BSSC’s Competition Vehicles students are in the midst of finalising their next generation of human-powered (HPV) and hybrid vehicles.
With only weeks before the Energy Breakthrough in Maryborough, the students are training hard—riding about 200 km per week as well as attending designated training sessions in the vehicles.
The eight girls who will be racing Gravity Doesn’t Get You High, named their vehicle in honour of one their teachers. “It’s his favourite saying when something falls over, Jess said.
While the vehicle is a renovation on one made earlier in the year, it has been completely stripped back and rebuilt.
“One of the new features for this vehicle is a removable booster seat so that shorter riders can still push comfortably,” Zoe explained.
The boys HPV team have constructed π Cost (as in ‘what’s a pie cost?’) from scratch.
“It features a full carbon fibre skin and lining,” Will said, “which has not been done for quite a while.”
π Cost also has a new innovation replacing the hinge of the door which Riley and Ash demonstrated.
“We’re using titanium pins instead of hinges so that the door slides off rather than folding upwards.”
Unlike the HPV teams, the hybrid team is mostly comprised of Year 11 students, who have named their vehicle Mechanical Doping—taking a dig at the doping scandals that have rocked the cycling world.
“Because a hybrid is a human powered vehicle with a motor in it,” Braidyn said with a grin. “This
Looks like BSSC is sending some very competitive teams to Energy Breakthrough in 2018.
Best of luck everyone—and have a great race!
