15 Degrees.

 . . . anyone who enters a motorcycle into Bonneville Speed Week needs to get hold of a "Rules and Records" up-to-date book in order to understand and comply with participation regulations.   These regulations fall into two part, those affecting the machine and those affecting the riders suitability to participate and protective gear worn.

     Here I am illustrating one component of the machine regulations,   the 15 degrees rule.

   The steering range of the front forks must not exceed a 15 degree turn both left and right and steering must be restricted from turning any further than the specified allowance.   This is for safety reasons as excessive turning angles, particularly at speed could contribute to a riders loss of control of his or her motorbike resulting in a crash.

   In calculating the margin, we used a measured disc (plastic filler tin lid) with a guidance pin (some straight wire) to measure this out and then cut and welded two restriction brackets onto the front of the frame to ensure a simple and obvious compliance to the regulation.   This will make it easy for an event scrutineer to see what has been done to comply with requirements.    Simple problems are often best addressed with simple solutions.

         A steering damper has also been added to assist in the control and stability of steering.

Parts of the Sum.

. . . all things created are the embodiment of a process.     This process can be of many parts cumulating into one creation, and this is exactly the situation with any motorcycle, the parts being the the designers ideas and drawings, the metals, alloys, rubber, glass and plastics, in fact everything that is a raw material contributing to the product.     Engineers and technicians, often experienced professional people create the shapes which suit the function of individual parts from castings to bolts to sprockets which are brought together in a final purposeful entity,  a motorcycle.

The vast majority of motorbikes are mass-produced in factories on assembly lines, many now partially or fully automated and we see such machines competing at Bonneville Speed Week and doing well.  They have a participation class of their own.

My bike is in another class, that of special production as the individual components making up my machine are bought as 'separates' or manufactured by team members.      

Both Richard and Chris are experts at own-fabricating and as I am not ready to show the whole bike yet, I will introduce to you two individual components made by Team members and ideally suited to the function of Speed on Salt !

 . . .  this fibreglass cowl seat has been made by Richard who has decades of experience in working with fibreglass in relation to time-trials bikes.   The material is light, strong and very easily moulded prior to hardening and he has done a magnificent job in contouring the seat to fit the frame of the bike.    As with most difficult to do things, Richard makes it all look so easy,   it's not,  and takes considerable time and patience.





. . . Chris has selected aluminium to fabricate
the battery box for the bike,   this is a strong yet light metal which provides protection and containment for the battery within the frame whilst minimising additional weight on the bike.   Welding aluminium is hard to do but fortunately Chris is a highly experienced welder with knowledge of how metals behave and react to heat and how they fuse under a welding torch.   Watching Chris at work is seeing a master craftsman with a considerable level of skill tackle challenges with ease.



I will introduce more components as time progresses and will explain what considerations are involved in preparation for Bonneville.

Losing is gaining !

 . . . it will seem quite obvious to a physicist that E = mc2, however just how much weight should I lose to be at an optimum weight for my Bonneville bikes best (fastest) performance.
The bike can only produce energy (E) to a finite level which translates from internal combustion through the engine, then gear box, then chain and sprockets and finishing at the base of the back wheel through to a semi-static salt surface.
the speed achievable (c2) is therefore less the greater the volume of mass, (excluding drag factors).

So we start with E = mc²   

which on introduction of pressure and volume is 
M =

E₀ + pV₀/c²

In terms of relativistic energy the equation is       which basically means,   despite other contributory factors,  I need to loses some weight to go a little bit faster.

The real skill with this is to avoid diets at all costs, they don't work because bodies adapt to food restriction and go into 'preservation' mode of lethargy and cravings.

'Nutritional adjustment' is a far better policy with a collective of simple annoying processes replacing the outright anxiety of a traditional diet.

Nutritional adjustment strategies are -

1.  Eat sensible, nutritious meals and use a slightly smaller plate to eat the meals off so as to fractionally reduce portion size.

2. Cut out bread (savoury cake) sweets, chocolate, beer and wine which all contain non-productive calories.

3.  Do fifteen minutes of intense aerobic exercise every second morning before breakfast stimulate metabolism.

4. Imagine going faster weighing less,   think about it when tempted to cheat with sweets.

5. Drink green tea with lemon and a little honey.

6. On one day a week have a bottle of beer as a reward,    . . .  but two beers are a failure.

7. Think thin,  looking great tastes good all the time.

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