NovaBikeNovaBike Newsletter: October 2011

2 - NovaBike Newsletter: October 2011

Foreword

» A new acadamic year has begun, for NovaBike this means that a new team will take over the

project. This all happens with the slogan; new mem-bers, new ideas … same vision.

During the holidays; vacation was not really an option. NovaBike02 has been finished and during these months we participated at several races. In this newsletter you will find; a brief report of the performed races, a sincere word of thanks to everyone who made NovaBike happen and a presentation of the new team. Including exten-sive presentations of Nick Appelman; the previous driver and the Novabike03 team manager; Yoeri Torel

We would also sincerely like to thank all the sponsors for the financial, material and moral support.

Keep updated with our progress through Facebook, Twitter and Youtube!

NovaBike

In this edition:Racereport: Race 07 Assen 4The first race with the NovaBike 02 proto-type .

Racereport: Race 08 Assen 6Race of Champions, last race of the sea-son with highly competitive european riders for the UEM Cup.

Team: NovaBike 03 8New academic year, the start of a new team.

Interview: Wim Hendriks 9Representative of the Mono Racing class.

Last race Nick Appelman 10When in doubt, we would like him to do one extra. Team Manager 03 11Yoeri Torel, manager for the coming sea-son introduces himself.

NovaBike thanks! 12A word of appreciation for all those who helped us out during this season.

End of season 14

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Result; on paper a DNF… morally the first completed race for NovaBike02!

Off course we preferred to see this result on paper, however after a promising weekend we should be very pleased with our own progression.

Now, in good spirits, it is our goal to find more trem-bling horses in our engine and to improve the total package.

» During the first session, which was complete-ly dry, it became clear that our bike had only

done a few kilometres; the delicate shift-system failed. This was a problem of minor importance and was fixed quite easily. However due this little set-back we were not able to perform that well. Our only timed lap was 2:13 ... not quite a competitive time.

Just before the second session began; it started driz-zling,. Fortunately this rain was of short duration and the track dried quickly. However the conditions were less favorable as in the first session. Despite this all we were able to perform three laps with good timings.

In a final sprint to the finish-line Nick Appelman was able to stay ahead of Sjoerd van Buiten. Afterwards we wished this would be different. After a successful overtaking Nick gave it all and opened full throttle.

The flag is waved and the race is finished … however this flag was not intended for Nick but for Sjoerd who was just behind him. In the confusion that follows NovaBike rides into the pit while in factanother round has to be ridden.

FIrst race wIth the 02 prototype

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racereport: race 07 assen

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them a fast recovery.

During the race Nick was able to gain some places and to pass the finish line at a 23rd position.A great achievement for NovaBike ... unfortunately was this, already, the final race of the season. How-ever we can only look back with a good feeling to this past year. A whole new bike has been developed and built. This runs completely, as usual, on bio-ethanol and has a self built frame which provides lots of con-fidence.

This new configuration ensures a solid base for up-coming years and makes sure that we are able to compete in our league. The next year; the bike will be thoroughly improved, this in terms of power and weight despite the fact that we already uses light-weight structures.

FIerce competItIon

durIng race oF champIons

» During the first qualification on Saturday, NovaBike performed very well. After eleven

laps a lap-time was set which was comparable to the record time of the NovaBike01 on Assen earlier this year. This resulted in a 31th starting position; in a competition of 45 drivers.

At the second qualification Nick started slower which gave him more space, therefore it was possible to take and hold better lines through the turns ... a strongly improved lap time was set. However this was not only the case for Nick, also the other drivers were faster which caused that our starting position was changed to the thirty-second one ... here it is clear that there is still some room for improvement.

After these qualifications the real competition could start. The next morning, under a clear blue sky, a short warm-up was scheduled. Here a new set of tires, together with some adjustments to the transmission were fitted. This to improve our top speed. Under the watchful eye of many visitors a race of 12 laps began. However, all of a sudden, this was inter-rupted due to a cleanup of a oil on the racing line.

After this delay the start was redone, here there was contact between two drivers; code red was given. Here there were several injuries, NovaBike wishes

racereport: race 08 assen

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novaBike 03new memBers, new Ideas ... same vIsIon

» A new academic year goes hand in hand with a new NovaBike-team. This year it is formed by

15 enthusiastic technical students.

Remarkable is that no less than 8 members will work fulltime; this in the form of a minor, an internship or a full-time extracurricular year.

Previous year was completely devoted to the deve-lopment of the bike itself, this is why we now have a solid base to work on and with which it is perfectly possible to compete with the other teams of our competition.

Thanks to this development year we were able to make the bike our own. Since NovaBike02 is built according our own design we can guarantee it will meet all our standards and demands.

The new team goes with the slogan “new members, new ideas ... same vision’ with this we would like to make clear that despite it is a whole new team, it is still our goal to prove that even with a green vehicle it is perfectly possible to compete in a tough league.

Refreshing and innovative ideas are plentiful. More power is a must as well as lowering the weight of the motorcycle itself; despite the fact that it is already a light weight structure.

This year the team is being led by Yoeri Torel. A more extensive presentation can be found at the end of this newsletter

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IntervIewWim Hendriks, cHief supermono1. What do you like some much about the Supermono

class and how did you get here? Years ago I rode in the SS400 class. This was a standard class in which you could participate with a stock ma-chine. At the same time there was also the Muz Cup, solely for single cilinder bikes. Because I knew a lot of riders in the class I automatically ended up at the Super-mono’s . This class was then particularly famous for all the DNF’s due to mechanical failures. I saw that reputa-tion as a challenge to do it anyway and try to succeed.

2. Why one instead of two or four cilinder engines?That is an easy one: all combustion engines start with a single cilinder! The single cilinder engine is the primal engine and also sounds and runs like one. Because it’s only one cilinder, the necessary parts stay limited and thus lowers the cost. And of course, it is a challenge to tune such an engine to the maximum possible. A single cilinder engine is just the ultimate engine.!

3. What did you think when you first heard of the

NovaBike Project?When I first heard of TU Delft students participating in the SuperMono I thought: “Good, another rider for the class and good competition for the HTS team.” I was aware that it would not be easy for you, I think that NovaBike might have thought differently in the begin-ning. No, riding in the Supermono class is learning how to deal with dissapointment. And that’s a lesson which is not often taught in school. I do think that NovaBike has the attention of the other teams, people expect to see something from you..

4. What was the best moment in your Supermono

career?The best moment was when we had a full grid again for the first time on Assen. Finally we managed to get rid of our old reputation.

5. According to you; What will the future bring for the

Supermono class?

The future of the Supermono class as it is now, is uncer-

tain. With the introduction of the Moto3, a lot of young

riders will go and participate in that class. Furthermore

I think that the class will move towards the smaller dis-placement of 450cc bikes. The time of the large displace-ment bikes will pass, I expect. The common rider does not really have the knowledge or the ability anymore to build and maintain his own bike. And as long as the class is underestimated by insiders and public, it will remain difficult.

6. What is your expectation of the NovaBike results with-

in the coming years.?A difficult question! Because NovaBIke changes its team composition every year, there will never be a reliable factor. I mean, rider and motorcycle change continu-ously and evertytime there is a learning curve. Often a bike is adapted to a rider, so with a change of rider your whole bike might need to change. This way you move back and forth. But, as long as the team is lead firmly it will all work out more or less, although - you remain a collection of alpha males.

7. What is the motorcycle of you dreams?I don’t do dream motorcycles. But if I have to name one: a chassis by (John) Britten and an engine made by Apfel-beck with a radial cylinder head! What comes neareast after that is Rupert Baindl’s Suzuki.

8. You have anounced to stop with the organisation of

the class. How do you look back on this period.?I will not say goodbye to the paddock. I only wrote that I can’t do the work for the DSA alone, but that you will see me back with my own bike, the “Tigerente”, and as representative for the Dutch Moto3.

Wim, if you want to add anything extra. This is your

chance!I hope we can maintain our beautifull class in the com-ing years and that everybody may have lots of pleasur-able experiences with few mechanical failures!

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Last race For

appeLmanWith two seasons as driver for NovaBike behind me it is time to move on and assign my function to Malte Verleg, the driver of NovaBike03. The end of my studies approaches and this is hard to combine with another intensive year at NovaBike. It is awesome to start such a project, to build your own bike and eventually to race with it. Few things can compete with such an awesome feeling.

NovaBike01 was a good start; a customized frame, a KTM engine and an own injection system which makes it possible to run on bio-ethanol. Eventually the build of such a motorcycle is easily underestimated, that is why NovaBike01 could only participate at two races. The ambitions however were high with the subsequent NovaBike, a complete self made frame and a faster engine were the key elements of this motorcycle. The development was, once more, more time consuming than we thought. However I was very pleased to see the capacities of NovaBike02. The last race we were able to put some extra trembling horses into the engine which completed the picture of thoroughbred racer.

It is unfortunately that the engine only runs perfectly at the end of the season. Disappointing that I, as driver, was limited to a few races to push this bike to its limits. However, I guess this is just part of the develop-ment of a whole new and innovative motorcycle. At least it looks good for Malte. I wish him all the best an maybe we meet each other once more on the track … off course with my own supermono.

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team manager novaBIke 03My name is Yoeri Torel, 3rd year Aerospace Engineering student and I am the new Team Manager of NovaBike. I joined NovaBike through a couple of friends of mine who were part of last year’s team. I got very excited about this project through their enthusiasm about it and decided to do my minor at NovaBike. This means that at the moment I’m working fulltime at NovaBike.

As Team Manager I’m responsible for the daily organisation of the team, the finances and attracting sponsors. My goal this year is to lift the team to a higher level in order to perform better in the Supermono championship. I want to achieve this by using the foundations of NovaBike02 for NovaBike03, instead of completely designing a new motorcycle. Because of this design philosophy, more time can be spend in tuning the motorcycle to increase its performance.

At the same time I want to increase the popularity of NovaBike, both inside and outside the Delft University of Technology. I want to achieve this by or-ganising some events during the year. More on that will be presented to you in the upcoming newsletters.

Finally I want to thank the people who supported our project last year, and I hope that we can still count on you in the upcoming year.

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THANK YOU!» We would like to show our sincere gratitude

to everyone who supported NovaBike dur-ing this year. Special thanks go to Rene, Don, Roel, Roland, Peter and Piet from the PMB on the faculty of industrial design. They performed many extra hours for a machined mold or a new triple clamp, the word ‘heroes’ was mentioned more than once.

Our gratitude also goes to Wim; the driving force be-hind our great racing class; that it may continue for many years!

Also we would like to thank BRS/Bitubo-Raceservice for all the wonderful advice they were able to give us. Polymess and BPC were able to fabricate in no time a perfect vacuum-formed and welded fuel tank, with-out this support we would not have succeeded.

Further we would like to thank; Gedore for all the professional equipment, Tencate for the compos-ite materials, Hartgers radiateuren for the custom made oil-and water cooler, HGS for the RVS exhaust-systems, SKF for all the bearings, KTM for the engine itself, The KNMV for the explicit support, Dremel for the incredible tools, PMI for the high pressure pis-ton, Jeveka for all the fasteners, K&N for the air-filters, Baskerville for all the print-work, SuperB for the race-batteries, Eurol for the motor oil and detergents, RS Components for all the material needed for the wir-ing harness, Hagenaar Reclame for all the stickering, Rev’it! for the professional jackets, Loctite for all the adhesive products, Red Rooster for all the pneumat-ic tools, Wahl Oosterhout for the use of “the Crafter’ as transportation, Bike design for the tubing and Damen Leathers for the professional custom made racing suit. Also the TU Delft, StuD and Albe-marle thanks for the essential financial support!

In short; thank you to all our sponsors and everybody who supported our team. Two team members, Wido Veldkamp and Yoeri Sigterman, deserve a great dis-tinction for their craftsmanship, perseverance and sustained effort, they were the engine of our team.

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Writers: Nick Appelman, Stefan Brone, Wolf Cavens, Yoeri TorelEditor: Stefan BronePhotography: Roy MulderStyle Formatting: Roy Mulder