Category: People of the Press
Episode 33: Zero Owner’s Roundtable from December of 2013
Go back into my podcasting archives you will see that the last five or six episodes were recorded at the end of 2013 but not published until almost a year later in late 2014. It was a result of a very big push I made in December of 2013 to record a bunch of shows. Why all together? Well, I was having a hard time getting people to talk to, and also having them actually show up when scheduled. And that was a week-long period where I could get people to talk to me. So I did. But many, if not all of them did not get published every 2 weeks as I had planned. 2 or three were 8 months in the waiting as life had taken me down a, particularly twisty road. But this one. This one never made it at all. This one was recorded on the 8th of December 2013. And is seeing the light of day almost exactly 8 years after it was recorded.
I am going to put the podcast here for those of you anxious to listen to it. But I am going to continue waxing poetic about this period of time below. Please enjoy!
Episode 33: Zero Owner’s Roundtable from December of 2013
ESBK Studios Weekly News 19NOV21
So it has been almost 3 weeks since my last episode, and all I can do is apologize. Man, there was a lot of news. This episode is almost an hour. I cover my take on Zero’s 2022 lineup, as well as critiques on other news outlets’ inaccurate and poor coverage. Or in the case of one podcast, I just couldn’t make sense of a few comments but thought they had a few very good points. Also, look forward to regular segments like Richard230’s corner where I tell you what things he has posted on the forums, and “Wha whaa” news stories. If you enjoy it, please subscribe. I have some projects in mind for the summer, but a TON of work to do to get there. Getting to the 1000 subscriber mark will help keep my motivation up. Thank you and KTRSD.
Andy of EVMotorcycle puts Together a Beautiful Video
I was moving my TTXGP matters Playlist from my personal YouTube channel to my new one and decided to give Andy’s YouTube page a visit. If you don’t remember Andy and I teamed up to do some videos at the 2012 TTXGP World Championships at Daytona. He posted this 5 months ago and it’s stunning work. I feel bad I didn’t notice it before.
Zero Motorcycles Tested on Fully Charged
You know I was playing the soundtrack to Cowboy Beebop and paused it just to watch this. Â Was it worth it? Â Meh. Â It’s a basic but nicely done and entertaining review as always. Â He brings in a friend of his to do the riding and critiquing, and the he seems pleased with the performance. Â It’s worth the 9 minutes out of your day.
ESBK Roundtable #3 (Full): All About Formula-E
So for this episode I gathered Domenick Yoney of AutoBlog Green, Drew Sanford is the guy who edits the teaser episodes, and myself, to talk about the up and coming Formula E series. Domenick covers the series, Drew is a die-hard F1 fan, and I dug into it pretty hard, and watch every Agag interview I could. I tried to read some of the F1 blogger articles as well, but their absolute ignorance of the TTXGP series and technology within it left me more frustrated than enlightened. Between the time we recorded this and now, Williams has been announced as the battery maker. As my eyes roll at the announcement, everyone else is even more hopeful. Make no sense? Listen and all will be revealed, but be warned we are no experts, and it is heavy on the bench racing. And, the full length podcast might be . . . 3 hours long. Yes, three hours. This is one of those you listen to for a while and come back too later. Unless you’re as bonkers as we are. Here’s the whole Enchilada:
ESBK Roundtable #3 (Teaser): All About Formula-E
So for this episode I gathered Domenick Yoney of AutoBlog Green, Drew Sanford is the guy who edits the teaser episodes, and myself, to talk about the up and coming Formula E series. Domenick covers the series, Drew is a die-hard F1 fan, and I dug into it pretty hard, and watch every Agag interview I could. I tried to read some of the F1 blogger articles as well, but their absolute ignorance of the TTXGP series and technology within it left me more frustrated than enlightened. Between the time we recorded this and now, Williams has been announced as the battery maker. As my eyes roll at the announcement, everyone else is even more hopeful. Make no sense? Listen and all will be revealed, but be warned we are no experts, and it is heavy on the bench racing. And, the full length podcast might be . . . 3 hours long. Yes, three hours. This is one of those you listen to for a while and come back too later. Unless you’re as bonkers as we are. Here’s the 20 minute teaser:
I’m confused: Gasoline Gallon (US) VS kWh Equivelency
Confusion is a normal state for me. Actually my third grade teach would probably get a real kick out of this title if she could remember back that far. But this time I’m not confused, the gas guys are confusing me. And my concern is that they are confusing you too. Why am I writing about this now? Well, because I have been caught out twice by this particular way of thinking and/or wording and got really upset thinking they are saying something else. I am going to use two real word examples and let you sort out how you want to think about this. But let’s review my favorite fact. The EPA has deemed that a gallon of gas is equivalent to a 33.7kWh.
The first example is the article about BRD’s RedShift in Motor Cyclist magazine. They said this in one of their captions:
BRD’s bright red battery holds 5.2 kilowatt-hours of energy roughly equivalent to one gallon of gas.
Say what?! Yeah, that’s what they wrote, and it’s still there for the world to see. I didn’t get it all, and frankly it ruined my day. But my motorcycle mechanic buddy totally got it as soon as I said it. They did not mean that 1 US gal. of gas = 5.2kWh. What was meant was that 5.2kWh in the BRD RedShift will take you as far for as long a 1 gallon of gas in your standard dirt bike. That’s a big difference.
And I got caught out again when Asphalt and Rubber said this in their post about the first photos of MotoCzysz’s 2013 TT bikes:
Now if I had comprehended the second sentence I would have understood what he was saying. But again, he is not saying that the electric bikes are using 1.5 gallons of fuel to get around the island. He’s saying it would take a gas bike 1.5 gallons to go as far and as fast as the electric bikes with the big assumption that elmotos are 3 times as efficient as gas bikes. I do happen to disagree with him. Really it depends on which bike you are looking at, but the Superbikes run roughly 6 US gallon tanks (24 liters). He is trying to claim they only use 4 gallons. I don’t think the racers would carry around an extra 2 gallons for no reason. I am sticking to my guns and saying that the Superbikes use 3 gallons per lap. So to quibble some more I’ll assume 4 times the efficiency, which brings the gas bikes up to needing 2 gallons to run the same pace as the elmotos. Interestingly enough, that extra gallon takes you from a 109mph lap to a 131mph lap.
Now my grammar is, well, sub-par from what English majors have told me. But 17kWh is equal to 0.504 US gallons of gasoline, not 1.5. And 1 US gallon of gas is equivalent to 33.7kWh, not 5.2kWh. These bikes are using less than a half a gallon of gas to go racing, end of discussion. But just beware of the wording used in the two examples above. Probably you don’t need to and perfectly understood what they were trying to convey. But for those like me, the world is a nicer place if we just keep this in mind.
Ride On Racing Round UP 19MAY13
So last Sunday night I was a call-in guest on KCBQ Radio AM 1170’s “Ride-On Racing Roundupout” with Dave Stall & Alex Plewniak of San Diego, CA. They have a lean towards the green technologies and asked me to be on after a fun conversation with the co-hoast Alex Plewniak the other night. I must be getting real good at sounding like I know what I am talking about.   There is nothing new here for long time listeners and followers accept the different perspectives that come with talking to new people. I was really nervous, and did my best to keep all the facts straight, but I am sure I messed up a detail or three. Give it a listen, and you can make fun of me later.
https://ttxgpmatters.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/ride-on-racing-round-up2013may19.mp3
First Round of the eFXC update
So I have been getting updates from the evmotorcycle.org folks. Not too much to say so far. Only three teams have shown up for this round, but the new guys Varley are in the mix, which is a great sign. In practice one of the bikes hit 1:10 lap time which is a 5 second drop from last year, in only 50-60 degree weather. This may not sound that impressive, but since the gas bikes are running 0:59 to 1:01 lap times that means it is a short track, 1.3 miles, so you have to look at the percentage of improvement not the raw time. It’s an impressive jump actually. Unfortunately we are not seeing times particularly close to gas bikes, like has been predicted. Superbikes are running 59 seconds range, 600s 1:01, twins 1:03, and 450 lightweights are running 1:07s (I found the times here).
Qualifying was a surprise as well. Ripperton is up to 100hp this year, and with an already lightweight everything it promised to be fast. But they ended up last, with Catavolt on top, and the new guys sliding in between the two.
Qualifing 4-5-2013Pos No Name Machine LapÂ
- 1 Jason MORRIS (NSW) Catavolt1:13.531
- 86 Jeff PHILLIPS (NSW) Varley1:15.957
- 46 Daniel RIPPERTON (NSW) Ripperton1:16.277
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However the race proved quite different:
- 46 Daniel RIPPERTON (NSW) / Ripperton Racing  Yamaha R1  6  7:18.027             1:09.878 4
- Â 1 Jason MORRIS (NSW) / Catavolt / Impact AVÂ Â Catavolt D6 Â 6 Â 7:27.381 Â Â 9.354Â 1:13.233 6
- 86 Jeff PHILLIPS (NSW) / Varley Electric Vehicles /Ultramotive / Tritium  Varley      6  7:31.014 12.987 1:13.072 4
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Ripperton put 9 seconds into the other two, and Catavolt lead the new guys Varley by 3.6 seconds by the end of the 6 laps. Looks like they may have had a good battle. Fortunately the temps were up in the high 60s, however ice was on the cars this morning when teams showed up for the seconds day of racing. Qualifying for everyone is wrapping up as we speak. Catch the live timing here.
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TTXGPMatters 