Craig Vetter's orignal purpose for selling the Windjammer fairings for Goldwings in the 1970s was to make the motorcycle both more aerodynamic and comfortable. Motorcycles are about as aerodynamic as bricks (yes, that's a cliche'), so very often they don't get much better mileage than a car. (Since most motorcycles engines/transmissions are optimized for power, motorcycles very often get worse mileage than cars.)
Since the 70s, motorcycles have only gotten heavier, in the same way that each revision of a particular car model is larger and heavier than the one that preceeded it. (This is why Honda now makes the "Fit" and Nissan, the "Versa": The Civic and Sentra are no longer subcompacts.)
The original Goldwing weighed about 650 lbs, which was huge for the time, but not uncommon now. It had a 999cc engine, again, huge for the time. The current Goldwing has an 1832cc engine and weighs about 900 lbs. Kawasaki and Triumph make motorcycle engines that are over 2 liters.
Because of this trend (and also because the manufacturers started making their own fairings, I'm sure), Mr. Vetter has become an idealist about aerodynamics. His current goal is to build a vehicle that will get 100 mpg at 70 mph, into a 30 mph headwind, and be able to carry four bags of groceries. He recently conducted a competition based on this goal.
His latest competition saw 5 vehicles, including Craig's streamliner, make a trip up the California coast. He wasn't too strict with the rules, however, as two of the five compitetors could not have carried the groceries. He determined the winner based on cost, which meant the highest mpg vehicle, a diesel, didn't win, because gasoline is currently cheaper than diesel.
The 125 mile trip from San Luis Obispo to Salinas saw fuel costs in the $4.50 range. (The stock Suzuki DRZ in the competition really didn't expect to win, and indeed had the highest cost at $8.49 and lowest mileage. The rider was simply there for the experience.) Vetter's own machine, a Helix scooter with a streamliner body, DNF'd when a fabricated gear shaft for the modified CVT broke.
Vetter has been expecting an engine in the 250cc range to work best, based on his calculations of the horsepower necessary to move a streamlined machine at the desired speeds. It's ironic, then, that the best fuel mileage was recorded by a traditionally styled motorcycle, one with a sport-style fairiing, but diesel powered. (This machine couldn't carry the groceries, however.) This Hayes Diesel motorcycle has a 670cc engine. Hayes already builds military motorcycles based on the Kawasaki KLR 650, because the Army wants one fuel for all vehicles in the battlefield and gasoline won't do. The civilian version in the competition will soon be on the market.
The result of this competition tells me that perhaps diesel is the best path toward fuel efficiency. The gasoline engined vehicles, even with far superior aerodynamics, got from 80 to 82 mpg, and the not-so-aerodynamic diesel, with an engine 2.5 times as large, got 89 mpg. Perhaps Mr. Vetter needs to put a diesel engine in his streamliner to see what it can do.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
What Would It Take To Successfully Sell an Electric Car?
From Smart Planet, CEO Kevin Czinger, of CODA Automotive, explains what he believes it will take for the average consumer to want to buy an all-electric vehicle.
His main point is that the car must have enough range for an "aggressive" driver to use it all day without having to worry about their range. To me, this means that a person who makes "jackrabbit starts" and drives at or slightly above the speed limit should be able to get to work and back home, including whatever stops or detours they might occasionally have to make (grocery store, dinner, etc.). He wisely indicates that it must be able to make this trip in all seasons. After all, the air conditioner uses a lot of energy, and in an electric car the heater is going to drain the batteries substantially, as well.
But I would go a step further. Perhaps 98% of the time I drive my commuter-car simply to work and back home, and most stops (for dinner or groceries) tend to be not far out of the way. But there are occasions when I may have to make an out-of-the-way excursion. My drive is 36 miles each way, but if I need to make a trip up north of town for some reason, I could easily add 30 more miles. If I go to my brother's house, that's 20 miles further from my house, adding 40 miles to my round trip.
For me to buy an all-electric vehicle, it would have to have a 250 mile range under the worst conditions. With that vehicle I would normally only have to charge it every three days, and I would be able to handle most of the "unusual" days as well.
His main point is that the car must have enough range for an "aggressive" driver to use it all day without having to worry about their range. To me, this means that a person who makes "jackrabbit starts" and drives at or slightly above the speed limit should be able to get to work and back home, including whatever stops or detours they might occasionally have to make (grocery store, dinner, etc.). He wisely indicates that it must be able to make this trip in all seasons. After all, the air conditioner uses a lot of energy, and in an electric car the heater is going to drain the batteries substantially, as well.
But I would go a step further. Perhaps 98% of the time I drive my commuter-car simply to work and back home, and most stops (for dinner or groceries) tend to be not far out of the way. But there are occasions when I may have to make an out-of-the-way excursion. My drive is 36 miles each way, but if I need to make a trip up north of town for some reason, I could easily add 30 more miles. If I go to my brother's house, that's 20 miles further from my house, adding 40 miles to my round trip.
For me to buy an all-electric vehicle, it would have to have a 250 mile range under the worst conditions. With that vehicle I would normally only have to charge it every three days, and I would be able to handle most of the "unusual" days as well.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Real Time Traffic Info, or Ahead of Time?
I've talked about commuting tools such as online traffic information, and GPS with traffic. It seems there's potential improvement ahead.
Right now, if my GPS determines that there's "severe traffic ahead" (and I'm quoting the GPS voice), it recalculates the route. The New Jersey Turnpike Authority has purchased a system that predicts the traffic backups before they happen. Now there's something useful, if you can get people to pay attention to it! Suppose when you leave the house, you check the traffic map and all appears to be okay. You may still get stuck, not just because of a wreck, but because the traffic load caused a slowdown. If the traffic system can predict this, then people can choose an alternate route, either avoiding the slowdown, or maybe (if enough people pay attention) preventing the traffic jam.
Unfortunately, people don't necessarily pay that much attention, or don't alter their route. When this story appeared on Smart Planet, one commenter mentioned an 18 mile backup on I-495 in Massachusetts that morning at 8 a.m., where people had been warned at 6:30 of a 5 mile backup because of a major accident. They chose that route anyway!
As for me, I'm learning. My usual route had a predicted 45 minute delay yesterday afternoon, and the normal alternate wasn't much better. I didn't follow the GPS instructions (it was too slow in picking up the delays, and I knew about them from checking the internet before I left), but I went a route that I learned through its suggestions, following surface streets past the delayed area. Saved myself at least 30 minutes!
Maybe I need a way to automatically start up the GPS about 15 minutes before I leave the office, so it will have all of the information it needs. Its problem is that it's collecting information as the radio-based system spits it out, so it takes awhile. Someday these things will be able to talk instead of just listen, and will send their destination to a server, which will already have the delay information and send back the best route. Even better, as the New Jersey system shows, it can suggest a route based on expected delays instead of just current conditions. Someday, but when?
Right now, if my GPS determines that there's "severe traffic ahead" (and I'm quoting the GPS voice), it recalculates the route. The New Jersey Turnpike Authority has purchased a system that predicts the traffic backups before they happen. Now there's something useful, if you can get people to pay attention to it! Suppose when you leave the house, you check the traffic map and all appears to be okay. You may still get stuck, not just because of a wreck, but because the traffic load caused a slowdown. If the traffic system can predict this, then people can choose an alternate route, either avoiding the slowdown, or maybe (if enough people pay attention) preventing the traffic jam.
Unfortunately, people don't necessarily pay that much attention, or don't alter their route. When this story appeared on Smart Planet, one commenter mentioned an 18 mile backup on I-495 in Massachusetts that morning at 8 a.m., where people had been warned at 6:30 of a 5 mile backup because of a major accident. They chose that route anyway!
As for me, I'm learning. My usual route had a predicted 45 minute delay yesterday afternoon, and the normal alternate wasn't much better. I didn't follow the GPS instructions (it was too slow in picking up the delays, and I knew about them from checking the internet before I left), but I went a route that I learned through its suggestions, following surface streets past the delayed area. Saved myself at least 30 minutes!
Maybe I need a way to automatically start up the GPS about 15 minutes before I leave the office, so it will have all of the information it needs. Its problem is that it's collecting information as the radio-based system spits it out, so it takes awhile. Someday these things will be able to talk instead of just listen, and will send their destination to a server, which will already have the delay information and send back the best route. Even better, as the New Jersey system shows, it can suggest a route based on expected delays instead of just current conditions. Someday, but when?
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Economic Recovery Act
I can get through this. I know I can.
Living east of Houston, where fewer people want to live, has been a blessing as far as commuting. I've been making this drive for 16 years now, and although I've had to endure some amount of construction over the years on I-10 East, it has been less than, say, the Southwest Freeway (U.S. 59), which has had some portion under construction continuously since the 80s. And I-10 East seems to be ahead of the game, where the number of lanes is always ahead of need. (Side note: This conflicts with the claim of anti-freeway people, who insist that wider freeways lead to larger suburbs. The fastest growing areas have had worse traffic for years, and the freeways have always been behind in those areas.)
The Bush/Obama Economic Recovery Act has pumped a lot of money into transportation, and in Texas it's being used for "shovel ready" projects. This means that maintenance and construction projects that were already approved, but waiting on funding, have been accelerated. Projects that were once to be done sequentially are now being done concurrently.
I have one main route that I take to work (I-10 for almost 30 miles), but if there's a traffic problem, I can divert to the I-610 North Loop. Because of construction on the poorly designed downtown section of I-10, I've been taking the 610 option, but this was actually under construction first. Last week's traffic switch on 610 makes taking that route home almost always the worst choice, but in the morning, it still works better some days. But it's never good, because there are no shoulders in many places, and bottlenecks due to construction.
What is typically an easy 45 minute commute lengthened to around an hour, and I don't know when it's going to get better. Do you suppose anyone considered the negative impact of doing these projects at the same time? If they considered it, well, they decided it didn't matter.
Anyway, it'll get better soon. I really don't want to complain about road construction, because without these continual improvements, the commute would become unbearable.
Just hurry it up, would you!
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