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2007 was another successful racing campaign by the OIT Kinetic Racing Team. We competed at the World Championship race in Arcata as well as the Klamath Kinetic Challenge and Davinci Days in Corvallis.

In Arcata we had four bicycle racers for pilots. They were fast. The second day Lillian, one of our pilots, was sick so we continued with only three riders. In spite of being down one rider they were passing other sculptures right and left. They completed the course without incident bringing up our first Ace. "That Was Easy" also won second place in engineering, an award we are quite proud of.

At our home race in Klamath we were stopped by the mud. It was an ugly mud pit and only one vehicle was able to transit this obstacle. Otherwise the vehicle performed very well.

In Corvallis we did very well. We completed the course without incident receiving a Leo, our second in as many years. We also were awarded the "Wizards Choice" award.

We coordinated with two grade schools in painting the pontoons. Roosevelt and Conger were involved. There were few restrictions on the theme or colors so the results were very interesting. A Kinetic experience. Teaming with schools such as this will hopefully draw more students to engineering and to OIT.

We were able to participate in the 4th of July parade and were well received. While not a competition parades give us exposure for the Kinetic Racing Team, OIT, the Klamath Kinetic Challenge, and our sponsors.

All in all a very successful year.

ENGINEERING

Only two students were working on the sculpture in 2006-07. This limited the the extent of modifications but they were able to fix many of the problems which have plagued us for the last two years. Both being avid bicycle mechanics they prepared the sculpture well for the racing season.

Re-building two wheels was necessary. The rear wheels were rebuild during the racing season last year. It was thought these would be adequate. The front wheels however were old rims from the fist season. These were becoming quite dented and in need of replacement. An FEA analysis was done to verify the rear wheel retrofit and showed this design to be adequate.

We initially wanted to design a shift mechanism for the high/low gear box. After considerable investigation it was thought this would add more friction to the system than any gains to be made. Alternately an effort was initiated to put "freewheels" in the drive. Bicycle freewheels are already in the bicycle drive but the high/low gearing turns backwards during coasting. This causes problems with chain derailment and drag.

Roller and sprag clutches were investigated for the "freewheels". Adequate clutches were specified but found to be very expensive, $1300 each. For our budget one of these would be un-obtainable and we needed four. A design was drawn up to build "freewheels" but time was to short to build, install and test them.

During the Corvallis race we noticed that spoke breakage was still occurring on the rear wheels but not on the new front wheels. It was found that the base irrigation line wheels were of different make front and rear. The rear wheels had a shallower section that the new front wheels. The deeper section gives a much stronger rim. It is thought the more flexible rims are causing the spoke failures.

It was a very successful year, both for construction/learning and for racing.

STUDENTS