Mini motos’ electrifying return
The atmosphere was electrifying at Manfeild as the New Zealand Secondary Schools Mini Motos Grand Prix returned to Feilding, with a new clean, green electric bike class.
Freyberg High School’s Vanessa Wilson, 16, spent 15 weeks building one of the four prototype electric bikes entered in the new class, along with a 50cc mini bike, for her NCEA engineering class. Her teacher didn’t need to ask twice if she wanted to ride them in the grand prix on Tuesday and Wednesday.
‘‘I’m absolutely an adrenaline junkie, so [I said ‘hell, yeah’.]’’
But she had to watch her electric bike in the finals from the stands after she crashed her 50cc bike in a race on Tuesday.
The accelerator on Vanessa’s mini-bike got stuck wide open, and when she tried to slow down for a corner the brakes burned out. She crashed and was knocked out.
The brake pads were still glowing when she woke up, eight minutes later, to the ambulance crew checking her over, she said.
Vanessa said her helmet was studded with small stones and the visor broke off, but she walked away with a concussion and no other injuries.
‘‘It could’ve been a lot worse. But I’m on a few painkillers, so no more riding for me, for now.’’
Vanessa was one of nearly 200 competitors from 12 schools who came to Manawatu¯ from across the country.
Feilding High School student Liam Magaill, 15, started his electric bike in February with his engineering tutor, Roger Emmerson, who founded the minimoto competition 10 years ago.
Liam said they’d used the basic petrol bike design – but they widened the engine bay, and enlarged the frame to fit three 12-volt gel batteries.
The prototype’s performance was pretty close to the standard bikes. The electrics could accelerate much faster, but didn’t have the grunt to match petrol bikes’ top speeds, he said.
‘‘We all beat the petrol bikes off the line, every time. But after the first corner they’re all in front of us.’’
Emmerson said the experience was as interesting and new for the teachers as it was for the students building the bikes. Organisers hoped to expand the electric bike competition with bigger motors and heavier bike classes next year.
But there were still kinks to be worked out with the prototypes.
Liam had to sit out the second race while the Feilding bike’s batteries recharged, and the Freyberg bike’s motor tended to cut out during the first burst of acceleration and often needed a rolling restart.