Team ZEUS debuts new electric motorbike at national race in Utah

Team ZEUS from the University of Calgary debuted their new electric motorbike, Zephyr, in competition for the first time over the Labour Day weekend. Team ZEUS, largely comprised of students from the Schulich School of Engineering, stripped a 2004 Suzuki GSXR 600 of its gasoline-burning parts and converted the bike to electric power. The motorbike now runs on batteries and can reach a top speed of 130 km/h, and has a range of 30 kilometres at racing speeds. 

On August 30-31, 2014, Team ZEUS took part in the eMotoRacing series in Tooele, Utah, a national zero-emissions motorcycle competition. Zephyr finished in sixth place out of seven on the Saturday and in fifth place out six on the Sunday. As the only university team to compete in this event, the team is very proud of the race results. "The goal for this race was to make a safe bike that was fun to ride," said Christine Hughes, President of Team ZEUS and a fourth-year mechanical engineering student. "Being able to accomplish that was a very exciting milestone for our club." 

“In doing this race, we learned a lot about managing our team, and sharing the workload,” said Annie Nguyen, VP Logistics of Team ZEUS and a second-year chemical engineering student. 

Team ZEUS was created as student club in 2011 and has made significant strides in a short amount of time. “The plan going forward is to work on a second generation electric motorbike this year while still improving Zephyr,” says Nguyen. "We have a lot of ideas that we are very excited to work on. This time around, we really want the emphasis to be on the learning experience of building the motorbike.”

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