The KillaCycle New Zealand Tour was a huge success! We didn’t only show that electric can be fast and sexy, the tour also brought together EV people from all over the NZ. An “EV movement” seems to already have started in NZ in the surge of the tour. 
Picture: Meremere dragway in Auckland. Most of the day rained away. Even when the rain stopped, the track was too wet to run safely at full power.
Every show and dinner on the tour turned in to a mini-convention where people met that otherwise wouldn’t have met. With ten events during three weeks, that means a lot of people.
One of the purposes of the tour was to promote and help the development of the Tumanako open-source motor-controller project. The Tumanako group, based in New Zealand, has built and is just on the edge of production distribution of an open-source 200 kW inverter and drive package. It is awesome and it is about time someone does this. This has potential to be the “Linux” for electric vehicles.
Motor-controllers are a big issue for all racers and for small manufacturers. The motor-controllers you can buy is a “black box” and you have no possibility to change or modify the software for your needs, because the manufacturer will never give you the source code. Imaging buying a race engine where you can’t change the pistons or even set the ignition timing..? That is the case for electrics today. Information about the Tumanako group here. I will write more about them soon. We hope to use one of their motor-controllers in the motorcycle streamliner that I am building right now (more about that too soon). Bill and I are strongly supporting the open-source project and hope that more people will join the group to reach the critical mass where things start to really happen.
Here are a few snapshots from the two race events during the three week tour. We didn’t set any new world records, but we now hold the electric record in New Zealand. Most of the raceday at Meremere in Auckland rained away, and some motor-controller issues and the fact that the dragstrip was a runway for a small airport and not a real, pool-table smooth dragstrip kept KillaCycle in the 8’s instead of the 7’s. Anyway, we see it as a very successful tour.
Picture: Bill is being interviewed by the tracks “speaker”.
Picture: Smurf-gloves on. Before plugging in the 400 V homebuilt racing battery pack to the charger, it is good practice to put on the blue nitrile gloves, often called “Smurf gloves”.
Picture: The NZ Tour gang, from left to right:
Athol Williams (4th fastest in the world in motorcycle dragracing),
Ed Cheeseman (part of the open source group Tumanako and one of the organizers),
Daniel Bodley (instructor and EV enthusiast that came all the way from Australia to meet us),
Philip Court (the guy who pays for the party, owner of the company Greenstage and part of the open-source group Tumanako, owns the red Saker sportscar that is running the first open-source controller),
Tom Parker (part of the open source group Tumanako and one of the organizers, has made a beautiful conversion of a Mini)
Tabitha Roder (part of the open source group Tumanako),
Scotty Pollacheck (rider KillaCycle),
Susan Lefebrie (KillaCycle Team member and married to Scotty),
me (crew chief) and Bill (designer, owner and team leader).
PRESS COVERAGE from NZ tour
The KillaCycle NZ Tour generated quite a bit press coverage. Here is what we have found.
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TV ONE Sports
February 8, 2010 (Click on the picture above to play)
KillaCycle goes Kiwi hunting
AutoBlog Green, December 13, 2010
http://green.autoblog.com/2009/12/13/killacycle-goes-kiwi-hunting/
KillaCycle Heads to Kiwi Country
FutureCars.com, December 14, 2010
http://www.futurecars.com/news/electric-cars/killacycle-heads-to-kiwi-country
World’s quickest electric motorcycle coming to NZ
Motorcycle Trader, January 14, 2010
http://www.motorcycletrader.co.nz/View/Article/Worlds-quickest-electric-motorcycle-coming-to-NZ/1023.aspx
Killacycle Tour of NZ
InfoNews, January 20, 2010
http://www.infonews.co.nz/news.cfm?id=47079
Electric motorbike definitely no drag
Waikato Times, January 20, 2010
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/motoring/3277538/Electric-motorbike-definitely-no-drag
Green can be sexy way to go
Manawatu Standard, January 26, 2010
http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/3261657/Green-can-be-sexy-way-to-go
Killacycle coup at Motueka dragway
The Nelson Mail, February 5, 2010
http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/sport/3297908/Killacycle-coup-at-Motueka-dragway
Is it a bird, is it a plane … it’s KillaCycle
CarbonNews
http://www.carbonnews.co.nz/story.asp?storyID=3904
We also made two TV interviews and one radio interview that I unfortunately don’t have any links to.
VIDEO
8.81 s on the ¼ mile in Nelson
Video from the race in Nelson. For the first time we have got on-board footage.
http://vimeo.com/channels/killacycle#9275439
KillaCycle Channel on Vimeo
6 videos from Nelson, New Zealand
http://vimeo.com/channels/killacycle#9427220
BLOGS and OTHER POSTINGS
Killacycle. Standing 1/4 mile. 4th run. Motueka NZ. 6/2/10.
Vimeo (like YouTube)
http://vimeo.com/groups/highdefinition/videos/9275439
Killacycle heads to New Zealand for electric motorcycle showdown
December 13, 2009
http://polizeros.com/2009/12/13/killacycle-heads-to-new-zealand-for-electric-motorcycle-showdown/
KillaCycle 8.81 s at Nelson
Carrott.org
http://carrott.org/blog/archives/130-KillaCycle-8.81s-at-Nelson.html
KillaCycle® Floortalk
TePapa Museum
http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/WhatsOn/allevents/Pages/KillaCycleFloortalk21janand24jan.aspx
Quick, and Cheap to Run
Scoop Business, Independent News (Press Release), 8 January 2010
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1001/S00054.htm
DIY Electric Car Forum
http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php/killacycle-coming-nz-39771.html
THANKS!
Our warmest thanks to all the partners that made this tour possible.
Greenstage www.greenstage.co.nz
Tumanako http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/tumanako/
Stud Welding NZ Ltd www.studnz.co.nz
Stud Racing Ltd www.topfueldragbike.co.nz
Econz Wireless www.econz.com
Zero Now
Museum Hotel, Wellington www.museumhotel.co.nz
Time Card – because time is money
University of Denver – the ultimate engineering adventure www.du.edu
Eva & Bill