world solar cycle challenge

hi i'm looking for pics of this down under event ;-) there's any australian here? i can't found any
info, the world solar challenge official site (www.wsc.org.au) covers only the car race (why?), in
the 'associated events' page i found few lines about it and nothing else i've heard an italian team
runs at the wscc with a df bike (sigh) pushed by a trailer mounting electric motor and solar panels,
called 'maiale' (pig ;-) these guys says some about the others runners, they says 'strange bikes
with the biker layed down and a full fairing, with 2 and 3 wheels'... and the bent teams run faster,
obviously ;-) i don't know where i have to go to see any pics both of the italian team and the solar
bents... someone can help me? thanks! cheers matteo

http://www.bikesa.asn.au/Events/PDF_...entry_pack.pdf Official invite. Maybe contact
people there and ask.

http://www.eng.adelaide.edu.au/galle...chproj97b.html
http://www.abc.net.au/science/riders/challenge.htm (above link has all the 2001 teams as far as I
can see) http://members.ozemail.com.au/~jcurt...rike/links.htm
http://www.stcolumba.adl.catholic.edu.au/watto/ http://www.insuru.com.au/solar/cycles.htm (Some of
the 1999 competitors here. Scroll down) http://www.veicoli.org/grasparossa.html
http://www.rqriley.com/xr2_solar.htm

etc, etc... I got 72000 hits on Yahoo. ;o)

Mikael

On Sat, 25 Oct 2003 08:24:10 GMT, tzenobite <tzenobiteNOSPAM@iol.it> wrote:

>there's any australian here? i can't found any info, the world solar challenge official site
>(www.wsc.org.au) covers only the car race

Greenspeed boycotted the event last year; they chose to use a non-solar HPV to compete against the
solar cars:

http://www.greenspeed.com.au/WSCmain.htm

I love what they did. In my opinion, solar cars are just an easy way to make a token
pro-environmental gesture without really solving any problems. Fuel cells to, to some extent.

Ken Kobayashi kkoba4@yahoo.co.jp http://solarwww.mtk.nao.ac.jp/kobayashi/personal/

Ken Kobayashi wrote:
> ... I love what they did. In my opinion, solar cars are just an easy way to make a token
> pro-environmental gesture without really solving any problems. Fuel cells to, to some extent.

I am still waiting for a commercially available compact and reasonably priced fuel cell so I can run
really bright lights [1] without worrying about battery life and recharging.

[1] Comparable to the motor vehicles, so please don't tell me about the generator based lighting
systems currently available.

Tom Sherman - Near the confluence of the Mississippi and Rock Rivers RANS "Wavewind" and Rocket,
Earth Cycles Sunset and Dragonflyer

[...]
> etc, etc... I got 72000 hits on Yahoo. ;o)
>
>
> Mikael
i've done the same ;-) but i don't had ask to rhe ng fellows to do a yahoo search for me ;-) mate

> I love what they did. In my opinion, solar cars are just an easy way to make a token
> pro-environmental gesture without really solving any problems. Fuel cells to, to some extent.
>
> Ken Kobayashi kkoba4@yahoo.co.jp http://solarwww.mtk.nao.ac.jp/kobayashi/personal/
i think the same i'm curious abut the bikes, i know there are many recumbents on the wscc and i only
want to see these bikes ;-) i like also electric vehicles and i also believe that fuel cells may be
the pollution weapon number one

so...any australian out there? ;-) mate

Tzenobite,

Im Australian. I rode in the 1997 World Solar Cycle Challenge. Adelaide to Alice Springs, then a
quick race back to Adelaide.

I think there were about 12 teams from 3 ro 4 classes. Not quite enough to make it a race, but fun
and eventfilled. The people along in towns along the way were excellent hosts and looked after us
superbly. (Coober Pedy put on a multi lamb and pig spit!! Excellent food, but slowed us considerably
for the next day, and the vego's wern't too hapy about just potatoes and onions for dinner...)

I rode a Turner SWB with rear wheal electric assist. Very homebuilt by some west Australians, and a
little temperamental. We had a chloroplast front fairing, and a 16" front wheel. Crossing the many
cattle grids with that little wheeel was quite an experience.

Just prior to the race the organisers changed the rules to allow off bike battery charging from
supplemental sources, so it wasnt really a solar challenge after all. Baicly the power drain for
motor most used far outweight the regenerative capacity of the panels we could sensibly carry.

One person (An American If I remember rightly who had just completed he RAAM that year solo) raced
the event solo on an upright and whipped everyone on times. He could easily knock out the 200 to
250km / day with now power assist. (Its a pretty flat course)

On one stretch a fully faired tadpole trike riding almost into the wind at say 30 degrees off,
recored a coast spead of 20km/h (or so) on flat. THeir fairing was sort of shaped like an aeroplane
wing cros section (round nose, flat top, pointy rear end with a really smooth taper.) They reckon
the lift from the wing profile was draggin them along. They scrubbed out one pair of front tyres
(comp pools) in the day though.

The things we learnt were that:

1) Solar assist isn't worth the weight penalty.
2)Changing the rules re battery managment at the last minute really sucks if your 2000km from
your workshop.
3) The best setup might be a solar trailer made to carry gear, coupled with a front hub drive motor.
This setup could fit most bikes, be removable, and usable for long tours. (but then again its
mostly technowank anyway so maybe the best setup is human power only...)
4) If your homebuilding your machine take it for a good test. There were plenty of machines
that failed during the race due to simple probs that would have been noticed if tests were
carried out.

Overall a fantastic experience, and opend my eyes to the magic of desert touring. So nice to travel
at a pace to notice the landscape changing in an environment most people see as boring.

Im thinking of building up the trailer hub motor system for the next race, but am also considering
just contesting with an unassisted recumbent...

Tom Nicholson (Yes an Australian and pro solar and bikes - just dissapointed by their combination in
reality...)

tzenobite <tzenobiteNOSPAM@iol.it> wrote in message
news:<251020032315157612%tzenobiteNOSPAM@iol.it>...
> > I love what they did. In my opinion, solar cars are just an easy way to make a token
> > pro-environmental gesture without really solving any problems. Fuel cells to, to some extent.
> >
> > Ken Kobayashi kkoba4@yahoo.co.jp http://solarwww.mtk.nao.ac.jp/kobayashi/personal/
> i think the same i'm curious abut the bikes, i know there are many recumbents on the wscc and i
> only want to see these bikes ;-) i like also electric vehicles and i also believe that fuel cells
> may be the pollution weapon number one
>
> so...any australian out there? ;-) mate

In article <43dd77a5.0310261837.47d8572c@posting.google.com>, Tom Nicholson
<casurina99@yahoo.com.au> wrote:

> Tzenobite,
[...] thanks for the story! ;-)

> Im thinking of building up the trailer hub motor system for the next race, but am also considering
> just contesting with an unassisted recumbent...
so, you think the 'maiale' is a good idea? ;-) i will suggest to the pig boys to try the 'maiale'
linked to a good lowracer... i think they will run really faster next time ;-) thanks again

Check out the Greenspeed website. IIRC there is some information about Ian's entry of a faired GTT.
Finished about eighth of twelve teams with just a motor consisting of 4 legs. "tzenobite"
<tzenobiteNOSPAM@iol.it> wrote in message news:271020031113085157%tzenobiteNOSPAM@iol.it...
> In article <43dd77a5.0310261837.47d8572c@posting.google.com>, Tom Nicholson
> <casurina99@yahoo.com.au> wrote:
>
> > Tzenobite,
> [...] thanks for the story! ;-)
>
> > Im thinking of building up the trailer hub motor system for the next race, but am also
> > considering just contesting with an unassisted recumbent...
> so, you think the 'maiale' is a good idea? ;-) i will suggest to the pig boys to try the 'maiale'
> linked to a good lowracer... i think they will run really faster next time ;-) thanks again

Harv,

Don't be fooled by the idea that 'teams' mean any form of competition*. It's more of a challenge to
finish than to 'race'. Sure its possible to ride fast with just legs, and probably win (some may
even do it solo and win), but thats not really the intention of the ride. Its more of an
'experience' than a race. This isnt battle mountain...

Its a great ride and huge learing curve. A must if you like bikes, touring , and have ever fiddled
with solar power.

*Not belittling any teams effort

Tom