Despite plenty of questions in pitlane at the 2009 RACV Energy Breakthrough last month, we’ve now got a picture to answer the question – “Is that BY-09?”
Bendigo South East (BSE) worked in partnership with us through this year to develop our new canopy shape and chassis. Why?
We could share resources & workload
It cost both BYR & BSE less money to share the production costs
BYR Tech Chief, Daryl King, was also teaching at BSE
More people could learn along the way
BSE would be able to continue to use the shape into the future
The chassis of Furious George was produced in term 1 this year as a prototype to see if everything (and our riders) would fit for both teams.
“It (Furious George) was built well before BY-09, so I think that says a lot about these students and their design skills.” BSE teacher & BYR Tech Chief Daryl King told me after the EB.
So, for a crew with one Year 8, two Year 9s and five Year 10s (including a great chick - Bronte) to construct a vehicle of such a high standard, put it on the track in Maryborough and have people think that it was built by us makes me pretty chuffed.
We have to say though 'Furious George' did use BYR's windscreen demister system at Maryborough.
BYR would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
So the day had arrived, the day we had been waiting and working towards for the past 12th months, our moment of truth.
We made our way down to Sturt Reserve just in time for the Top 15 shootout. Having posted the fastest lap during Friday night qualifying, joining us in the shootout was fellow Victorians (and 2008 AIPP Champs) Tru Blu Racing, Trisled Fresh Racing and fellow Bendigo team mates Bendigo South East Secondary College
During the shootout, each team is given one flying lap ‘traffic-free’ to see how fast they can go. The times then determine the top 15 grid positions.
Our man, Daryl, clocked a very tidy 2:23, but was not quick enough for the impressive lap put down by Tru Blu – a 2:18. Tru Blu Racing took pole position, with BYR in 2nd and Flora Hill (3rd) and Trisled (4th) making up the front row.
Nige to Daryl:“Was that fun?” Daryl:“Not really. I was on two wheels a lot and it’s hard to corner with no one else around you. It’s harder to tell how fast you’re going.”
Let’s go Racing!
So with the shootout out of the way all our attention switched to the 12 noon start of the race. Our dedicated pit crew went over every aspect of the vehicle for a final time before making our way over to the start line.
“The nerves were building as we wondered whether all the hard work we had put into our vehicle and our fitness was going to be enough to hold off the rest of the pack.”– Chooka
First up – Cal Ridge
First up for BYR was our specialist starter Callan Ridge who followed the Clipsal 500 Pace Car around for the parade lap. During the parade lap you can see just how extraordinary this event is – there are simply so many vehicles on track that it seems impossible that you’ll be able to make your way through.
In the lead at the first turn it was Tru Blu, closely followed by BYR with Trisled, Blueshift, Ozone and Team Ballistic all in hot pursuit.
After completing the first lap, it was Tru Blu and BYR who had opened a quite substantial gap on the rest of the field after both putting in super fast laps of 2:23. This lap - with Tru Blu gun racer Steele Von Hoff crossing the line first – was the fastest of the whole race.
For the rest of Cal’s stint he traded blows with Steele – holding on to the back initially before losing some ground, clawing it back and then eventually passing him again.
With 45 mins of racing done Cal pitted and Steele in Tru Blu carried on until the hour mark. We were behind, but not by much.
Next to jump in BY-09 was Dave Maud who put in a blistering stint of 2:38 to 2:42 minute laps and reclaimed the ground and pushed us out to an early 1 lap buffer over Tru Blu.
Next to hop in was our youngest rider Troy Hutchins who at just 16 years of age was in his first race for BYR.
Troy put in an impressive 55 minutes of consistent laps and it was becoming clear that we had the speed to consolidate our early lead.
Feedback from Cal and Dave also showed that most of our gains were being made up the hill on the back straight. We were pushing our ‘BY-09’ up the hill at 47 – 50 km/h and at 23 kilos, our vehicle was a significant 7kgs lighter than Tru Blu and 13kgs lighter than the 2007 race winners’ TAFE SA Blueshift. We found that if we could really power up the hill, we could put time into our rivals.
Blueshift’s new vehicle looked very impressive and whilst they obviously need a bit more development time, we expect that they’ll improve in 2010.
As the afternoon progressed so did the lead that we were putting into Tru Blu with the lead ebbing and flowing from 1 lap to 3 laps depending on the rider in each vehicle.
Nige got stuck in next for an hour an ten minutes in his first stint for BYR since 2006: "Rowan told me I was born ready for this and I got a lot of confidence from the great team vibe we had. I don’t think I’m the best steerer in the world, but I knew that once I was out there it would all come flooding back. You never know whether you are fit enough until you are out there yourself. That’s the real moment of truth.”
Next up, Mark Anson (Charles):
Despite his height, Chaz powered out over an hour as we continued to consolidate our lead.
"I'm happy with how I rode, although displeased with the amount of traffic and how bad traffic overrides your fitness for good lap times. I really think they (the AIPP) should cap entries at 200 vehicles. The higher number of teams on the track, the lower quality of racing." - Mark Anson
Sixth in the line-up, Deven, put down some great times in a stint of an hour and a half: "I was pretty happy with my form - I had a lot more in the legs in my second stint than I have in previous years."- Deven
Seventh, our team President, Chooka, had a challenging weekend:
"I wasn't all that happy with my first stint because it was very interrupted with yellow flags before the windscreen fogged. By contrast, "My second stint was very enjoyable riding as the sun came up."
Daryl and Cal also rode with poor visibility, but were only dropping 5 – 10 seconds per lap to the opposition. The strategy at this stage changed to keeping the trike on three wheels and to keep circulating at 2:50 – 2:55.
As Daryl finished off the rider order after 8pm, we’d been through our rider order once. With longer stints by everyone overnight we ended up going through the order exactly two and a half times. The first time we have ever strategically manage our rider times so well.
But by Dave’s second stint visibility had become really poor and some serious measures needed to be taken:
"The best part of the race for me was when we cut the 'Dan Kelly' holes in the side of the front windscreen and side-windows over night. We could then see where we were going and things got a lot easier."
One of the most unexpected arrivals was from Deven’s folks – “My parents rocked up at midnight to see me race! Talk about support!”
Race stopped under RED
At around this time, the race was red flag and all vehicles were required to return to the pits. With the official word being that ‘Timing Issues’ were the cause of the delay, we were actually happy that they had stopped the race. Why?
It gave us the chance to check and retune our vehicle,
We weren’t likely to experience a repeat of the timing confusion that plagued the 2006 event, and
It gave Tim White and the kids at Bendigo South East a chance to do some late night chalking.
Unfortunately, at this time it was also found that we weren't able to play Bon Jovi's Halfway there because we didn't have it in our collection. Shame.
With the race restarted and visibility good, we continued on our merry way through an uneventful night.
Morning:
By morning, we seemed to have avoided any reliability gremlins and the vehicle was looking decidedly better than in 2008:
“Seeing the bike go round and not have to return to pits every 10 minutes was a definite highlight. It was also great to see a few of ideas be validated.”– Gavin(Pit Crew)
“Getting the bus bogged on the way was definitely the funniest part of our weekend, although my personal highlight was realising how fast the bike still was on Sunday morning.” –Cal Ridge
Indeed, Cal was absolutely flying in his final morning stint – from 8am – 9am. His times were virtually all under 2:40 apart from a 3:15 which included a crash: “I am happy with how I rode - apart from hitting so many things !”
(Btw - Cal was the only one to roll the vehicle during the race – once in his second stint and once in his third)
With our vehicle in good nick and TruBlu started to fade, it was Trisled that started to get our attention.
Trisled – who managed to confuse everyone by bringing two identical vehicles (apart from the number panels, everything was the same!) – we never too far away in third at this early stage in the race, but seemed to have to push extremely hard to hit race pace. We saw the boys have a few excursions onto the grass and on their side on BYR Hill.
But you have to race for the full 24 hours and Trisled eventually showed they had more rider depth in their team than Tru Blu and took second place in the final hours of the race.
Meanwhile, Dave put in a barnstorming hour ride on Sunday morning – he was improving and getting faster as the race went on.
A nervous Troy completed the challenging period from 10 – 11am with gusto: “I would have to say that the training paid off. With my third (and final) stint I was a little unsure as I hadn't had anything to eat. After the year of building and training since BY-08 fell apart last year, winning was bitter-sweet.” – Troy.
The run to the line...
With an hour left on the clock, Nige, saddled up for either 30 minutes or the full 60 if he felt good. Chooka was ready on standby if required, but “really just wanted to cross the line first.” Despite a few cramps, BY-09, was going so well that Nige kept going through to take his fourth chequered flag at Murray Bridge (2003, 2004, 2006, 2009) The guys, girls and parents were going nuts on BYR Hill. To finish the race so strongly with four riders who could’ve gone again was great.
After we crossed the line, gave a quick rendition of the team song, Nige, Chooka and Daz were detained for thousands of photos with the Adelaide Advertiser.
At Presentations, Daryl took control of the mic during the speeches and delivered an empassioned challenge to teams who buy their vehicles and others who never improve:
"Someone told me 12 - 18 months ago that the days of privateer builder / racer teams are gone. Well, I think we've proved them wrong and they can go and get stuffed.
I'd like to thank all the guys in the team who have pulled together over the past 12 months to get here. It's been a huge team effort.
Year after year, so many teams return with the same vehicles - having not improved, evolved or changed anything. This is an area that we're really passionate about and we'd love to see those teams further down the field having a look at what they're doing and trying to improve.
Thanks for the trophy. This one will replace our other one from 2004 that we smashed.
We'd also like to thank the race organisers and everyone who works to pull together this event."
Friday (Qualifying)
Our sunny Friday began at 8am as we made our way down to the track for breakfast at the food tent. In a first for BYR, we all brought our road bikes and went for a 30km roll to get the blood pumping and also to ride out a few pre-race jitters put of the legs.
The rest of the day was very laid back with very little happening until Qualifying at 5pm. We headed over to the main straight for a brief Design & Construction assessment with a one judge eating a hot dog. Honestly, it was pretty hard to sell 12 months of work in about 2 minutes and stress that we actually do build everything ourselves. We didn’t win D&C – DAS Racing did.
Daryl later made his way down to Pondie straight to judge some of the junior categories for the afternoon too.
Qualifying: 5pm – 7pm
So the time had come to put our new creation BY-09 out on the track where it would spend most of the weekend. After a last minute roller change which took up the first 20 minutes of the session, qualifying was underway and we worked through our rider line up. All of our riders were under the instructions to just go out there, cruise around and get used to the vehicle under race conditions. We do this with one out lap, one flying lap, then one in lap (or three times past the pits)
With plenty of time left in the session, Daryl started to turn up the heat and Callan went for a second ride to put in a fast lap to try and put us into the Top 15 Shootout (Link). Cal managed to do a speedy 2:27 to top the time sheets for the session.
It was very satisfying to know that we had built a fast vehicle that was suited to the track.
It was decided at this time that our race strategy was to win.
"No matter how much testing you do, there’s something different about having the trike in race trim on the track at Murray Bridge with everyone else. Only then can you feel the bumps up and down the back straight, the sound of your trike heading through the dipper and how quickly the corners come up on you."– Nigel Preston
After a hearty bowl of bolognaise, it was back to our room for an early night to rest up with a massive day to follow.
The story continues... Because there is simply so much to tell you about the weekend, we’ve broken it up into 3 parts:
- The journey there (Getting there and getting bogged),
- Friday (Qualifying),
- Race day, racing through the night and victory
Major sponsors of the 2009 Australian International Pedal Prix - Uni South Australia - have put together this sweet video of this year's event.
It was up online just two days after the event was finished, so hats off to their film and editing crew for such speedy work!
Everyone loves a video (except people on really slow internet connections) and we really like ones that finish with interviews with guys from our team.
Yes! Bendigo Youth Racing (BYR) has won the 2009 Australian International Pedal Prix. Seven laps ahead of ‘Trisled Fresh Racing’!
Winners of the 2008 edition ‘Tru Blu Racing’ lost their grip on second place late in the race and eventually finished third, 9 laps behind BYR.
We finally cracked the 1000 kilometre mark (but only just), having completed 466 laps of the 2.15 kilometre course. (We did the sums - 1001.9 kilometres)
Our new trike, BY-09, managed to survive weaving through the traffic of 229 vehicles for 24 hours as well as we could've hoped.
I've tried to capture the general vibe from the weary boys: We’re stoked, excited and relieved to have won this 24 hour race again. We raced clean, our pace was consistent throughout the race and across all of the team members and we won in a trike we built ourselves. It doesn’t get any better than that.
It’s very surreal. We have been designing, building and training for this since last October and now to have achieved our goal is extremely satisfying. We had a great time over the whole weekend – which included getting our bus bogged on the way there!
In what we believe will be Bendigo Youth Racing’s final outing it is fantastic to finish on a high note.
Special thanks to:
Tim Ralton of Decked Out Coaching for helping us toughen up on the wind trainers,
Pit Master Crowey, Moo, Tippet, Milky, Joe, Joe, Gav, Matt and Rowan,
all of our parents who travel interstate to cheer us on,
all of our awesome sponsors who gave us most of the materials we used to build the vehicle for free or really, really cheap.
Just for the record, our sponsors are:
McCullochs Hydraulic Engineers, L.W. Nankervis Performance Boats, Polymer Daystar, Warehouse Sales Electrical, PTR Engineering, Jimmy Recard Racing Components, Lorraine Lea Linen, Heavenly Threads and Decked Out Coaching.
We're still coming to terms with the fact that we crossed the line first. Wow!
We will post up plenty of photos and our race report in the next few days, but in the meantime we thought we'd collate some of the quick snaps from our Twitter feed during last weekend's Australian International Pedal Prix...
Development of'BY-09' began in the later stages of 2008.
Soon after last year’s event at Murray Bridge, it was decided that the team would enter a 2009 team with the plan to completely re-design the entire vehicle. Original development was centered on the radical new drive system that would be required to lower the seat as close as possible to the ground.
Forward thinking :: Front Wheel Drive System
Amazingly, plans were put in place to develop a system that would put the lowest part of the seat within 50mm of the ground and still maintain high efficiency. The radical thinking required us to design a system that would drive the front wheels, such systems had been developed by teams before with limited success such as Flora Hill's 'N4Sir' in 1999 and Bendigo Senior's 'Moby Diff' in 1998. Our prototype is pictured here.
Obviously such a system would require almost every part to be constructed in-house, including
hubs,
swivel hubs,
drive shafts,
brakes,
universal joints, and
a central drive mechanism that would divide the power from the chain and deliver it to the two front wheels.
Easy, really!
An enormous amount of time and effort was dedicated to this task by Caland we were able to get a prototype up and running around 13 weeks ago. (Cal is pictured early in our campaign working on the gig) Unfortunately the drive system suffered some technical problems that were considered too difficult to solve within the time frame that remained.
So, rear wheel it is!
In the end, the backup plan was deployed: The same canopy, but a slightly higher centre of gravity with rear wheel drive, front wheel steer.
BY-09 – Piece by Piece:
The final vehicle features a full composite frame and seat, as well as composite steering components.
The driveline has a multi point roller setup as well as custom built, narrow-spec front wheel hubs, based around a Sturmy Archer setup.
The drive is delivered through ‘SRAM Red’ Cranks and Derailleur with a ‘double tap ‘ flat bar road bike shifter. Although it uses 10 Speed equipment, the cassette only has 6 cogs, this is to provide space for the fully enclosed rear wheel guard and because so many gears are unnecessary.
Anti-Fog Solution
The vehicle has been tested over the past 6 weeks with significant time dedicated towards the development of anti fogging systems. The final design introduces fresh air as well as removing used air with the use of a series of vent’s and high flow fans. Under testing situations, the screen was able to remain un-fogged through conditions that dropped below freezing and in steady rain. In both circumstances the rider clocked over an hour in the vehicle at race pace.
Pit Crew: Chris Crowe
Tristan Tippet
Jake Cathcart
Marcus Sloane
Joe Frawley
Each team member was asked to number each of the possible riders 1-9 strongest to weakest, excluding themselves, based on fitness and ability to handle a vehicle on the track.
Here's what some of the guys had to say about our line-up:
“I think this is the strongest team we’ve ever had.” – Daz
“It all sorted itself out in the end.” – Chooka
“I’m just glad I made the team, I haven’t had much time to train with the guys and they are all super fit, so they haven't had much chance to see where I'm at at the moment.” – Nige
“Good on it.” - Troy
And finally, we meet Troy. At 16 years young, he’s the ‘grasshopper’ of our team who led Flora Hill SC’s victorious Old Bearded Mate team across the line first at last year’s RACV Energy Breakthrough. There’s a 9 year gap between the oldest team member (Nige) and Troy.
Name: Troy ‘Chomper’ Hutchins Age: 16, the grass hopper of the team Where do you live: Spring Gully. Home of Callan Ridge. (mothers lock your young daughters up!)
What is your job and where do you work?
Apprentice welder, East End Engineering, East Bendigo.
How does your job connect to BYR?
Well, Daryl might need a horse float or a dog trailer one day.
What’s the best about being in BYR? Having a laugh and the friendship.
What’s part of BYR do you find most challenging?
Getting everywhere without my P’s
We usually have a few Ansons at our races – Big Anson, Little Anson and Norma too. Here we meet Matt... Name: Matt Anson (aka ‘Little Anson’)
Age: 18
Where do you live:
Kennington birth place of Kenny kevs brother “Calvin”
What is your job and where do you work?
Apprentice Fabricator at Australian High Performance Catamarans, Bendigo
How do you use your skills from building catamarans in BYR?
We’re able to get free mylar and cheap resin.
What’s the best about being in BYR?
Everyone has said it but it’s a good one: the mateship and good times we have at the dream Factory.
What’s part of BYR do you find most challenging?
Being fully commited to training and building the vehicle for a couple of months
Best HPV Moment or memory?
For me the best moment was winning my first 24 hour race, the 2007 Wonthaggi HPGP. We won by 39 laps.
What’s the best crash you’ve ever seen / been involved in ?
Well I haven’t been in too many big crashes myself but the best that I have witnessed was when Trisled’s ‘Chic-a-chow’ hit the pit lane pole at about 45 km/h. (They destroyed the cross member and there were pieces flying off the canopy. Chic-a-Chow is pictured below prior to that crash)
As we quickly approach this year’s big race, we thought it was high time we introduce you to the rest of our team. We kick off this series of three profiles with one of our tallest & strongest team members, Mark ‘Chaz’ Anson.
Name: Mark ‘Chaz’ Anson (aka ‘Big Anson’)
Age: 21
Where do you live? Kennington, birthplace of Kenny Kev… Not much happens in Kennington.
What is your job and where do you work? Apprentice Electrician, at Industrial Conveying Australia in Bendigo
How does your skills as an electrician connect to BYR? Well, Daryl might need some more power points in the shed...
What’s the best about being in BYR? Being with a bunch of mates, who have the same interests to build the best vehicle possible.
What part of BYR do you find most challenging? The amount of time it takes to build the vehicle and train. My girlfriend is very patient and tolerant of the commitment I’ve made to the team. The freezing winter night rides aren’t that much fun. Fitting in this new vehicle is a bit challenging too – it’s a lot smaller than our previous spec canopy.
Best HPV Moment in memory? Breaking the distance record at the 2005 Energy Breakthrough in Bendigo Senior’s Bukkamalazir (below). It was a perfect race and my first win.
What’s the best crash damage you’ve ever seen? BYR at last year’s AIPP. I went to bed at 6pm with a trike in good condition with only a few race scuffs and scratches.
Then I awoke at 1am to see a bike held together by race tape, zip ties and being able to see the wheels in what should be an enclosed wheel canopy (see above). Also reading the nights pit report which included Rowan “hitting a triceratops at full noise”.
Two weeks ago, we unveiled our latest vehicle ‘BY-09’ for the upcoming 2009 Australian International Pedal Prix (AIPP). It’s been our most popular blog post yet. Whilst we’ve worked on all areas of the vehicle, the most visible change is to the vehicle’s aerodynamics. This new shape has come about through some fresh thinking with the aim of reducing the overall width, height and length.
Here’s some insight into our canopy development process…
Looking back before moving forward
Early concepts began towards the end of 2008, when as a team we reflected on the performance of ‘BY-08’ during the 2008 AIPP. The main conclusions pointed towards three areas:
the need for a reduction in width, so that the vehicle would be more maneuverable through traffic.
Improved visibility was another key objective, so that riders could see hazards in all conditions.
The third and perhaps the biggest weakness was the strength of the canopy. In the past BYR has suffered from having an incredibly fast aerodynamic vehicle at the start, but little more than a sack of Kevlar and race tape come Sunday morning!
How do you reduce a vehicle’s width and know it won’t tip over?
The first aim was to design a vehicle that could be a considerable amount narrower and still offer satisfactory level of stability around the bends.
From here we constructed a number of prototype frames before we were satisfied with the performance in terms of stability and drive system efficiency. From the final prototype, that I will talk more about in the coming weeks, we were able to determine the exact clearances and sizes required both to meet the event regulations and the ergonomics of each rider. At this point we worked closely with Bendigo South East College (BSE – formerly known as Flora Hill Secondary College) to ensure that the canopy would work for both teams. The school’s prototype chassis was more advanced earlier in the year and so it used to determine the canopy specifications.
A New Shape (but with some elements of old)
The shape is quite different from our BY-08 shape, but features some traditional BYR characteristics:
The tail is pointy much like all previous designs however the keen observer may have noticed the absence of the integrated rear wheel pod.
The profile, when viewed from the front or behind, follows the trend of tucking in over the top of the wheels, however the tuck is much more gradual compared to previous designs.
The front of the vehicle is much more abrupt, this is to keep the vehicle to a length of 2700mm and maintain a crank length of 175mm.
You will also notice that the windscreen is a lot further forward and is constructed from a curved piece of plastic, this has also helped to alleviate the fogging problem that has plagued BYR like a sick dog for a number of years.
The roof is also lot flatter, enabling the rider just enough room to pedal and corner. The need for an arc or a parabolic type profile from the front is not necessary as it creates a large amount of excess frontal area.
The other key difference is an elongated access door. This door is almost twice the size of previous designs and improves the serviceability of the internal workings.
From CAD to polystyrene foam…
The design was completed on CAD using a series of lofts, the design itself took many hours to complete and was certainly a challenging task for resident CAD man Crowey. Once completed the design was sent to a Melbourne firm to machine the profile out of a large block of polystyrene foam. Astoundingly in only three days, over the Easter weekend, the plug was machined and ready for pick up. This was a little more efficient than the three months that it had taken with the 03, 04 and 06 plugs and the cost was quite reasonable too!
… and from plug to mould
Once the plug returned home the task was to give it a light sand to remove any blemishes then seal the plug in a coat of Epoxy resin before a coat of build primer was added. This was promptly rubbed back waxed up and a PVA release agent applied. The plug was then shipped to BSE were the students constructed the mould, released it, rubbed back any blemishes and waxed it up. This process from the completion of the design took only two weeks.
First Canopy
The first canopy was produced by students at BSE. This enabled them to effectively prototype our canopy as well as enable the students to complete their vehicle a little earlier. From the school’s design, we opted to make a number of small changes to increase the strength of the vehicle but generally the two canopies are very similar. This project has been a great way to develop skills and connections between BSE and BYR.
The finished product:
a Canopy of Carbon, Kevlar and Foam Core
The final design of the BYR canopy features a layer of carbon fiber as well as Kevlar and a polyurethane foam core. The critical areas towards the front, around the wheel and the roll bars all feature a foam sandwich construction with both carbon and Kevlar on either side of the foam. In the les critical areas foam ribs have been used with a single layer of Kevlar. Throughout the canopy west system epoxy resin has been used and the whole project has been vacuum bagged, reducing the resin content and forcing all the little fibers together.
Daryl’s final thoughts
"Overall I think the profile is reasonable as always if it was to be done again things would be done differently. The size is interesting I would think that the height of the vehicle would not be a lot more that other teams perhaps it is slightly wider than other vehicles but not by a significant amount." - Daryl King, BYR Chief Engineer
BY-09 Canopy Specifications:
Length
2700mm
Width
770mm
Height (floor to roof)
740mm
Height (ground to external roll bar)
930mm
Ground clearance
40mm
Materials
Carbon, kevlar, epoxy, polyurethane foam
Weight
6.8kg
Feel free to compare the table above and post a comparison with your vehicle’s canopy.
Best HPV Moment or memory?
Name: Mark ‘Chaz’ Anson (aka ‘Big Anson’)
