September 04, 2008

Contact: Amy Hewes
College of Engineering
805-756-6402
ahewes@calpoly.edu

Cal Poly Senior Project Wins Unusual Bike Design and Race Contest

The Parker Hannifin Chainless Challenge is a bike race, with a difference.

The engineering student competitors design and build their own bicycles, which must meet criteria for reliability, manufacturability and cost effectiveness. But even more unusual, the motive power must be hydraulic, meaning no chain connection between the chainwheel and the freewheel cogs.

Held July 28-29 in Cleveland, Ohio, the Chainless Challenge is sponsored by Parker Hannifin, which manufactures motion control products. Cal Poly mechanical engineering students Ken Gagner, Ian Plaine, Dimitrii Pokrovskii and Shawn Optiz won the competition spring race, road races, and best paper; and, as the overall trophy winners, they also brought home a check for $13,500, which will be used to upgrade the Mechanical Engineering Department Controls Lab. Dr. Jim Widmann, faculty advisor to the team, also made the trip to Cleveland.

According to Parker spokesperson Mary Gannon, “Cal Poly's speeds topped 40 mph in the short drag race. The team finished the time trial in 1 hour, 17 minutes and 10 seconds, with University of California, Irvine, following behind at just 1 hour, 18 minutes, and 22 seconds. These times broke the record for the race; they are just half of the previous winner's times from 2007.”

“We built the bike as our senior project,” noted Cal Poly team member Ian Plaine. “We spent three months in design and it took three months to build. We built all the machine components ourselves in the machine shop on campus.”

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