I need a favour from a willing Wee pilot...

[mjc506]

I'm looking for someone to do me a favour, and who owns a Wee...

I'm trying to find/calculate how much drag the Wee has, so if anyone is willing to do the following:

Find a long straight flat road with no traffic. Preferably on a windless day, and a level road, but if not I'd need to know rough windspeed/gradient.

Riding at a constant (highish) speed, then pull in the clutch, and coast to some (lowish) speed, while timing how long it takes to go from your high speed to your low speed.

If anyone could manage the above, and then report back with the two speeds and time that'd be greatly appreciated

[WeeStromer]

I can't do it tonight mate, but I can tomorrow if that's not too late? What speed would you like?

[ziggy]

I'm looking for someone to do me a favour, and who owns a Wee...

I'm trying to find/calculate how much drag the Wee has, so if anyone is willing to do the following:

Find a long straight flat road with no traffic. Preferably on a windless day, and a level road, but if not I'd need to know rough windspeed/gradient.

Riding at a constant (highish) speed, then pull in the clutch, and coast to some (lowish) speed, while timing how long it takes to go from your high speed to your low speed.

If anyone could manage the above, and then report back with the two speeds and time that'd be greatly appreciated

This smacks of being very sad, why would you want to do this? How accurate could this be when you talk of highish and lowish speeds, what are they?

[blackops]

Have you been drinking mate!  

[Descolada]

You blokes need to take a look at what mjc506 has been trying to do over here; http://www.v-strom.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=18427.

He deserves the beer.

Is your ride back on the road mjc506?

[mjc506]

No rush, any time in the next couple weeks would be great, thanks (after that, I'm hoping I can do it myself...) Much appreciated for the offer, WeeStrommer

I'm guessing the highish speed could be ~60, lowish ~40, but so long as it's safe and fast enough not to fall over, I don't mind too much. I don't need millisecond accuracy, ~1sec would be fine (road surfaces also vary, as do individual bikes, I just need an approximation)

Descolada, no, it's still very much in many pieces  

[Descolada]

You realise this will very much be affected by the condition of the bike, the tyres fitted, whether the brakes are binding at all. etc, etc? To get an average you are going to need to get a larger sample size than 1. I will try and find a flat piece of road and get something for you.

Des

[mjc506]

yeah, it will, but I'm hoping the controller will be robust enough to take a decent range of conditions in its stride - It's got to handle hills, for example (the extra acceleration/deceleration due to gradient is easy to calculate though)

That said, the more the merrier Thanks!

[Descolada]

OK, so I gave this a try this morning. It was a pretty level bit of road but there was traffic so I had to watch that more than the speedo. Got to 60 and then coasted to 40 with the clutch in. Got around 25-30 seconds to drop to 40.

This is an AK9 ABS with a top box, the side mounts for the panniers have been removed. Just loaded with me today.

I have another bit of road in mind that I might try later on the way home. Will see what happens there.

Maybe I missed this in your original post. What 'controller' - what is it you are trying to test here?

[mjc506]

Thanks Descolada, much appreciated

Ah, this is primarily the cruise control/limiter that seems so popular (here) but should also be useful to the go-fast crowd, as it'll let me calculate the 'perfect' shift points. I must admit I didn't click on your link, I just assumed haha.

[Descolada]

Ah, I see. That makes this much clearer thanks.

What link?

[mjc506]

that one up there *points*

[Descolada]

Oh yup. Didn't look that far back. I will try the drag test (no comments please)    later and let you know.

[mjc506]

much appreciated

Ooh, would it be possible to do one including engine braking too? No problem if not I'd need to know the gear you were in too in that case

[WeeStromer]

Thanks for the excuse to go out for a blast. Here are the results;
60mph engine braking in 6th gear to 40mph took 8 seconds, regardless of how many times I tried it.
60mph, clutch in coasting to 40mph took between 15 & 18 seconds. There was a slight wind but nothing major.

Hope this helps a little mate.

[Descolada]

I ran the test again on the way home. 60Mph to 40Mph on a pretty straight road, coasting with the clutch in. Again as earlier in the day it was about 25 seconds from one to the other, repeated and got the same result. around 25 seconds.

Sorry, didn't see your updated request (engine braking) until now so no stats on that.

[mjc506]

Fantastic, thank you both very much

That data's consistent enough for me (though it might be worth checking if your brakes are binding WeeStrommer )

     

[WeeStromer]

Fantastic, thank you both very much

That data's consistent enough for me (though it might be worth checking if your brakes are binding WeeStrommer )

     

You're welcome. I look forward to the next pilot challenge.
my whole bike needs a service to be honest, but I just don't seem to have the time to do it, let alone ride it.

[Descolada]

.. (though it might be worth checking if your brakes are binding WeeStrommer)

Yeah, it might be worth noting that mine is probably in its optimum condition right now given that I recently had the rear end out, greased and cleaned the axle and washed out the rear brake caliper. It was a full chain and sprockets change.

Glad I could help.

[mjc506]

Good to get the full range then haha

I'm not sure if mine could be described as optimum condition...

So, what do you two drink, and where should I send it?