Australian Electric Superbike
An Australian project to create an electric superbike is underway. You can help!
The Australian Electric Superbike Project
If you fancy yourself as a designer, here’s a chance to have your ideas brought to life. An Australian competition to design an electric powered superbike is underway. The winning design will be built, test ridden by Craig Lowndes, and then auctioned for charity.
Intercad, an Australian specialist 3D CAD/CAM technology distributor, has joined forces with Triple Eight Race Engineering to champion the Electric Superbike Project, a community-based initiative which brings together budding and experienced designers, engineers and manufacturers to create and build a completely unique motorbike.
To be road tested by Triple Eight driver Craig Lowndes, the winning design will be auctioned off with all proceeds going to Red Dust Role Models, a non-profit organisation seeking to improve the health and wellbeing of disadvantaged youth living in remote communities.
File Pic: Craig Lowndes 2009
Lowndes says the project is a great opportunity for designers and engineers in Australia and New Zealand.
Max Piper, CEO of Intercad, says the Electric Superbike Project is a chance for the Australian and New Zealand design, engineering and manufacturing communities to come together and create something for a worthy cause.
“It’s not often people have the opportunity to step outside their usual realm of expertise and be part of a larger project which challenges and extends their skills,” he says. “The Electric Superbike initiative is being managed by experienced Intercad engineers to ensure the bike is structurally sound, road tested and can be registered. .”
Entries are now open, with part one of the design phase, the frame design, kicking off the project. Entrants can submit a design in SolidWorks for any of the parts of the motorcycle – the frame, mechanics, electronics and batteries, fairing and styling, and accessories – or a complete design. To ensure safety in design, contestants are required to download a file with the structural parameters to create their own design.
The build phase will follow, then testing and, finally, the auction. At the end of each phase, a review team comprising Ian Drapier, Drawing Office Manager, Triple Eight Race Engineering; Julian Spencer, Product Manager, Intercad; and Rodney O’Conner, Application Engineer, Intercad, will judge the entries, with winners chosen on the creativity, build-ability, safety and weight of their designs.
Theelectricsuperbike.com.au website will cover the progress of the design from start to finish, with the opportunity for readers to comment and make suggestions as the motorbike evolves.
Get those crayons out!
