EURO PRIZE FOR BIKE BUILDING

THIS just in from Australian web site gizmag ( http://www.gizmag.com ): a challenge has been issued to university teams from around the world to design and build a high speed road-racing motorcycle from scratch, with an eye towards cost-effective production.

The contest is being organised by the Moto Engineering Foundation (MEF) - http://www.motostudent.com/. It supplies each team with a 125cc two-stroke engine, suspension, brakes, tyres, wheels and muffler. The challenge for the teams is to design a prototype around these components, with a hypothetical production run of 500bikes in mind. There is one stipulation: the projected manufacturing cost of the bikes cannot not exceed 4500 Euros ($5,654) per unit. Teams can use components other than those supplied, except for the engine.

The winner will be chosen at the Ciudad del Motor (Motor City) event in Aragón in October. First prize is 6000 Euros.

The Moto Engineering Foundation started the MotoStudent competition in Spain in 2008. It pitted teams of university students from Spanish and other European universities against each other, with an aim to eventual make it world-wide. The competition is similar to the Formula SAE competition in the USA, in which university student teams build open wheel race cars.