers, the motorcycle paradise held annually called: MOTORbeurs Utrecht. Around 90.000 visitors walked the floors of the Jaarbeurs Utrecht this year, when the kick-off of this years motorcycle season was held. From each corner of the country people came to see the latest models and came to be updated about the latest developments. With this large number of visitors it wasn’t hard for NovaBike to achieve their goal on the fair: to get as much expsosure as possible for the project. To do so, NovaBike had a stand of 18 square meters where the NovaBike was set up on big round table. This way people could see the bike from a distance and making it also easy to walk around the bike. Also the walls of the stands were decorated with brand new banners showing various pictures of the bikes and some keywords of the project, like bio-ethanol and TU Delft. Statistics from social media (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube) and our site show that the race team from Delft have reached a lot of visitors during the days of the MOTORbeurs. It is safe to conclude that NovaBike has reached their goal. This
was
obviously
no
surprise
4 - NovaBike Newsletter - April 2013
for
the
teammembers that attended the fair. Their vocal chords worked overtime in order to explain to each interested visitor the essence of the project. NovaBike reached a lot of different categories of visitors. People that hadn’t heard about NovaBike before, but also people that already follow us very closely and just came to say hear about the latest developments. During all four of the days that the event lasted, the latest edition of the motorcycle magazine “Grip” was handed out for free by the KNMV. For those who missed the update on our social media: this edition featured a two paged article about NovaBike! The MOTORbeurs Utrecht 2013 was a great succes. The team reached a lot of people. From ordinary motorcycle lovers to our competitors in the Supermono competition. NovaBike Racing Team Delft would like to thank Kelly from VNU Exhibitions for making this possible, TGOUden for the banners and Chielbouw for the stand!
Novabike04
ready for production! » On the 8th of March 2013 the design presentation
of the NovaBike04 took place in the faculty of Civil Engineering of the TU Delft. Friends, family, sponsors, members of NovaBike and many others were invited to get a preview of the upcoming NovaBike. For those who weren’t there, a short review of the design presentation will now follow. All invited guests were welcomed in the hall of the faculty with a drink. At exactly 20.00 o’clock it was time to take place in the seats of the big lecture room, where normally only students take place. The presentation was being kicked off by Team Manager Maurits Rouppe van der Voort. After formally welcoming all guests to the presentation, Maurits first began with an introdution of NovaBike. What is NovaBike exactly, what is it goal? But also the history and future of NovaBike was being presented. After that it was up to the Chief Engineer, Frank Vermeulen, to present the NovaBike04 to the audience. The past six months the team was extremely busy to design the latest bike of NovaBike . This bike was designed with all the experience gathered over the previous years and is going to be a step forward in performance. Frank continued the presentation with high quality and in a very constructive way. First explaining what is needed to win a race. What were the area’s of improvement for the new bike. Which design choices were made and why they were made. All these topics and questions were handled during the 33 minutes lasting presentation. The presentation was concluded with an artist impression of the Novabike04.
Then it was time for a change of scenery as the guests were all invited to the workshop for a drink and to have a chat with eachother and the NovaBike team Currently, NovaBike Racing Team Delft is already a couple of weeks in the production phase. The design on which they worked hard to the past half year, will finally begin to take physical forms. It won’t be long before the NovaBike04 is up and running and ready to be raced with! As mentioned the new design is based on all the knowledge and experience gathered over the years. Parts will be improved or redesigned. The new frame will be roughly the same as the current frame design, but will have some adjustments. One will be in order to allow better serviceabilty to the engine. Also, the fueltank will be moved from in the seat to above the engine, resulting in a better center of gravity of the bike and thus handling. Other area’s of improvement are the bodywork and exhaustsystem. Next to an aerodynamic design for the outer bodywork, this year also an inner body work will be used. This gives a better airflow within the body and around the engine (for example cooling). The exhaustsystem will be made out of titanium to reduce weight, whereas last year it was made of stainless steel. The complete design presentation can be watched back soon at www.collegerama.nl. Go to Public presentations > General > Studenten projecten > NovaBike.
5
winter training
in sunny Spain
»
Since the racing season is coming closer with each day, the main focus was to go on a winter training in Spain. In this way driver Ricardo and NovaBike Racing Team Delft could prepare themselves properly for racing season 2013. From March the 11th till March the 15th Racing Team Delft could be found on two tracks in sunny Spain: Motorland Aragón and the track of Valencia. Preparations Testing on two new tracks for both the team and for rider Ricardo, meant a lot of experimenting. For example the team did not know which sprocket would be most efficient. Looking at the layout of both Spanish tracks in comparison with the TT-circuit in Assen, one can conclude that the Spanish tracks have more straight ends. For this reason smaller rear sprockets were fabricated which will result in higher top speeds. The coming season NovaBike will be riding on Pirelli’s Supercorsa tires, while last year slicks from Dunlop were being used. The reason for this switch-over is mainly due better availability and sponsorship with V-Racing. Different compounds were brought along to test which one would suit the NovaBike and our new rider Ricardo the best. Since this is a studentproject thorough analyses and data accumulation is extremely important in order to improve. Thanks to Race-Technology the bike is fitted with a datalogger. Linear potentiometer sensors were used for the suspension.
6 - NovaBike Newsletter - April 2013
Other sensors include those for determinging the rollangle and sensors for the engine. Also, by installing videocamera’s, laps can be watched back and be thoroughly analyzed in order to improve throttle and brake responses. Departure Directly after the design presentation on the 8th of March, the NovaBike and all other equipment needed for the winter training were packed in to the van to Spain. Eleven NovaBike members, Steven van Haren, John Bakker (known for his custom Ducati 851) and his friend Erwin (who enjoyed the crosstracks) left in the night of saturday to sunday to Spain. Leaving behind the cold Netherlands with 5 degrees Celsius and forecasted snow, to arrive in Valencia with 18 degrees Celsius, 1800km’s further. Location Testing was done on Motorland Aragón in Alcaniz on March the 11th and 12th. The MotoGP layout was set out, which included the loop in the straight instead of the chicane which is normally used in the SBK competition. A lot of elevation and coming out of the corners onto the straight ends form great challenges on this track. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t what the team hoped to be. A lot of wind and even some rain now and then. Nevertheless temperatures around 15 degrees Celsius made it good racing conditions.
On the 14th and 15th of March testing was done on the Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo in Cheste. The track is named after two times world champion GP Ricardo Tormo, although most people can be fooled into the joke that the track was named after NovaBike’s driver Ricardo ;). With a length of 4005 meters, minimum elevation (in Dutch terms still mountains) and good weather conditions (sunny, 18 degrees Celsius and decreasing wind) a real picknick!
Goals Clear goals were set during the preparations for the winter training. These goals can be categorized in to two categories: 1: Ricardo / motorcycle • Getting known with both tracks • Setting up strategy for new tracks • Accumulate data of the suspension using linearpotentiometers and the inclination angles with the help of distance sensors (master thesis of two Spanish NovaBike members who also came in handy as translators!) • Finalizing suspension set-up and testing potential new set-ups • Increasing turnspeeds by gaining more experience and getting more familair with the bike. 2: Teamwork • Gaining experience in race conditions as team. • Optimize the teamwork, so that driver can focus on racing. (relationship driver > bike instead of driver > team > bike) • Individual development. Gain experience in different functions. (become multidisciplinary) • Test and if necessary improve method of documenting.
Day 1 With a temperature of only 10 degrees Celsius in the morning, the first day in Spain beganquite cold. Occassionaly the sun came through resulting in a temperature of 14 degrees Celsius around noon. Unfortunately also windspeed increased which had a negative effect on the lightweight motorcycle and driver. Session 1 began at 09.20. It was mostly getting used to the track for Ricardo. The smaller sprocket choice made in Delft turned out to be correct . Various systems were turned off on purpose to make analyzing easier. This included the quickshifter and some engine optimization systems. Watertemperature turned out to be too low. However this was done on purpose since a baseline measurement (or null calibration) was needed in order to make useful measurements on the radiator surface (nothing taped off). By taking measurements every day, a reasonably accurate relationship can be derived between radiator surface area, windspeed, water temperature and ground temperature. Furthermore , minor adjustments were made to improve ergonomics for Ricardo, such as the adjusting the footpegs and clipons. Session 2, 10:40 hours: Variables are testes gradually in relationship to suspesion and radiator surface area. The datalogger is turned on to check whether throttle, shifting and braking moments are consistent and optimal. Inbetween session 2 and 3 at 12.30 hours, the windspeed increased, making it for Ricardo hard to ride the optimum line. Some adjustments are done on the front suspension. Sensors of the engine show improved and more efficient combustion with an injection increase. This fuelmap is being stored under a second map, allowing Ricardo to change during the session, to see which gives better performance. During session 4 (afternoon) the bike started to accelerate poorly. This was thought to be caused by a clotted fuelfilter and injection. The parts were cleaned but unfortunately the problem was not resolved.
7
Day 2 During the night before the actual cause of the poor acceleration was found. It turned out that the fuelpump did not produced enough pressure (any more). Normally around 800 cc of bio-ethabol per minute should be injected by a open injector. Measurements showed that this was only 300 cc’s now. The first assignments for the two Spanish members was clear: find a new fuelpump! A nearly impossible task, since we would need a bio-ethanol resistant fuelpump which should operate at 12V and should also produce enough flow at a certain pressure. Luckily they managed to find one and during lunch a new fuelpump was bought! The brand new fuelpump is being installed, after which the last session on the Aragon is driven. In the meantime Ricardo wasn’t bored. He enjoyed himself on a Ducati 1199 Panigale. Without too much effort he managed to set the best laptime of all Panigale riders. Speaking about laptimes. The best laptime so far is 2.15.79. The last session is being completed with a debriefing and everything is being packed to leave for Cheste/Valencia.
Trip to Cheste A peleton of rentalcars and a van with trailer make their way from Alcaniz to Cheste. While passing the Iberian System temperatures dropped from 15 degrees to minus 3.5 Celsius! Snow, wind, freezing temperatures, everything we didn’t account for on this training! Luckily temperatures and weather tions started to improve again while closer to Cheste. On arrival at temperatures stabilized around 15 degrees
condigetting Cheste Celsius.
Day 3 Session 1 starts at 9.20 with relatively low temperatures (7 degrees Celsius) and again high windspeeds. However all problems caused by the
8 - NovaBike Newsletter - April 2013
fuelpump seemed to be resolved with the new pump and the testing is continued. The first session is a warm-up session, letting Ricardo getting used to the bike again and to the new track are the main goals for the moment, before any adjustments are made to the bike. In session 2 at 10.40, a different sprocket is used as was in Aragon. This turned out to be a wrong choice. When coming out of the turns choice of gear was too difficult for Ricardo. In second gear the engine made too many rpm’s, in third gear too little. The sprocket is changed back to the one that was used during previouw sessions. Laptimes start to improve in session 2. From 2 minutes flat to 1.55 minutes. Disasters strikes when the gearlever breaks and forces Ricardo to drive the whole lap in fifth gear, resulting in a worn-out clutch. A new clutch is being assembled between session 2 and 3. Sessie 3 starts at 12.30. Having to assemble a whole new clutch the time ticks away. However the NovaBike mechanics manage to meet the deadline and the bike is set to go! The whole session is completed. The engine performance seems to be good. Set-ups tested on Aragon turn out to work fine and laptimes improve up to 1.53.2! As there were no complains about the front suspension the focus went to the rear. The supension is adjusted for Ricardo to test in session 4. Session 4 starts at 15.30 and what a great one! Laptimes again improves with the new suspension setup to 1.52.1! Not only the NovaBike performs fine at this point, also Ricardo is getting more and more used to the NovaBike. One of the goals is achieved when Ricardo gives the team the heads up that is he is now comfortable driving the NovaBike to the limits, as he would during real races!
The changes done to the rear suspension resulted in positive effects, which concluded the overall suspension setup. A new setup was implemented, giving Ricardo even a more comfortable ride (better ergonomics) and moreover improving the front en rear load distribution. The first laptimes showed great potential with competitive laptimes. Ricardo managed to race the NovaBike with laptimes well under 1.53. However, engine problems concluded the winter training making these the last laps driven in Spain. For the last session of the day at 17.00 the team experimented with different tire pressures. By changing the tire pressure the area of the tire in contact with the track can be increased or decreased resulting eventually in either a warmer or colder tire. This session was used to get a profile of the tire temperature. Ricardo needed to make some extra stops in the pitlane for some quick measurements to the tire (pressure and temperature). This didn’t seemed to influence his focus on setting recordbreaking laptimes! A laptime of 1.50.1 was clocked. Day 4 During the last three training days Ricardo made great improvements on the NovaBike. Also the team showed great improvement in terms of teamwork but also individual skills. Fewer people are needed to get the same work done to the bike. With less time and effort needed to prepare the bike for each sessions, more time and focus could be spent on instructing Ricardo with tips to improve his laptimes, using data acquired by the datalogger. The first session at 9.40 was being used to get some proper video material of the NovaBike in action. Casper Voogt would be ghosting the NovaBike on the track while filming with a GoPro HD camera.
Conclusion During these 4 days the team managed to prepare themselves and the bike for the upcoming racing season by improving the suspension and finetuning the engine. Moreover, driver Ricardo gained valuable experience on racing with the NovaBike in her full potential. Complete race simulations were conducted. Warmup, preparing and setting up the bike and riding laps. The minor flaws in the design were determined and analyzed. These will be repaired and fixed in the weeks after the winter training up to the first race. Also more spare parts will be produced or bought to ensure that the NovaBike and Ricardo can finish each and every race. In short: it was a successful winter training. A training where the team learned a lot and gained experience with racing. The team ofcourse had an amazing time in Spain. On the tracks, but also off the tracks. Good for a healthy team! You can find pictures and videos of the winter training soon on www.novabike.nl!
In preparation for the second session (scheduled for 11.00) the team decided to test a different compound for the rear tire. Three days of intense racing consumed the rear tire and since the temperatures increased to 19 degrees Celsius, a softer compound rear tire was desireable offering more grip.
9
» TenCate is a multinational company that combines textile technology, chemical processes and material technology in the development of functional materials with a wide range of applications. These applications can be divided into several main categories. First there is the one of safety and protection. The purpose of this range is to protect the various professionals who have to work in occupations that have a multitude of dangers. They have to provide protection at every level and at every level of comfort. Secondly there is the concern to provide composites and fibers for the world of aerospace engineering. As third category there is the application of infrastructure and environment and last but not least products are made that can be used or sport and recreation. In these several domains, TenCate has proven itself many times and are at many aspects world leaders. One of these leading positions concerns the production of several fibers and composites. It is with these materials that TenCate supports our team, these products are essential since our whole bodywork is made of carbon fiber, which are produced by “TenCate Advanced Composites”. It can be seen as obvious that without this support, the development and production would not be possible.
10 - NovaBike Newsletter - April 2013
»
KMS or Kronenburg Management Systems provides a complete line of extremely reliable and user friendly engine management systems at a competitive price. These systems give you the possibility to manage all petrol engines up to 12 cylinders. A wide range of options are present such as; datalogging, staged/banked injection, mapselector, odd firing, self-learning lambda control, traction control, idle and boost control, variable launch control, powershift, rpm limiters etc. Also an extensive range of accessories is available, this includes a mini dashboard, lambda controllers, idle and boost controllers, actuators, temperature sensor, position sensor, wiring and so much more. KMS is also able to provide a full range of engine components such as throttle body’s and accessories, turbo’s and fuel system components. In conclusion can be stated that; “For every budget and application, Kronenburg Management Systems has a solution”. This is why KMS is a perfect partner for NovaBike. Many thanks to KMS for their support to our project.
11
Faculteit Industrieel Ontwerpen Faculteit Luchtvaart- & Ruimtevaarttechniek Faculteit Werktuigbouwkunde Faculteit Elektrotechniek, Wiskunde en Informatica
12 - NovaBike Newsletter - April 2013