Interest grows in Uckfield engineer's electric bike technology
Electric motorcycle designer Phil Edwards is on the verge of a breakthrough as the sporting world starts to take notice of the technology he is developing.
His Uckfield-based company Weald EVT started work last year on a drag racer aiming for a UK record in the Alternative Energy Racing event to be held at Santa Pod Raceway in May.
The dragster passed its first track test with flying colours last week and everything is on target for the attempt on the standing-start quarter-mile record.
But there are other projects in the pipeline too. The engineer has accepted a challenge from an Elite League speedway club to develop an electric speedway bike, he has joined forces with another designer to bring a recreational bike to market and he hopes to begin work on a track bike soon.
The dragster makes the most aggressive use of electric power, harnessing and unleashing it in an instant.
The other projects are all about taming that power and introducing subtleties tailored to different disciplines.
Weald EVT test rider Rob Moon, from Battle, who is pictured above on the dragster, says the power is there already to break records, strong, smooth and more impressive than the electric bike he achieved third place on in the 2010 TTX-GP British Championship, the first clean emissions Grand Prix.
“This is particularly exciting because both bikes share the same revolutionary Agni motor design,” said Rob.
Rob also races in the MRO Powerbike championship and he says that while not everyone appreciates the excitement of electric power it is only a matter of time before these machines will out-perform internal combustion powered machines.
Phil plans to patent his technology, which enhances the performance of competition bikes, and has just received the news that he has won an Innovation Voucher for £4,000 from the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) which will help him do that.
He is also pleased that a university is planning to take over the dragster after Santa Pod so that students can continue developing it.
Better than that a motor manufacturer has expressed interest in the electric speedway bike and a motorcycle dealer is interested in providing a rolling chassis for the track bike. Manufacture of the recreational bike is already under way.
Government energy minister Charles Hendry, who is also Wealden MP, visited Phil on Friday, March 25, to see his bikes and talk to him about developments.
They are pictured here.
Afterwards he said: “I was delighted to visit Weald EVT and to see the pioneering work that is being done right here, in the middle of Sussex.
“Phil is one of the people pushing forward the boundaries of electric vehicle technology and, as we so often see, the work done for racing machines becomes mainstream just a few years later.
“Phil’s understanding of the technology and his real personal commitment to make change happen, makes him a man to watch as the Green Growth agenda moves forward.”
Phil said: “I couldn’t be more pleased with the way things are going. It was very exciting to see the dragster in action last week and it is thrilling to have manufacturing interest in our projects.
“We are booked to take the bikes to a variety of events this summer and this will give us chance to spread the word about the advantages of electric technology. The future is looking good.”
In our picture below Phil chats to Rob as they prepare to test the drag racer.
See also:
Phil aims to build UK's fastest electric drag-racing bike
High profile speakers lined up for prestigious Uckfield meeting
Uckfield firms go the extra mile
(Added to site Wednesday, April 6th, 2011)
.jpg "Chance to raise planning queries with council officer in Uckfield")
