Killa-Cycle tales from Woodburn

[Bill Dube <billdube@killacycle.com>]

	Well, I'm back from Woodburn. Geoff Swank (from Bolder TMF) and I drove
straight through, 24 hours, back to Denver. We took turns napping in the
back of the Cherokee while the other drove. 

	For those that may not already know, the Killa-Cycle ran 11.6 at 114 mph
despite a very slick track and some handling difficulties exacerbated by
the slick track. 

	We had some troubles in the first and third attempts on the track. On the
first run, I got sideways a touch during the launch wheelie. When the front
wheel set down, the cocked position of the machine caused the bike to
shimmy. I had to let off the throttle to get the bike straight on the
track. After I got it straight and laid into the throttle once more, the
damage done by the vibration became apparent. The shaking of the battery
pack cause a portion of it to lose continuity. Thus, I got a pretty poor ET
on that run.

	The new pack design allowed rapid diagnosis and repair of the problem. We
charged the pack and hit the track for second try at the title. I now knew
that the track was slick and spotty, so I launched quite gently keep out of
trouble. Once I knew the bike was stable and up to speed, I hammered it and
basically did my launch at 200 feet past the tree.

	The tire must have hit one of the only sticky parts of the track because
it linked up when cranked in full throttle. The pack of 456 Bolder TMF
cells humped 1,000 amps into the Godzilla controller which then crammed
electrons down the throats of both motors. The g-forces mashed me down in
the seat and reminded me to lay down on the tank before I was ripped off
the bike.

	Full of exuberance, we charged the pack and got the bike back on the track
as quickly as we possibly could. I (incorrectly) assumed that I had just
hit a bad section of track the first time around. Thus, I foolishly
hammered the throttle off the line. The back tire lost traction and caused
the whole bike to shake. This scrambled the pack connections once again and
I once again ended up looking at a two-digit voltage display while the bike
coasted down the second half of the track.


	It's important to note that the pressurization that caused the bike to
dribble cells out onto the track a few weeks ago, has been fixed in the new
pack design. In the old pack design, I only put two 3/8" vent holes in each
of the tubes that contain the cells. I thought these would be enough to
vent any battery vapors, but apparently not. What happened was the reversed
cells expanded and blocked these two vents. This allowed pressure to build
in the tube and then pushed 4 of the 8 cells hard enough to push the end
out of the tube.

	Now each cell has two very large holes near it. We reversed cells on the
first run and there was absolutely no problem with pressure build-up in
this new design. Also, the Lexan shields would prevent cells from escaping
onto the track, even if the pressure were somehow able to build up. 

	We plan to make a few minor changes on the bike this coming week. Once we
have completed these minor up-grades, I'll try to get into the 10's at
Bandimere. 



Bill Dube'  billdube@killacycle.com
check my website at:
http://www.killacycle.com