FLF6 Mass Race - Data Analysis

Please feel free to leave a comment below. All additional data and feedback is welcome!

Congrats to all the riders! This post is mainly just to focus on VESC thermals, but I included a couple notable shout outs to non-VESC riders at the end.

The mass start race was awesome for several reasons, one of those being that several of the riders recorded their ride data and I was able to take the data and compare it.

There is a lot of interesting data that has been left out of this summary because I mainly was trying to focus on thermals.

I have been working to get a VESC based board that a heavier rider could compete in an endurance style race without overheating. We just barely accomplished this as Tyler's motor temps nearly hit the ceiling right near the end.  

I took a comparison of 3 riders of different weights and included the details of their builds.

Here you can have a look at the data InfoGraphic:

Additional Details/Data:

• The beginning of the race data was trimmed by a few seconds to get all the data to line up. Nico's recording started a few seconds delayed for some reason.
• Tyler's GPS data glitched, but all the other VESC stats were recorded.
• All 3 riders were riding Big Burris 11.5x7x6 tires on extended rails
• All 3 riders were using a Little FOCer 3.x controller from MakersPEV
• Nico came off board or came to a complete stop 1 time near the end of the race.
• Weston came off board or to a complete stop 8 times throughout the race. Mostly in the first half of the race.
• Tyler came off board or to a complete stop 4 times throughout the race. Mostly on the last lap with 1 occurence early on.
• SuperFlux already comes with some ferro fluid, but additional ArmorChilloz was added when bearings were swapped to SKFs on Tyler and Weston's builds.
• I was told that 9th overall place by Iain Searcy was actually someone else on a floatwheel.

Interesting Findings:

• Tyler at 235 lbs had a lower max motor temp (78c) on the SuperFlux than Nico at 105 lbs who hit (82c) on the FM HyperCore. Tyler's max motor temp was 77c at the end of the race and rose to 78c once stopped.
• Nico's highest motor temp was a spike directly after a bail near the end and it actually came back down a bit once he got moving again.
• Tyler started with higher MOSFET and Motor temps than both Nico and Weston, but he still managed an average motor temp less than Nico by 1 degree c. This is most likely due to his board being powered on longer before the race and possibly riding it around a bit. MOSFET and motor will idle their temp upward naturaly vs being powered off. If you zoom out on Tyler's data in the links below you can see his board was on for a while and he was riding it around a bit before the race.
• No water cooling is currently necessary for a heavier rider if they are willing to go with a much heavier build with more thermal mass.
• Tyler managed to hit the highest MOSFET temperature at 69c while using the ELM/AV box, but it appears the temp stabalized and the max temp was actually hit before the race ended.
• Weston at 165lbs managed to keep lower thermals than both Nico or Tyler due to running a similar build as Tyler, but having a much lower rider weight.
• As far as I know, Tyler was the only rider over 215 lbs to complete 5 laps.
• Had this race gone on for another lap or 2 there is a good chance both Nico and Tyler would have overheated, while Weston at 165lbs running nearly the same build as Tyler would have been able to continue for a bit longer. Nico on a similar build would probably run out of battery before thermals ever become an issue.

Notabable Non-VESC Riders:

• Congratulations to Jahfari who managed to finish first overall on a GT. I'm not certain of his actual weight or any mods he has on his board, but maybe someone can fill me in with the details. My best guess is that he weighed somewhere around 110-115 lbs during this race.
• Congratulations to Chris Ferret who managed to place 12 overall and first in the Clydesdale division on a GT with a weight of over 215 lbs. This is quite an accomplishment. I'm not sure of what motor heat mitigating mods he has installed on his GT, but I would assume he definitely has some mods to get this type of performance on a GT.

 METR ride recording Links:

• Nico's METR Recording
• Weston's METR Recording
• Tyler's METR Recording
  

* You cannot trust the top speeds listed on the METR page summary, it does not rule out wheel slip (free spin) occurences.