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- Feb 28, 2003
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- Scott
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- Friday
In case you don't know about it, the first race of electric bikes in the Moto-E class took place last weekend. It was short, only five laps of seven because of a red flag. But, it is a start. It was an interesting mix of old and young riders. Sete Gibernau was riding and he is 46 I think. There were a few other former Moto GP riders from the various classes as well. The start was kind of anti climatic because it was so quiet! However, the bikes were moving pretty quick and I think their lap times were only about 5-6 seconds per lap slower than the regular Moto GP bikes. I suspect it won't be long before they start getting much closer to the performance of the Moto GP bikes. Range is no doubt still going to be an issue. Also, they apparently REALLY eat tires. During the race there was rubber flying all over the place from the view of the on board cameras. Whichever manufacturer makes the tires for them (Dunlop?) had to make tires especially for these bikes that are not the same as the tires for the regular bikes. Different announcers would have helped as well. On guy sounded like he had OD'd on Valium and the other sounded like he had drank a few gallons of Red Bull The energetic guy was trying REAL HARD to make the race more exciting than it actually was (or was not...) and it was incredibly annoying. There weren't many people in the stands watching either.
One other thing that was kind of interesting. One bike crashed and went into the air fence. This is the one that caused the red flag. I couldn't see any visible flames, but the corner workers were spraying it heavily with something. The announcers mentioned something about the bike having some kind of indicator that let the corner workers know if they could approach and move the bike or if they should stay clear of it. It seems that when they crash, things can go really bad... That would be something I would think they REALLY need to get sorted!
I don't know if they will be doing this for all the race weekends for the remainder of the year or not. I hope so though. Racing is a great way to push the limits of the technology and get things going. As much as I like the ICE powered bikes, the thought of not having to do oil changes, valves, etc,... is kind of nice.
One other thing that was kind of interesting. One bike crashed and went into the air fence. This is the one that caused the red flag. I couldn't see any visible flames, but the corner workers were spraying it heavily with something. The announcers mentioned something about the bike having some kind of indicator that let the corner workers know if they could approach and move the bike or if they should stay clear of it. It seems that when they crash, things can go really bad... That would be something I would think they REALLY need to get sorted!
I don't know if they will be doing this for all the race weekends for the remainder of the year or not. I hope so though. Racing is a great way to push the limits of the technology and get things going. As much as I like the ICE powered bikes, the thought of not having to do oil changes, valves, etc,... is kind of nice.