bottpower

If we don’t find an unexpected problem, we will start testing the M210 in two weeks. We are anxious to see the bike on the track!

Meanwhile we continue working in a lot of details that are necessary to finish completely the bike. For example the instalation of all the data adquisition sensors, which require the design of small parts to locate each sensor in its position, in order to make it work properly and allowing an easy replacement.
For example, next picture shows the linear potentiometer of the rear shock. Fortunately the K-tech shock we are using has already threaded holes to clamp the sensor brackets. This makes the work much easier.

Last week we visited Totimport, one of our technical sponsors. They built for us the braking lines under our specifications. The lines are from English brand HEL, and have been designed for using quick couplings and pressure sensors. Quick couplings allow a quick and leak proof disconnection of the brake calipers from the rest of the hidraulic system.

The two orange connectors are for the front brakes, the red one is for the rear brake. Next picture shows a coupling connected and another one disconnected.

As always you will find bigger pictures in our Flickr gallery.

We will keep informing!!

We already have the airbox conduit with us, in 3 days we went from a drawing in the screen to a real part ready to assembly on the bike.

I want to thank Ineo for supporting our project working in a very fast and professional way.

Your can see a bigger photo in our Flickr gallery.

The swingarm is probably the most complicated part of the whole bike regarding design and manufacturing. It is also one of the most critical parts when you want a race bike to achieve its full potential on the track.

The swingarm project has been approached in collaboration with CRP South Africa. CRP is a Technological partner in the Bottpower project contributing in the swingarm design, building and development process.

This is the first prototype, once we start training with this bike we will need to keep working on it. I am curious to see how will be the evolution of this design…  :-)

As always you can find larger photos in the Flickr gallery.

Last weekend the first races of the CEV 2010 were held in Montmeló. We were not there because we are not yet ready to race yet (we will probably not make it to the second race to be held in Albacete).
I watched the races on TV and the truth is that the Moto2 race was fun to watch, with a very fast Jordi Torres, a spectacular Santi Hernandez (the progression of the two Colombian brothers Santi and Yonny is amazing) and 16 different brands of motorcycles on the track. Carmelo Morales had problems with his Suter and it was a shame because it would have been interesting to see him compete against Jordi Torres.

As for our project, we move forward. You can see we’ve added a new sponsor in the left column of our website. It is the manufacturer of K-tech suspension from UK. We wanted to work with K-tech because it is a brand that has a very engineering working philosophy, which resembles a lot the way we work in our projects. Also K-tech is committed to our project, which is reflected in several ways, the main one is the presence of an engineer in our garage in both our private practices and races. For us this is a very important aspect for the development of our bike.

We have already received the fork, which has a sleek look.

The fork is the KTR-3 model, a pressurized front fork, the top of the range of K-tech.

The suspension is technically high-quality, and the level of performance they are getting this season is very good. Some recent examples: The team of Michael Jordan (yes, the former basketball player) which runs in the AMA USA uses K-tech suspension and in early March won the first two AMA Superbike races at Daytona. On April 6. of this year, James Ellison won a British Superbike race using the same type front fork.

As always you can see larger photos in our Flickr gallery.

We continue working very hard building our Moto2.

Graham Coker, from CRP South Africa has been almost two months in Spain working with us. The initial idea was to work only in the swingarm but he finally helped us with a lot of things… bodywork, fueltanks, chassis, etc.

Working with him is been a very interesting experience, and I think that we both are interested in continuing our collaboration in the future, doing things together for this and other projects. Graham has high level design and build capabilities and he has experience both with engines and chassis. It is a luxury to have him involved in the project. I am learning a lot of things these days.

In the next photo you can see 2 fueltanks almost finished, welded by Graham. We still must poslish the fueltanks, and one doesn’t have the cap yet.

Yesterday we received the triple clamps. They look really well. We must polish and paint them in black.

We also received the rims. We are using OZ.

Here you can see Graham welding the swingarm.

And two photos more showing Graham’s welding work in the chassis. High quality!

Right now we have 2 units built. We will build more units once we have tested the chassis on the track.

You can see higher resolution photos in our Flickr gallery.

These days we are building a first prototype of our Moto2 in oder to move it to Barcelona, to Anima design studio. Anima designers will use it to build the bodywork. We don’t have ready yet the fork and the swingarm that the final bike will use, so we built a “mix” using the CBR fork and swingarm.

Compared with previous posts, now we have the subframe. The subframe and the fueltank fit very well in the chassis, the bike looks very compact.

Once we had our “mix” assembled, the first thing I did was to seat on it to test the ergonomics.  Because we have a very low chasis and a narrow fueltank, it is possible to close the legs and to take an aerodynamic position in an easy and “comfortable” way.

Theoretically it will be possible to use a narrower bodywork in order to minimize the frontal area of the bike.

Next step is to assembly the radiator and the exhaust, and to put a rigid bar working as shock absorber in order to give the correct height to the rear of the bike. Then we will have ready this prototype to build the bike’s bodywork. Meanwhile we will build the swingarm and a second chassis.

The time flies and we are very close to April 18th, the first race of the CEV in Montmeló (Barcelona) circuit…

This is the first prototype of the Moto2 fueltank, made in aluminium. As you can see in the photo, it hasn’t been welded yet, with the intention of checking that it fits properly in the bike, before welding it.

I designed it trying to make it very narrow, in that way the rider can close a little bit more his legs, making possible to reduce a little bit the front area of the bike in order to make it more aerodynamic. I also tried to make a “low” fueltank, in this way the rider can lie down over it in a more comfortable way, again with the intention of improving the aerodynamics.

In order to try to make a lower and narrower fueltank I used the Honda CBR one as a reference.

Like you know one of our technical sponsors is Incomet, a company that provides us with scanning service. Taking the most of it I asked them to scan the Honda fueltank. This is how it looks the mesh that you obtain from the point cloud that is gererated in the scanning process.

And this is how it looks once you convert the mesh into surfaces. This work could have been done in a much more precise way, but it’s not worth doing it because as I said I only wanted it as a reference to design the Moto2 fueltank.

Finally here you can see the final design of the fueltank. As it happens with the original one, this fueltank is covered by a fiber carcass. In following evolutions of the bike it is probable that we will make a “seen” (not covered) fueltank, eliminating the carcass and taking more profit of the available room.

Because the fueltak is narrower and lower than the Honda CBR one, part of the fuel has gone under the rider seat.
The cut that you can see in the lower area of the fueltank has been made to let room for the electrical loom.

Stay tuned! We will keep informing..  :-)

Today has been an important day in our Moto2 project. We assembled for the first time the engine into the first chassis unit that we built last week. I was a little worried thinking if everything would fit correctly.
I have checked 1000 times the cAD design and theorically we shouldn’t have any problem, but sometimes you can not be 100% sure till you don’t check it physically.

Fortunately everything went as it was planned. The engine fits perfectly in the chassis.
Here you have the first photo of our chassis. What can I say.. I am happy!    :-D

After several months working on a virtual project (till now everything are zeros and ones, drawings and calculations that exist only in a hard disk) I already was up to start touching something more solid.
First step has been to buy a brand new Honda CBR 600, and without even starting the engine, disassemble it to take the parts we are going to use in our Moto2, mainly the engine and the airbox.
This is how the bike looked at the beginning:

And here it is two hours later.

During the following weeks, once we start the Moto2 construction, everything will go faster.

I had some time without writing about the Morlaco, a project that is going ahead at idle speed. Yesterday I took this photo that shows the current status of the bike.

Comparing with the last time I took photos, this is the new stuff:

• The bike has custom built Technoflex shocks.

• Carbon fiber airbox.

• Carbon fiber fueltank (here and here you can see 2 post talking about the fuel tank construction).

• The “triple clamp” is a new, stiffer one.

• I changed the steering rod-ends.

 Although currently I am fully focused on the Moto2 project, I want to continue working on the Morlaco, even if it is at idle speed.  

You can see a higher resolution photo in the Flickr gallery.

(Thank you Hugo for the photo postprocess).  

Tags: morlaco, prototype, construction