COVID-19 has affected all of us, from businesses to student projects. However, one of things that have come out from the lockdown's is the rapidly declining rate of pollution around the world and how much vehicles contribute to that. We are a group of students from the University of Warwick who are building the university's first electric motorcycle, which was initially targeted to race in July 2020! However, with the current global situation it's all taken a step back, but we won't let a global pandemic come between us and our goals. We still hope to be able to take our achievements to track later this year and demonstrate our achievements alongside other national and international teams here in the UK!

The Story

The project is the result of a conversation, an evening 'discussion' in the house of our Chief Engineer, Aman Surana - who emphasises on practical learning and want's to deliver similar learning opportunities to his peers from his work experience with one of the Asia's biggest custom bike shops, Rajputana Custom Motorcycles.

Aman, and a couple of his engineering friends conceptualised the project back in March 2019, however by the time it picked up and got University's blessing it was already August. Leaving us a little over 8 months to find funding, design, build and race our first bike - we were determined to do it! 30 students from across the university were recruited, a range of academics to guide us through this and a blank sheet of paper. We were ready!

Where are we now?

We have spent months analysing the data, creating tools to simulate vehicle behaviour which was not only useful to us in the short term, but were made keeping in mind that they will support the next generations of Warwick Moto team.

It's May now, nearly 9 months after we were given that blank sheet of paper. After numerous hurdles, long jumps, high jumps and other athletic events that involve jumping over objects; we are on the verge of completing the bike in the virtual world, validating our designs with the help of computer aided engineering. So that, when we are back in the workshop, it's only a matter of a month before our bike can hit the track!

Apart from WMG and HVM Catapult, we also sought industrial support from international companies such as Rajputana Custom Motorcycles, MUPO Race Suspension among others who gave form to our thoughts, and provided us with resources to take this dream to the last few hundred meters to the finish line.

We hear the crowd cheering, the finish line is in our sights but, we cannot reach it alone. We need that one final push, and seek your help to come across the other side!

How can you help?

Times are hard, the world is in a different situation. However, the future generation of innovators and the Warwick Moto team have their eyes set on the ball. The whole spirit of motorsport (and even competitive cycling) lies with marginal gains, and we would like to follow the same philosophy!

We may be able to crawl across the finish line right now, but we want to cross it with happy faces and make improvements where we can. Right now, we are making decisions driven by budget and not by what we can achieve, we need your help to be able to make our vast pool of innovative concepts into a reality. Every little bit you put forward, will take us a step closer to be able to stand on our feet again and sprint the last few hundred meters of our long journey; which we hope you chose to join!

Warwick Moto is not just a one-off project, it is the chance to inspire the future generation of innovators.

We will honour those who join us on this journey with a place on our website that is currently being designed. We will also give team merchandise to all donations over £100 and also extend an invitation to the biggest donation to see the bike in it's raw form, and on the track later this year!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/warwick.moto/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/warwickmotoracing/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/warwick-moto/