Nearing the end... Yeah SURE!

Since our last trial, we've made some big changes:

We've replaced the rear wheel with a smaller Mavic Crossmax SLR, which also utilises disk brakes, which will allow us to cover the full wheel with Mylar film, thus making a cheap light disk wheel.

We've swpped to a 100tooth chainring & added a chain guide. It just looks huge!

We made new handlebars, which allow us to rotate the arm, as well as lengthen/shorten it. We've also swapped to Deore shifters, onto a 34-12 cassette, giving us a 58 - 167" range, which will be good for about 90kmh at about 108 rpm.

 

  

We have a few more jobs to complete, but we are close to a finished bike. Unless of course you expect a perfectly finished paint job, no gaps anywhere,  all smooth jpons... Well, we are close to a 90% finished job.

We went a riding

Finally, after several months of intermittent shed time, we managed to drag Whoops out & take her for quite a few laps, most of the time during which it remained upright!

Here is Mick rolling around the velodrome fully faired for the first time. It's a pity you can't see his ear to ear grin! The windscreens were removed, as it was getting late in the day & there was a fair bit of glare which was troublesome... see later photo








Here's Peter Heal Going around. He didn't look comfortable, but he stayed upright & gradually started relaxing, and getting faster. He was a breeze to launch... so steady & balanced.






I crossed the blue line on the track as a result of the glare, and suddenly found myself next to the fence, which was not great. I tried to bounce off it, but just succeeded in putting it down... again. Notice the white skid marks. Notice also that if I had not gone down, I would have neatly ridden into 2 bikes parked on the fence! No damage to me, and a litle graze for Whoops.

So, now that we've ridden Whoops, we will make a few changes &  try her again some time soon.

More Subframe Lamination...

Tonight Mick & I bonded in the front subframe as well as finishing off the rear with a few more layers of Kevlar tape (which will save us in the event of sniper fire!). Last week we 'glassed in the rear mounts, both on the base & on the sides, with 2 layers of kevlar braided tape. This is amazing stuff. Nominally 50mm wide, you can stretch it down to 25mm, or gather it out to 80mm. No frayed edges. Fab stuff.

We also made sure the alignment was spot on, both side to side & longitudially.

We made sure we can fit a 100 tooth chain ring (so we can run up to 100kmh at 120 RPM at the pedals).

You'll notice the very back is open, but we'll be sealing that now the position of the rear wheel is finalised.

Rear subframe part 2 & Front Subframe.

So, tonight we bonded in the top supports of the rear subframe, meaning the rear wheel is essentially now in it's final resting place. We ran a string line to make sure it's all nice & straight. And then we wait until it all cures, and then we'll glass in all the supports. We've left the back end open and will bond that back together with a few shaped spacers which will ensure the wheel runs without touching anything. No burst tyres for this dynamic duo!

I've also been doing a little work on the front subframe, results of which you can see here... I've bolted on a 77t chainring, which I made for a different PCD crankset. This is temporary, but gives us an idea how the chainline will run. I think we'll need to shorten the chain somewhat to ensure the derailleur is clear of the floor. I will also make a larger idler, to increase the radius of turn, which reduces friction I'm told. We're using an ergostem, which gives us the ability to move handlebars up, down, forward & backward, as required by each different sized rider. Setup should be less than 2 minutes, once the rider is in the cockpit.

Rear Subframe mounting Step 1
Tonight we bonded the rear subframe into the tub. On the first attempt we tried to attach the main pivot point of the rear triangle, plus the two top supports in the one batch of resin. Big mistake ! Because of the tight fit of the rear subframe the top supports prevented us from 'bedding' the main pivot point to the floor of the tub. We were convinced that we would run out of time aligning the rear wheel when the resin began going off well before we were straight. Take two, and we bonded the main pivot point, and have left the two top supports for another night. We are convinced that the rear subframe is aligned correctly, and this will mean some slight adjustments to the clearance of the top supports, at the time of bonding. Next session should see the rear subframe fully attached, and beginning of the front subframe mounting.

Fronk Fork Completed

Pete Heal, the CroMo Magician of Canberra, has been working hard on the fork for Whoops. This has now been finished. It looks odd from the front, but is perfect for the bike: tyre on the centre line of the fairing, minimal fork where the knees will be travelling up & down, hanger for a derailleur. Magnificent. Nice one Pete!

Sub Frame Photos

Great news from Canberra... Pete Heal has finished the front sub-frame & fork. These photos make the frame look a bit rough, but with a little time & an angle grinder & some spray paint, it'll look superb.
The Cranks & bottom bracket will be placed in the hole towards the front of the frame. These are ready to go, but we do need a biggish (80T) cog which will be one of the next jobs!

Training Progress

Both Mick & I have been training regularly, sometimes at Casey, but mostly at home on windtrainers. We are working on 2 areas: Maintaining a constant speed at as close to maximum sustainable HR as possible for an hour, and working on strength, with the aim of increasing overall max speed.
Last night we did a session at Blackburn Velodrome together: 2 x 10Min steady, and 3 x max speed reps. kind of a mixed session really. But, really useful, as it showed the windtraining sessions are at too LOW a resistance and at a cadence probably 5 RPM less than ideal, which is easy to fix. It also re-inforced the need for closer gear spacing at the preferred speed/cadence. So, a custom 9 speed cassette will be required. 4 beginner cogs & 5 with just 1 tooth between then for fine tuning.

Tubbing complete !

The last sections of the tubbing have now been laid and this entry is being written with the background din of the vacuum pump from the garage. A photo of the initial layer of CF and foam is below. The carbon is covered by a layer of peel ply, followed by a layer of breather blanket which allows air to flow, and absorbs excess resin. A mylar bag covers everything, and the yellow tacky tape forms the air tight seal. The hose at the top of the frame leads to a vacuum pump, which happily ticks away until the resin goes off.

New members, new builder, news...

Firstly, congratulations to Peter Heal, the current OzHPV treasurer who successfully crossed the continent from Perth to Sydney, without any outside assistance, in a remarkable 11 days & 20 or so hours. A truly amazing performance. He rode a Velokraft VK2. More on his ride soon.

Pete has also made quite a few recumbent bikes, under the Lizard name, over the years. So, he has agreed to help the team by make the from sub frame. We'll supply him with drawings & materials, and he'll TIG weld it all up for us. If you've ever seen a Lizard bike, you'll know why I'm rapt he's going to do some work for us.
And once Whoops is all running, we may just have another rider who's interested in having a crack at the 24hr record. SO, stay tuned for NAMES...

Whoops adds a TICK...

As of Aug 2009, Whoops has gained a full time team member & added his initials to the team. So, welcome Mick Donovan, to the Whoops team. Where did the TICK come from, I hear you ask wordlessly through the ether... TIm & miCK.
Mick & I are going to build one bike between the 2 of us, which halves each of our costs, and ensures we are both work in the same direction. Our goals are:
90kmh for the flying 200m (Mick is much faster than me, so it is HIS goal)
65km in an hour (that's my goal)
There will be 2 events during 2010 for which we will have the bike prepared. I'll advise dates once the venue & dates are confirmed.
We have commenced work on a tub bike, but vac bagging in some 4mm foam & carbon fibre to Micks existing lower shell, so make it rigid enough to negate the need for a full length frame. Pics next week.

What a Weekend

Easter 2009 may go down as the beginning of Australia's speed bike era. 1 world & 2 Australian records were broken.
I completely failed to break any records, but my time in Whoops was valuable & I established that the records are well within reach, if I can get my bike to hold together!
More soon....

Easter 2009

This Easter, 2009 (April 10-13) will see a Varnyle of speedbikes assemble at Lang lang for a crack at the 2 long standing Australian speed records.
Trisled are working on a new head in version of their Black Betty bike. I have a new chassis under way with a new fairing to come soon. Pete Heal from Canberra will be coming down to try & break the unfaired 1hr record. Mick Donovan is working on a Kyle clone with me. Tim Corbett will be bringing his trike along for a crack at the 1 & 6 hour distance records.
Stay Tuned...

5 Kyles & no Records!
SO, another 3 months gone, and A LOT OF SHED TIME LATER, and what do I have to show for it all?
But the biggest piece of news in this time was seeing my son, 12 yr old Jack, having his first ride in a speed bike, but riding using a PERISCOPE! You can just see his helmet behind the top mirror & below the normal bubble cover. Eyes are well below the top of the fairing, but the mirrors shift the image to that level. This is BIG news for others making speed bikes, as it showas the possibilities of reducing bubble height significantl;y, whilst enabling excellent stereo vision (required for best balance). This was a very exciting development.
This ride was accomplised at the Holden proving grounds, along with 4 other copies of the Kyle speed bike. We were trying to break 2 long standing Australian records, but came up short in both. So they stand: 89.8kmh for a flying 200m, and 58.3 km for 1 hour. Something to aim for next summer!

During this time I also made a trike version of Whoops for a kids Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) endurance event in Wonthaggi, Victoria. A team of 10 riders rode Tri Whoops for 16 hours. Slowly. I added quite a few safety features (rules require them) late in the building of the bike, which relly hurt it's speed. So, in short it was slow as a slug, or, as we ended up calling it, slow as a Carrot on Wheels!
Time for a break now from my shed. I have a wife who needs my attemtion for a while, so my bikes can survive without me for a month or so, and then I'll get into making them fast!

Where did those last 3 months go?

So, Whoops is now being cut up to fit over my new vehicle... a TILTING Trike. You see the prototype here. At rest, the rear wheels are locked in the vertical position. Once moving, you unlock the rear end & ride it like a 2 wheeler. I'm cutting 30cm of the Whoops fairing (race rules) as well as removing the rear wheel cover (no longer required). It's really fun to ride... stable at rest, dynamic at speed. I'll add a 70tooth chainring & realy crank it up. More soon.

3 Kyles & a Gale

SO, whilst reading this, turn on 3 fans really near your face. Then use that wind to imagine what it was like at Casy for the 6hr challenge. WINDY! Cold, but mostly, really WINDY. SO windy, Whoops & her sister, Black Betty, were simply blown over when riding. The wind just lifted the front wheel off the ground & over they went. twice each.

That's Matt racing around, but without the back top... it was too windy to control Whoops fully setup.




And then, to make matters really bad, a rain storm passed trough. SO, before you could say Chester Kyle 10 times fast, the race was abandoned & we all went home!










But, there were 3 copies of the original Kyle Edge racing: my Whoops, Jeff in Black Betty (built by Ben at Trisled, and seen here passing the pits) & Ken in Chain reaction (seen below). Pity the conditions didn't allow us to race at our full potential.
So, hopefully we'll get onto the Holden track soon & with some fine conditions, we'll erally be able to crank these babies up.

Casey 6 hour Challenge preparations

Sunday Sept 24 will see Whoops running in a 6 hour challnge at the new Casey Fields track. We have made a few changes of late to help ride comfortably for that length of time.
1. Ben modified the fork so the crown(top) of the fork is now just above the tyre, with an extension added under the existing steerer tube so the wheel remains in the same position. This will prevent knees knocking the forks, which is very painful.








2. I've made a neoprene cover to fill the gap between the front & rear sections. This will help the airflow significantly, and keep the rider warm. That's Matt in the bike. Matt will be partnering me in the 6hour race. He's even bigger than me, at 194cm tall & 90kg! Never thought I'd need to made Whoops fit someone bigger than me! AS you can see, time for a re-spray.

3. I've installed a landing gear, which allows starting & stopping without the need for putting feet &/or hands on the ground. It works well, though on roads with a severely curved edge, there is a tendency to fall over. When riding, the wheel springs back inside the fairing. When required, I just pull a riope & the wheel pops down. All very simple. Not elegant yet, but simple.

2 World Records Broken

Well, just to keep us honest, 2 of the 3 world records we are going to challenge have been broken:
Greg K from Canada just added 25km to the 24hr record taking it to 1046km, and 49yr old Fred Markham added 1500m to the hour record to take it to just under 86km.

A New Back

AS you can see, I've made a new back top section for Daily Whoops. It's made of polystyrene (insulation) foam & epoxy. If you look closely, you can see the strips of polystyrene, which I hot glued onto a template, and then covered the whole thing, inside & out, with a very light fibreglass cloth & epoxy resin. This part is really light (under 2kg) but really quite stiff. You can also see my foot sticking out of the new neoprene hole covers. The gap between the 2 top pieces will be filled in soon with stretched neoprene covers.



Here is the back section prior to attaching to the lower body. The template was made of 2 pieces of styrene, and then 40 strips of 12mm thick styrene glued over the top. Without the fibreglass, the structure is pretty fragile. I also made the widest point too high, so will attempt to re-shape the mid section, to bring the widest point lower & improve the airflow around my shoulders. Building this whole structure took about 10 hours all up. I've ordered paint to match the rest of Whoops... Can't have her looking drab now, can we!

Full Battle dress!
SO, I've finally managed to get some pics from the Lang Lang ride, with Whoops in full battle mode. That's Jeff over there taping me in prior to the run. The black thing in front of the windscreen is a NACA duct, which directs air into my face, with apprenetly little increase to the aerodynamic drag.







Now, the astute amongst you will notice you can't see my eyes. Which, by reverse, means I couldn't see yours, if you were hypothetically somewhere in front of me whilst riding. Yes, visibility was NOT good. All I could see was the banking up to my right. I had NO idea where the left edge of the track was. SO i wobbled around the track for 30 minutes, rarely moving into the 2nd lane, mostly staying in the 3rd & 4th lanes. BUT, it was fun cruising along at 55kmh or so.
My helmet was hard up against the bubble, and I felt EVERY bump in the road.





You may also notice the bulge in the join between the front & rear top pieces. Big Shoulders! Somehow, the tap stayed on & I was kept dry. I had tried to seal up the front wheel hole somewhat, so despite the rain, I got out of Whoops pretty dry.