The answer to age-old question: “How much does it weigh?” will be resolved this year thanks to two enthusiastic volunteers and their scales.
UPDATE: Read the weight results here
Jono Keene and Gerard Delarue will be weighing every human powered and energy efficient vehicle this year as teams make their way through scrutineering and Design and Construction on Thursday and Friday of the event. How many vehicles is that? Well, 251 at the time of writing.
After all, weight is often a key design criteria for schools as they aim to create a vehicle that represents an ‘energy breakthrough’.
Jono and Gerard approached us earlier in the year and we thought it was a great idea. We have weighed vehicles this way in the past, but not for about four years.
Jono had this to say about their experiment:
“We think that weighing the vehicles and providing feedback will:
- Help teams construct a more competitive vehicle in the future
- Give them an idea of where they fit in with the rest of the field
- provide facts where once there was only rumour!”
We also asked Jono to make some pre-event guesstimates on what he thought the outcomes might be… “I’m guessing the lightest HPV might be around 24 kg and the Heaviest EEV – I have absolutely no idea! There must have been vehicles close to 100kg?”
We will see: all of the weights will be posted on this website.
A bit about Jono and Gerard:
Jono and Gerard have been coming to the Energy Breakthrough since 2006, when they were part of the Woodleigh School’s HPV program. Their last year as a participant was in 2010, but they’ve stayed involved with the school, helping out with construction and at events.
Reader’s question: What do you think will be weights of the lightest and heaviest vehicles at this years event?
UPDATE: Read the weight results here
Share your guesses in the comments below…
We run up to 12 HPVs in the 24hour race in Maryborough Qld. Our lightest trike is 21kg and our heaviest is just over 40kgs. Interesting to note that our second lightest trike is the fully faired trike and the lightest has the same frame without most of the fairing. Construction materials vary from chromoly, aluminium and mild steel.
The Hybrid vehicles aren’t a light weight lot! Well at least not from Mater Christi!
Our petrol and battery powered EEV (Pink Spark) is definitely not light thanks to the batteries and I guess everyone will be able to see this with the weight results 🙂
well not long to go we can not wait. it going to be a great time
I think i may know a trike or 2 that came close to the 100kg’s mark 😛 One is in retirment now tho, while the other is with a new owner being rebuild 😮
Heaviest, Girton Grammar, The four wheeled tank if it returns. Lightest? Maybe a BGS Trike? Or one of the bought trikes from tri-sled or greenspeed? I’d like to say Fun Loving And Beautiful, But there will be a lot of light trikes there!