Newsletter NovaBike Racing Team Delft
and Assen. Furthermore this newsletter contains an update of the NovaBike02 progress and a part by a team member.
16th of May 2011
We want to thank all our sponsors for the financial, material and immaterial support.
Last month was characterized by the races. We raced on Spa-Francorchamps and last weekend we also raced on Assen. Besides the fine tuning and testing of NovaBike01 we are busy with the building of NovaBike02. In this newsletter you find a report of the race at Spa-Francorchamps
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Race weekend at Spa-Francorchamps On Saturday the 23rd and Sunday the 24th of April the first races of the season took place for NovaBike, on Spa-Francorchamps. SpaFrancorchamps is famous for his relief richness and integration in the environment, with a lot of famous corners such as Eau Rouge (according to many the most beautiful corner on a circuit in the world) and a total length of more than 7 kilometers it promised to be an awesome race weekend. On Saturday we managed to get a 16th starting position in the first qualification. During the second qualification we drove 'safe' whilst other riders began to drive more on the edge. Hereby our best time was good for a 21st starting position. Sunday we did the last adjustments to the bike such as the elevation of the saddle and the adaptation of the windscreen for an optimal sight on the straights. We constantly monitored the temperatures of the tires, oil and water. The last minutes before the start of the race slowly ticked away on the clock in camp NovaBike. Suddenly the paddock came to life; teams started their engines, riders jumped on their bikes and raced towards the pit lane. After a final check NovaBike01 was started and Nick flew towards the pit lane. The team ran after the bike with the starting battery, the tire warmers and the bike standard. In the pit lane
the tire warmers were quickly mounted to keep the tires at temperature. The sign was given; all engines fired up, in the pit lane everyone ran in all directions causing a chaos. Riders managed to get out of the crowd to start the warm up lap. The riders came across the last corner and placed themselves on their starting positions, whilst keeping the engines revved, waiting for the starting sign. Nick started good and managed to keep up good with the others. The rest of the team was looking from above in the F1 lodge at the pit lane. After the first lap, Nick came by with an incredible speed. We went quickly inside to check the times! Every lap Nick managed to go about one second faster and he even overtook some other riders. The lap before the final lap we were on the 18th position. In the lodge the team was monitoring the time; 10 seconds too late and still no NovaBike in the last corner, something was wrong... The bike was dropped at the paddock; the engine fell off whilst accelerating out of a corner. Why this happened is still the question since the engine functioned in the paddock after the race. Battery level, fuel, temperatures, everything was OK. Although it's a pity we couldn't finish we are contented about the first race weekend; we managed to race good and Nick has the feeling of the NovaBike back!
Raceweekend at TT circuit Assen On Friday the 13th of May the team set off to Assen to race the 32nd International Ducati Clubraces. The supermono class would race two races which both counted for the European Championship. 49 riders from 14 countries; a very popular event for the supermono class! After arrival the bike was unloaded and prepared for the qualifications. We decided to replace the spring of the rear shock absorber because the original spring was too stiff. To do so we needed some kind of shock absorberpress in order to remove the spring. Luckily the team of Evert van de Beek helped us with replacing the spring, many thanks for that! For Saturday two qualifications were scheduled. At dawn, before the first qualification, it started to rain. The bike was equipped with slicks and there wasn't any time left to change the tires. Unfortunately we had to skip the first qualification. The second qualification, the weather had cleared up and we could race on slicks. It was a short session with much delays on the track, this resulted in three to four laps where Nick could set a good time. Our fastest lap time of 2.02 was good for a 31st starting position. Luckily it was dry on Sunday when the supermono's started at 11 A.M. The start was good and Nick was able to overtake a lot of riders. We came over the finish 18th with a
fastest lap time of 1.59.2. So there was room for improvement! With good hope, the bike was prepared for the second race. The second race, later on that same day, was also dry and also here Nick had a good start. The engine started to hold and came by stuttering each lap. The engine also had some small stuttering problems during the first race, unfortunately it became much worse during the second race. We finished 20th with a slightly faster fastest lap time of 1.59.0, due to the stuttering engine we were not able to do any faster. We started two races and also finished them, keeping the bike upright in sometimes tricky conditions, still, in a sportive point of view, not as wished. With a good running engine and some more training time we could have been riding much more up front. The potential the engine has still is not optimally used and until that is achieved we cannot be satisfied. We became more experienced during the weekend and things like the adjusting of the spring have proven to be beneficial. The engine problems will be solved by changing the injection and maybe we will install some faster parts if time allows. For the next race in Oss we will do everything to perform better!
Update NovaBike02 Progress
Hardware: All preparations for the fabrication
Bodywork:
of the high-grade Reynolds steel frame are done. The headset and all bushings are milled. This week the fabrication of the new frame starts. Besides, the final design of the brakeshifting set for NovaBike02 was presented, where after the technical drawings were distributed for fabrication amongst the team members. These parts are mostly finished, in this way the improvements on the engine in the dummy-frame of NovaBike02 can start as soon as possible. Due to a defect in the triple clamp this part was repaired, thanks to the effort of the workshop associates from the faculty of Industrial Design. Also a spare triple clamp was milled from tough 7075-T6 aerospace aluminum.
bodywork will be removed. After this it will be coated and painted in a color pattern and sponsor stickers will be applied.
Small
imperfections
of
the
Engine: The high compression piston from PMI has arrived; a masterpiece! With an increase in compression ratio from 11.8:1 to 14:1, it promises to get a lot more power out of the engine. The camsync sensor was mounted. This sensor determines the position of the crankshaft, for the new injection system this sensor is necessary.
Teammember: Wolf Cavens
I am Wolf Cavens, second year student aerospace engineering and the PR of the NovaBike Racing Team Delft fills my agenda quiet well. The spark struck me last year; a roommate (who was active in the team at that time) his enthusiasm didn't let me cold. Within the team I am active as team management. My task consists of maintaining the contact with our relations and informing them (by, for example, writing the monthly newsletter) and to promote the team (by means of articles in magazines and other publications). Furthermore, I also took responsibility of one part, the fuel tank, which is mounted underneath the engine block to make space above it for the airbox, at the place where, at conventional bikes, the fuel tank is mounted. The fuel tank from high density polyethylene, HDPE in short, is made by two companies;
Polymess and BPC Plastics. Polymess made the moulds for the tank and by means of vacuum forming the upper and lower half of the tank were formed. This two halfs were then welded together by BPC and also equipped with a cap, brackets and an internal barrier. The primimg of the bio-ethanol goes through a brass tube. An inline fuel pump primes the fuel and delivers the required pressure for the injectors. To guarantee a good start of the team next year I am busy with promoting our team amongst students within the Delft University (for new team members) and within the national media (to attract new sponsors). I am very content about last year; working long nights on the bike in the workshop, working long night at home writing, and translating, the newsletters, the great experiences on a motorfair in Utrecht or on a race weekend. That's why you will see me appear again on the team photo next year. Will you again be reading my pen? Only time will tell...
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