Death Race 4-16-2011

GoldenMotor.com

doug713

New Member
Dec 5, 2009
92
0
0
lake havasu city AZ
Very cool to see my 15 year old grandson listed in 12th place on the whizzer i built his first time on a racetrack(paved that is).Also very cool to hang out with the so cal crew Baird Jeff And Scotto.nice to be able to put a face with the name.I hope a race can be arranged over there i won't miss it.
 

scotto-

Custom 4-Stroke Bike Builder
Jun 3, 2010
6,505
24
38
Ridin' inSane Diego, CA.
thanks scotto!

Dave, i feel for ya. the main race video kept saying "corrupted file" and i was about ready to break the camera, the laptop, and everything else around me, including the roomate's cat (and he's a cool cat. the roomate, not so much...:)

turned out it wasn't the file, it was the crappy dvd converter i downloaded, so i saved it.

oh, and scotto, i only lapped you once? hehehehehehe....;)
Yeah, I think that's what I counted too.....smart a$$, only because my bike was running on only one cylinder! Oh wait.....I fergot that it only has one cylinder....

Things will be different next time....you'll see! laff
 

Thud

New Member
May 26, 2010
205
0
0
West Michigan
Just a shout out to Dave31 for a super event.
I had a ton of fun (even though I burned up beforethe main) Had a Blast dicing with Alex & PaulD in the 1st heat race....

I met my 1st goal of leading a lap on my e-bike. the rest will have to come at a later date.
The piston bike guys were great! after myself no-one was having more fun than them. It was good to put faces on all the nick names around here.

& in addition to saying thanks to the sponcers...Buy their products & make certain they know that you are acting in responce to their support of the "DEATh RACE" This will keep the event alive & hopefully it can grow into the family fun motorsport that motocross used to be back in the early 70's.

Thanx again & Now I am going to buy some stuff & prepair for a race at the thunderdrome event in my home state of Michigan!
 

DaveC

Member
Jul 14, 2010
969
1
18
Boise, ID
Looks like 4 classes should be run from what I've observed.

1) Stock to slightly modified HT motors. No expansion chambers, stock CDI with plug wire improvements(stock plug wire is garbage right from the start) no SBP shifter, single speed from motor to wheel or tire. An honor system is needed to prevent internal port mods and other such shenanigans. Too many mods move the bike to;

2) Modified Class HT motors. Open for hybrid top ends based on a HT base. Run what ya brung. Single speed, also

3) Exotic Motors. Morini's, Puch, Motobecane, you know what I mean. These motors are in a class by themselves. The over 9 HP motors make the HT Chinese motors a joke. It's like trying to run a Formula Ford in Formula One.

4) Electric bikes. With the ability to simply plug-in more power when needed and the possibility of modular battery and motor mounts to make change-out of components fast these bikes will rule races unless it's an endurance race.

Basically you can run them all together, it comes down to scoring then and if every entrant had to have a scorer then that would simplify things, no scorer, no race. The scorers would count randomly drawn numbers to count laps for, even if that mean's your worst enemy's team has to score you ;) The Proto-type cars run with Modified cars at the long endurance races like Daytona 24 hrs and LeMans so we can do it, too :)
 

scotto-

Custom 4-Stroke Bike Builder
Jun 3, 2010
6,505
24
38
Ridin' inSane Diego, CA.
Yeah.....and just eliminate the 4-strokes completely right? No mention of 4-strokes.....that's not gonna fly!!!!

dnut

Looks like 4 classes should be run from what I've observed.

1) Stock to slightly modified HT motors. No expansion chambers, stock CDI with plug wire improvements(stock plug wire is garbage right from the start) no SBP shifter, single speed from motor to wheel or tire. An honor system is needed to prevent internal port mods and other such shenanigans. Too many mods move the bike to;

2) Modified Class HT motors. Open for hybrid top ends based on a HT base. Run what ya brung. Single speed, also

3) Exotic Motors. Morini's, Puch, Motobecane, you know what I mean. These motors are in a class by themselves. The over 9 HP motors make the HT Chinese motors a joke. It's like trying to run a Formula Ford in Formula One.

4) Electric bikes. With the ability to simply plug-in more power when needed and the possibility of modular battery and motor mounts to make change-out of components fast these bikes will rule races unless it's an endurance race.

Basically you can run them all together, it comes down to scoring then and if every entrant had to have a scorer then that would simplify things, no scorer, no race. The scorers would count randomly drawn numbers to count laps for, even if that mean's your worst enemy's team has to score you ;) The Proto-type cars run with Modified cars at the long endurance races like Daytona 24 hrs and LeMans so we can do it, too :)
 

liveforphysics

New Member
Apr 19, 2011
85
0
0
Santa Cruz CA
Looks like 4 classes should be run from what I've observed.

1) Stock to slightly modified HT motors. No expansion chambers, stock CDI with plug wire improvements(stock plug wire is garbage right from the start) no SBP shifter, single speed from motor to wheel or tire. An honor system is needed to prevent internal port mods and other such shenanigans. Too many mods move the bike to;

2) Modified Class HT motors. Open for hybrid top ends based on a HT base. Run what ya brung. Single speed, also

3) Exotic Motors. Morini's, Puch, Motobecane, you know what I mean. These motors are in a class by themselves. The over 9 HP motors make the HT Chinese motors a joke. It's like trying to run a Formula Ford in Formula One.

4) Electric bikes. With the ability to simply plug-in more power when needed and the possibility of modular battery and motor mounts to make change-out of components fast these bikes will rule races unless it's an endurance race.

Basically you can run them all together, it comes down to scoring then and if every entrant had to have a scorer then that would simplify things, no scorer, no race. The scorers would count randomly drawn numbers to count laps for, even if that mean's your worst enemy's team has to score you ;) The Proto-type cars run with Modified cars at the long endurance races like Daytona 24 hrs and LeMans so we can do it, too :)


Actually, as a guy who worked as a shifter-kart mechanic (125cc and 250cc class karts) for 3 years, I can assure you it's easier to make power and make reliable power improvements with a gasoline engine than electric motors.

Brushless electric motors can easily have burst power up to the saturation point (I think some of you may have seen my plasma blast dyno video of my original race motor I built for the deathrace.), but making sustained high power levels is a whole different ball game. This is why myself and most of the other fast electric bikes ended in smoke.

I spent about 25hours of time and a large amount of skin from my hands re-winding the motors and testing various combos in the pursuit of every last bit of performance I could crank out of the motor, and then still melted it down.

It's not like we just plug-in power and it all comes effortlessly.

As far as endurance racing goes, I brought a pack that would do >60miles, and capable of 10minute recharges.

My battery for next year will use a more advanced chemistry that is capable of full-empty to full-charge in 6minutes. (but needs a big generator or a 220v plug to charge)



Also, just to set the record straight, PaulD (winner of the deathrace) was running a 66.6v pack with 52amps PEAK discharge. Using a realistic efficiency of 94% for pack voltage drop loss, 97% for controller efficiency, and 85% for motor efficiency, he was peaking roughly 3.6bhp output from the shaft of that motor.

He won not through over-powering (he had to draft to make his epic pass on the straight), but through excellent torque off the corners, a light-weight rider, and a **** of a lot of balls and rider skill.
 

doug713

New Member
Dec 5, 2009
92
0
0
lake havasu city AZ
I liked the format.Run what ya brung and see how you stack up aginst the other guys.Also it was nice that they recognized best in class.And yeah what about the 4-strokes and don't forget the Whizzers.You just can't have a class for every single possible combination.And don't forget rider skill level.Gonna have classes for beginers,intermediate and expert? Lets keep it simple
 
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bairdco

a guy who makes cool bikes
Aug 18, 2009
6,537
264
63
living the dream in southern california
the simplest way to do it when all the riders are running at the same time is to have a sign up sheet where you post your name, number, and engine make. then the scorers can just look at the list and know right away who's riding what.

if there were a lot more people it would be easier to have classes, so instead of everyone giving their laptop opinions, you guys should show up, or start your own races! :)
 

DaveC

Member
Jul 14, 2010
969
1
18
Boise, ID
........nvm


Run what ya brung.. 1 water cooled Morini and a jockey that weighs 110 lbs wet..I win.


p.s.: it's just all the racing I've ever done things were divided up into classes. So I forgot 4 strokes, big deal, just add them in. Two classes would cover them, stock and mod. Like here there's 4 classes of four cylinder cars from kick the windows out, paint it yellow and race to the Pro 4 Modified Stock car I have. And, yeah, there needs to be more people to attend the races but this year that had a lot to do with $4 a gallon gas. The proposed Cali race, whenever and where-ever it is, is sure to be much more attended. I could, with proper planning, make a race there. I have friends to visit, places to go there. AZ just doesn't have the advantages for a long trip for me. Just like I've thought about getting ahold of my friend that runs the gokart track here. It's built in the foothills so it has elevation changes :) 1/3 mile street race track with banked corners, too. It's killer on a 250cc shifter kart. Only problem is there no reason to expect anybody to come in from out-of-state for a fun race. Cash prizes from entry fees and sponsored prized for class wins would cause interest.

Guess I'll wait for a semi-pro bike racers that tour to towns when they have a race but there would have to be a purse to run for to pay expenses. I wrenched on a USAC Midget for a summer. Ran all over the West doing shows, dirt and pavement. Sometimes we'd go out for 2 weeks and run 5-8 shows but most of the time we just went for the weekend. I was driving taxi at the time and could get away anytime to do it :)
 
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old track rat

New Member
Apr 18, 2011
8
0
0
tucson,az
hi tim here. that was a lot of laps lots of fun. thanks to everybody can't have a race without bodies. running classes is a good start . next one will be even better.