Electric Speedway

[iris123]

All seemed to go quiet after Egon Müllers failed attempt to get e-speedway going

Now it seems Denmark might be the first country to have an e-Speedway league ? From a worldwide firm with a base in Denmark

https://www.boosted.dk/bliver-danmark-foerste-land-i-verden-koerer-speedway-paa-stroem/

https://switchmotorcycles.com/about/

Edited September 5, 2021 by iris123

[KIRKYLANE]

Worth a try

[bluebee]

How do they simulate the methanol smell? I can see that they can have the sounds of GMs and Jawas played over the tannoy as they go round  but what about the smell.? Can't see it catching on watching silent scooters go round and round with only the odour of overdone burgers and fries wafting through the air. Or am I missing something here?

[Ray Stadia]

43 minutes ago, bluebee said:

How do they simulate the methanol smell? I can see that they can have the sounds of GMs and Jawas played over the tannoy as they go round  but what about the smell.? Can't see it catching on watching silent scooters go round and round with only the odour of overdone burgers and fries wafting through the air. Or am I missing something here?

The smell is from the castor oil, not much smell from methanol. However, many are using synthetic oil, so the smell is disappearing. Funnily enough, burger vans, smell a bit like burning castor oil! 

[bluebee]

Well Ray that's what's wrong with modern speedway - the smell has gone! There's a thread about reinventing speedway and the solution is staring us in the face - or wafting up our noses. Or rather not wafting.  Bring back castor oil,  take it from mothers' spoons. A good dose of castor oil made many of us what we are today and would reinvigorate the younger generation and speedway.

Edited September 5, 2021 by bluebee

[IainB]

Will it mean half hour breaks between each race as we wait for the bikes to re-charge? And bikes running out of charge after 3-laps, rider range anxiety 

[mikebv]

26 minutes ago, iainb said:

Will it mean half hour breaks between each race as we wait for the bikes to re-charge? And bikes running out of charge after 3-laps, rider range anxiety 

Every meeting will have to be at Plymouth...

Edit. Just thought the BSPL will no doubt have a cunning plan to ensure the large tracks can also host electric Speedway...

They will attach a huge extension lead to each bike and plug them in....

(Only using official extension leads endorsed by a former World Champion obviously)....

Edited September 6, 2021 by mikebv

[rusky]

Some of my friends in Sweden have recently been to a moto cross meeting that was entirely on electric bikes, and were very impressed. I specifically asked them about the lack of noise and they said that initially you missed it, but as the race developed it became less noticeable. The racing was equally as good as it was with IC bikes, and they feel that particular sport has a strong future. Could it be the same for speedway ?

[OveFundinFan]

Of course, most of us love the sound of a speedway bike, but local residents do not, and by extension that involves the councils, who give permits.  On that basis it’s got to be seriously considered as the future for any noisy sport.  F1 is very aware of noise and I sure if they are then others need to take note, after all, F1 would love to race city centres to gain even more prestige.  Is it the way to go? Apart from less noise, it would probably be less money to purchase and maintain the machines.

Edited September 6, 2021 by OveFundinFan

[Ray Stadia]

1 hour ago, OveFundinFan said:

Of course, most of us love the sound of a speedway bike, but local residents do not, and by extension that involves the councils, who give permits.  On that basis it’s got to be seriously considered as the future for any noisy sport.  F1 is very aware of noise and I sure if they are then others need to take note, after all, F1 would love to race city centres to gain even more prestige.  Is it the way to go? Apart from less noise, it would probably be less money to purchase and maintain the machines.

Formula E (battery racing cars) happened in London a couple of weekends ago. The track was part indoor and outdoor, using the ExCel centre. I watched a bit, but soon tired of it, but then, I can't watch formula one these days. Interestingly, Custom House is nearby, which was the home of West Ham Speedway. 

[IainB]

If the lack of noise is an excuse for track presenters to prattle on about nothing for even longer it's a resounding no from me!

[SPEEDY69]

E-speedway, no thanks.  Battery vehicles will soon disappear anyway once people realise that the batteries are much more environmentally bad than they'd have you believe at present.  Hydrogen engines may be one possibility for vehicles but piles of batteries dumped at sea/in the third world does not fill me with hope for e-vehicles.

[OveFundinFan]

It may well be in another 10-15 years time, if there is any speedway left in the uk, that it will have to be very much less quieter and less pollution. That’s the way the world is going.

[Humphrey Appleby]

3 hours ago, OveFundinFan said:

Of course, most of us love the sound of a speedway bike, but local residents do not, and by extension that involves the councils, who give permits.  On that basis it’s got to be seriously considered as the future for any noisy sport.  F1 is very aware of noise and I sure if they are then others need to take note, after all, F1 would love to race city centres to gain even more prestige.  Is it the way to go? Apart from less noise, it would probably be less money to purchase and maintain the machines.

The Dutch F1 GP was nearly prevented from happening because of a legal challenge on environmental grounds, and this sort of thing is only going to increase as the world moves to electric vehicles. Whether traditionalists like it or not, speedway is going to have to move to electric if it's still around in 10 years time, and possibly even before. 

I'd have thought speedway with its short races would be well suited to electric propulsion, and might even bring down the costs of engines and expensive tuners. 

[martinmauger]

4 hours ago, SPEEDY69 said:

E-speedway, no thanks.  Battery vehicles will soon disappear anyway once people realise that the batteries are much more environmentally bad than they'd have you believe at present.  Hydrogen engines may be one possibility for vehicles but piles of batteries dumped at sea/in the third world does not fill me with hope for e-vehicles.

This ^^.  I offered the same argument / viewpoint on a car forum and was 'shouted down'.  EVs, or electric vehicles, may, just may, be a future option in the mid to far future, but not 'the now'.  Ironically EVs could well be an option worth looking into for a 'formula' of speedway, 'E-Speedway' if you like, but as for common or garden EVs, no, not yet....

[SPEEDY69]

55 minutes ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

The Dutch F1 GP was nearly prevented from happening because of a legal challenge on environmental grounds, and this sort of thing is only going to increase as the world moves to electric vehicles. Whether traditionalists like it or not, speedway is going to have to move to electric if it's still around in 10 years time, and possibly even before. 

I'd have thought speedway with its short races would be well suited to electric propulsion, and might even bring down the costs of engines and expensive tuners. 

Methanol is much less environmentally damaging than petrol and filthy diesel.  Argument on that score surely lost with the vast increase in diesel vans & lorries that we have nowadays (who sees and exemption for commercial vehicles in the future?), a few speedway bikes is neither here nor there.  And don't get me started on aircraft .

Noise is also really annoying - 'local residents' who have chosen to move right next to a stadium.  Speedway is about half an hour of bike noise once a week at most tracks.  F1/road racing goes on for hours, sometimes over more than one day, which again is incomparable.  A lot of football stadia are in residential areas and they produce plenty of noise for a couple of hours for a large part of the year but good luck trying to curb that! 

[iris123]

1 hour ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

The Dutch F1 GP was nearly prevented from happening because of a legal challenge on environmental grounds, and this sort of thing is only going to increase as the world moves to electric vehicles. Whether traditionalists like it or not, speedway is going to have to move to electric if it's still around in 10 years time, and possibly even before. 

I'd have thought speedway with its short races would be well suited to electric propulsion, and might even bring down the costs of engines and expensive tuners. 

The move against noise pollution is getting stronger by the week it seems and isn't going to go away.

I posted on her possibly a year ago about some moves. Towns and cities banning loud motorbikes at the weekend. Now Paris has even gone to a 30kmh limit in most areas, and noise was one of the factors. It is getting hard for private people, so a recreational sport will find itself under even more pressure and especially one that is only watched by a small strange section of society has no real pressure working in its favour

You could say it is even less necessary in Denmark as most of their tracks, possibly all are outside residential areas. Often well away

Edited September 6, 2021 by iris123

[iris123]

Interesting football development

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/58463458

[Humphrey Appleby]

1 hour ago, SPEEDY69 said:

Methanol is much less environmentally damaging than petrol and filthy diesel.  Argument on that score surely lost with the vast increase in diesel vans & lorries that we have nowadays (who sees and exemption for commercial vehicles in the future?), a few speedway bikes is neither here nor there.  And don't get me started on aircraft .

It doesn't really matter what the rights and wrongs are. Noisy combustion engines using carbon-based fuel are going to get outlawed sooner or later, regardless of whether there a few or many.

I'd think things like heritage railways are also going to come under scrutiny, even if they can still get hold of coal. There's probably going to be a market for old London Underground trains in future.. 

Quote

Noise is also really annoying - 'local residents' who have chosen to move right next to a stadium.  Speedway is about half an hour of bike noise once a week at most tracks.  F1/road racing goes on for hours, sometimes over more than one day, which again is incomparable.  A lot of football stadia are in residential areas and they produce plenty of noise for a couple of hours for a large part of the year but good luck trying to curb that! 

Again, it doesn't really matter whether they're justified or not - complain they will and use every spurious argument. It will be harder to counter the noise argument if much quieter engines are available. 

Edited September 6, 2021 by Humphrey Appleby

[The Dog]

Didn't Robert Lambert try one a few years ago and quite enjoyed it. He said that the power was the same but strange being quiet because you couldn't tell what the bike doing regarding spinning, bogging down, wrong sprockets etc because a lot of that is figured out through noise as well as feel...