Electric Speedway

[RS50 359]

13 hours ago, truthsayer said:

 

Speedway is perfect for electrification. Six minutes of running a night, no problem. If you want motorsports in the cities, you have to make it quiet.

Would we have delays after every false start,  while the riders re charge their battery, and a further delay should anyone have consecutive rides. 

[truthsayer 234]

1 hour ago, RS50 said:

Would we have delays after every false start,  while the riders re charge their battery, and a further delay should anyone have consecutive rides. 

No. For such short races there would be no such issues. The batteries would be so compact that arguably they'd be swappable and chargeable off bike.

A bike would have to run for a maximum of 10 minutes and this could be easily achieved using a battery weighing less than a regular speedway engine.

[f-s-p 832]

...and instead of releasing the starting gate, that button would unlock the the power unit in the bike, so no tapes needed.

[Humphrey Appleby 13,918]

2 hours ago, iainb said:

You only have to look at F1 to see the impact that sound has on Sport, the high revving V12,V10 & V8 engines were their trademark, so much so that they used the same sounds in their promotional videos long after the hybrid engines were introduced... If it doesn't sound fast it doesn't look fast to me. Although during the lockdown the TV companies overdubbed crowd noise at the Football matches to generate some atmosphere, perhaps that's what's needed in Speedway not just engine noise... but crowd noise as well 

It’s a matter of perception. If you’d only ever known quiet e-formulas, you wouldn’t miss the noise or smell.

To use the analogy of heritage railways, I don’t miss the soot, smoke and burning coal smell because I always travelled on electrified railways for as long as I can remember. I don’t particularly like the smell of coal either.

[Humphrey Appleby 13,918]

2 hours ago, SPEEDY69 said:

As for future investments, do you really think they're not looking at other technologies, with the money you pay them for their current vehicles?

Electric vehicles for road use are not yet entirely practical due to lack of range, the demand of lithium, and the battery disposal problem. But I’d think speedway would be well suited to it, and the battery issue would be almost insignificant with what, maybe under 2000 speedway motors in the whole world?

And where do old speedway engines currently go to die?

[bluebee 199]

Interesting to note that the country is opening a coal fired power plant because of gas  supply and price issues as well the inability of wind power to operate when a) wind speed is too low and b) wind speed is too high. And this is before the arrival of millions of electric vehicles to replace current petrol ones.. The car companies can invest in electricity but are governments investing in the electricity grid to cope with demand.  If we legislate only for electric vehicles there will clearly be fewer on the road - most people will be priced out of owning one. So the question will be how will supporters get to the stadiums to watch e-speedway bikes? I have to travel 40 miles to get to Leicester for my speedway fix. I suspect that a lot of others travel similar distances - or even more - to get theirs.

 

I suspect proposed legislation on electric only vehicles is merely virtue signalling at the moment. The politicians proposing it know they won't be in power if and when it happens so they will avoid any accountability for the chaos that it will cause.

 

As for lack of noise, look what happened when football was played in empty stadia. The broadcasters simulated the crowd noise. Noise is an important part of most of exciting spectacles .

I think the move in the direction of less carbon emissions will be sensibly slower than the zealots desire. How many people will vote to limit their freedom of movement - particularly when they have families.

[The Third Man 2,211]

3 minutes ago, bluebee said:

I think the move in the direction of less carbon emissions will be sensibly slower than the zealots desire. How many people will vote to limit their freedom of movement - particularly when they have families.

Different context, but this has been happening for the last 18 months without anyone voting for it

[Ray Stadia 1,064]

59 minutes ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

Electric vehicles for road use are not yet entirely practical due to lack of range, the demand of lithium, and the battery disposal problem. But I’d think speedway would be well suited to it, and the battery issue would be almost insignificant with what, maybe under 2000 speedway motors in the whole world?

And where do old speedway engines currently go to die?

In sheds or the back of the garage! 

[bluebee 199]

36 minutes ago, The Third Man said:

Different context, but this has been happening for the last 18 months without anyone voting for it

Indeed that is true. But will the eco zealots really convince us that the rate of climate change will require the suspension of democracy? If anything, I would think the pandemic has convinced most people that governmental control of the population is not something that we should accept without serious examination. and debate Can you see this country  acceptingresticting freedom of movement when the world's greatest polluters carry on as normal? 

Anyway, back to electric speedway bikes. Scalextric was never a consumer sport and never will be even if it is scaled up on motorbikes. We might have as e-scooter racing some day in supermarket car  parks across the country but I can't see it being a crowd puller on national scale - just something to attract the odd police presence in a rainbow paint job car.

[SPEEDY69 1,239]

The rate of change in the climate is undoubtedly increased by us humans and we're feeling it now with more extreme weather.  However, it is for Governments to do all they can to improve environmental impacts and reduce emissions etc. rather than put that onus on the general populous.  I understand our government is about to sign-off on a new oil field excavation in the North Sea, to burn for fuel rather than look for sustainable solutions.  Picking on private motorists whilst businesses utilise heavy-polluting vehicles (just how many diesel sucking vans are there in the UK now?!!) and air travel continues to pour out emissions high-up in the atmosphere seems pointless from an environmental perspective.  Where is the new transport solution because we knows roads are just getting more and more clogged.  As for speedway, if it becomes electric I won't be going, 'sounds' really boring and I'd rather it disappeared altogether so we can all just sit on our ars*s watching I'm a celebrity with all the other sheep. 

[iris123 20,912]

1 hour ago, bluebee said:

Indeed that is true. But will the eco zealots really convince us that the rate of climate change will require the suspension of democracy? If anything, I would think the pandemic has convinced most people that governmental control of the population is not something that we should accept without serious examination. and debate Can you see this country  acceptingresticting freedom of movement when the world's greatest polluters carry on as normal? 

Anyway, back to electric speedway bikes. Scalextric was never a consumer sport and never will be even if it is scaled up on motorbikes. We might have as e-scooter racing some day in supermarket car  parks across the country but I can't see it being a crowd puller on national scale - just something to attract the odd police presence in a rainbow paint job car.

It's not about being a crowd puller. I think the sport is in such a hole there isn't much chance of it finding a crowd puller. It is about surviving in the future. Emissions is just one problem that is on the agenda. And to most people it is the lesser problem. Noise is the big one if you want motorcycle sport in urban areas. If you are lucky to have a track in the middle of nowhere then good. But there is a major problem right there. That tracks way out don't attract many and have little chance to attract many. The bigger the population near a track the more chance you have to find fans and sponsors that are interested. Plus and a very important aspect mentioned by Vince, is that it opens up training opportunities which are needed

[bluebee 199]

I would not argue that humans do not impact on the climate but we must not be foolish enough to look at some of the so-called solutions as carbon neutral. Wind turbines for example  have a limited life span, require expensive  maintenance and their manufacture is  certainly not carbon neutral. They also work intermittently like solar and require large amounts of space. W

 

As for climate change that is not as simple as it is often presented. the biggest increase in temperature in the UK in recent times was in the 80's and early 90s. The increase appears to be slowing and that was the case well before the pandemic. In fact, there has not been noticeable changes due to less activity during the pandemic which may indicate that we have less impact that we appear to state,

hat has been clear is that the decrease in our carbon footprint as a nation has been largely been achieved by sending energy intensive processes like manufacturing abroad (just like our waste) to countries with lower environmental regulation. To put it crudely: 'we no longer crap in our own backyard but in somebody else's'.

My personal view is that we must travel in the right direction towards lesser emissions but not at the cost of the well- being of the population. A bigger killer in my lifetime has been poverty not climate change.

 

[Humphrey Appleby 13,918]

1 hour ago, bluebee said:

I would not argue that humans do not impact on the climate but we must not be foolish enough to look at some of the so-called solutions as carbon neutral. Wind turbines for example  have a limited life span, require expensive  maintenance and their manufacture is  certainly not carbon neutral. They also work intermittently like solar and require large amounts of space.

Coal fired power stations also have a limited lifespan, require expensive maintenance and are certainly not carbon neutral. It also requires mining that's damaging to both the environment and human health. 

1 hour ago, bluebee said:

As for climate change that is not as simple as it is often presented. the biggest increase in temperature in the UK in recent times was in the 80's and early 90s. The increase appears to be slowing and that was the case well before the pandemic. In fact, there has not been noticeable changes due to less activity during the pandemic which may indicate that we have less impact that we appear to state,

I'm actually somewhat sceptical about global warming in the sense of its underlying causes, and don't particularly think it'll be the disaster it's made out to be, But that doesn't change the fact that burning fossil fuels also impacts local air quality, causes respiratory diseases, and that you can reduce the amount you're using in favour of cleaner energy sources and more efficient products. 

Few would pretend that wind or solar are the whole or even most of the answer, and I'd have long gone down the nuclear path for always-on energy production. But it can go some of the way, and I don't think it's completely impractical that speedway could go completely electric tomorrow and charge up its bikes from these sources. 

1 hour ago, bluebee said:

hat has been clear is that the decrease in our carbon footprint as a nation has been largely been achieved by sending energy intensive processes like manufacturing abroad (just like our waste) to countries with lower environmental regulation. To put it crudely: 'we no longer crap in our own backyard but in somebody else's'.

But you can argue that manufacturing would have moved abroad anyway, and at some point the environmental issues will hit China as well. I don't see that generating 25% of the UK's energy through wind and solar has caused anyone to be poorer, nor lowered environmental standards.

The elephant in the room is that purely electric cars are just not up to the job beyond driving around town, but hydrogen fuel cells may fill that gap is there's sufficient incentive for manufactures and the buying public. 

[iris123 20,912]

It's also not unreasonable to think that some of these sources of energy that are in their relative infancy won't be improved considerably. Just like the combustion engine has over the decades

But the fact is, even as it stands it is obvious that electric powered bikes would be perfectly able to do a speedway meeting, if they can do MotoX

[bluebee 199]

1 hour ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

The elephant in the room is that purely electric cars are just not up to the job beyond driving around town, but hydrogen fuel cells may fill that gap is there's sufficient incentive for manufactures and the buying public.  

The elephant is the increased requirement on the National Grid which renewables will not meet. whatever the improvements in  the technology.  Not everything is scaleable or we would still have large ships driven by wind power.  Hydrogen is not that easy to manufacture. We can't go back to coal - it's too dirty. The only foreseeable answer is small scale reactors but the green lobby don't want that. They want us to reduce our carbon footprint. Think medieaval and you've got something close. As for manufacturing inevitable moving abroad why is that inevitable. The reason for its movement are: low taxes, lax regulatory regimes and of course lower energy costs. Cheap labour also helps but automation deals with that on the whole.  My point is that we need to think more seriously a and realistically bout energy production and not just think a  mass of turbines down the east coast (estimated at 25 miles deep to keep up with current demand)  is going to be the solution.

And I can't see electric bikes on shale. Why bother with the shale? It's dirty and dusty.