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Upon our return from Battle Mountain, poor little Mango sat neglected for several months, still with it's crash scars and still filled with dirt from the Nevada desert. But as the new season approaches, it was time to give the bike some attention and get it ready for racing again. The plan is to use Mango for circuit racing this year, which meant a few little changes from it's record attempt format. The biggest change is the addition of landing gear, to allow safe self-starting/stopping. This consists of two telescoping motorized legs which emerge from the rear of the bike with inline skate wheels on the ends. We'll figure out some doors for the holes once we know it all works okay. The second change was to the steering geometry. Miles has made a subtle tweak to the fork which has put a few degrees on the head angle and increased the trail, which will hopefully eliminate the high speed instability that caused the crash in Nevada. So anyway, on to the pictures: 
 
 
  So why electric? Well, once we'd decided where the wheels would go, and started thinking about how to operate them, it just seemed the simplest way to go. The biggest point in their favour is that the controls are very small and easy to operate; any mechanical system would need some sort of lever or cable pulling device, and there just isn't room at the handlebars - we had enough trouble finding space for the gear and brake controls! Each wheel is controlled by an independent switch. Once underway, I just have to flick the switches up and the wheels retract, with microswitches stopping the travel once they are parked. Then as I am slowing down I have to hold the switches down until the wheels hit the ground - this allows for different leg lengths to accomodate track camber. It takes about six seconds for the wheels to descend, which should be okay. We'll see how it works in practice soon! |