The Bath Zero project all started because we wanted to do something fun and different, plus the TT is awesome!
We built the bike from scratch… and finished it the night before the TT
Convincing the Uni wasn’t the easiest but Tony Miles and Martyn Ould were on our side and helped make it a reality. We negotiated funding at the end of Year 3 so had just under 12 months to find the rest of the funding and build it. We built the bike from scratch: motor, batteries, inverter, chassis, subframe, aero, BMS etc for about £20k cash total (with a massive thanks to our first sponsors!) and finished it the night before the TT race with the team having pulled 3 weeks of all nighters!
We managed to get over to the TT then it crashed… Matt was a bit sore but fine, then we had to rebuild for MotoE. Although we didn’t get it done in time for one race in Zolder, we got it sorted it in time for Schleitz but forgot to take the 75mph limiter off (TT battery saving) and so we came last (oops). The next race was Assen, we where running a decent 3rd until the battery overheated and it stopped (note, nylon bolts aren’t a good thing to hold battery terminals together…)
Then we came home, rebuilt the battery, made some improvements and came 3rd in Portimaio, which was a massive effort from the team and also the guys in the incoming team that made a massive effort and came along and put in the hours to make it happen. All in all, lots of fun, but I would definitely recommend having the bike finished months before the race so you can do testing and setup before attending the event itself!
– Louis Flanagan