The Top Ender Magazine February March 2021 Edition

Saving at the Shops!
I was recently discussing with an
‘Engineering Buddy’ of mine, the
future of electric motorcycles. We
shared our opinions (based on our
obvious differences in emotional
bias) regarding noise and
environmental factors. For most, the
thought of an electric motorcycle
conjures up images of those “orange
open-hire scooters” that we often
see, loitering throughout our Capital
Cities. Most are ridden by tourists
who use the opportunity to release
their “inner child”, but quickly
discover that they really aren’t “allterrain
machines” or suitable for
“gutter jumping” in the Darwin
stormwater system. For most riders,
the lacklustre acceleration that these
machines provide has obviously
been engineered to cater for the
average person’s abilities.
Furthermore, the handling of these
‘motorbikes’ can only be described
as an unstable skateboard with a set
of handlebars and no suspension or
straight-line stability - they are slow
for a reason.
Now let’s compare this to some of
the well-known motorcycle brands
and their electric bike offerings:
Harley is currently producing its
“Live Wire”; with its 78 kilowatt,
(105 horsepower - in the old
language) electric motor, switched
to Sport Mode. It will propel its
Rider from 0 – 60 mph/100kmh in
around 3 seconds. To put that into
context, that is 0.4 secs slower than
a Ducati 1199 Panigalle, Kawasaki
Ninja H2, or BMW S1000RR. Not
much difference between them, but
the Live Wire will obviously lose out
in top speed as it is limited to 110
mph/177 km/h. This is more than
enough for most NT tourists to
manage on our sidewalks! If you like
four wheels, rather than two; picture
a 2020 Porsche Carrera S, racing the
Live Wire, side-by-side to 100km/h
and this is no slow Beetle. The
sidewalks won’t be the place to test
the Live Wire’s performance, but
let’s remember that comparison.
Some people seem to think that you
can get away with more on an
electric motorcycle because they are
quiet. The future of electric bikes is
something that the internal
combustion engine junkies will
begrudgingly have to deal with in
the next five to ten years. But, do
we know the science behind how
fast and slow things move, speed up
or slow down?
Enter my learned ‘Engineering
Buddy’. There are several
calculations every rider should
know. Let’s take our Live Wire for
example and look at acceleration,
assuming constant acceleration. The
Live Wire achieves: 0 – 3 seconds to
100 km/h,
Formula for Velocity:V = U + A/T
V = (velocity)
U = standing start from 0 km/h
A/T = acceleration/time: 100km/h,
which is 100000 metres/hr, divided by
60 divided by 60 = 27.7m/s divided
by 3.0 seconds = 9.25 metres per
second.
So, our Live Wire’s Velocity: V = 0
+ 9.25 = 9.25 m/sec2, which is
nearly 1.0 G of acceleration. As
identified in our earlier comparison,
the Ducati, H2 or BMW are
accelerating at over 1.0 G
acceleration.
Why is all of this physics so
important, you ask? Well,
acceleration is what we enjoy
about motorcycles and not every
affordable car will exceed the
acceleration of a Live Wire,
Kawasaki H2, BMW S1000RR or a
Ducati 1199. But, (and this is a ‘BIG-
BUT’), cars stop or decelerate
consistently faster than bikes under
average conditions. Why? Well there
is little the car driver has to do
other than depress and keep
pressing the brake pedal, allowing
the ABS to independently control
the deceleration of those four fat
tyres on the road surface. Some
steering correction may be required,
but the Driver does not have to
balance their car, proportion force
between a separate hand/foot
operated braking system and they
don’t need to panic. They don’t
panic because they have a
protective “cage” around them.
To brake a motorcycle at 1.0 G
deceleration, requires some skills
and practice to perfect. A driver of a
modern car can come to a complete
stop without too much effort. Keep
in mind that an elite Moto GP rider
and motorcycle can decelerate as
quickly as 1.8 G, compared to a
similarly skilled Formula 1 drivers at
5.7 G. They are both using state-ofthe-art
machines, but the resultant
weight-shift, centre of gravity
positions and down force varies for
each machine. These factors cause a
significant difference to their
stopping abilities. Now lastly, keep
in mind that the best braking you
did whilst learning to ride, was at
about 0.4 – 0.6 G rate of
deceleration. It's important to be
cognisant of these factors when
creating space between the car in
front (for example; a 3-second gap)
and accelerating at 1.0 G, because
stopping is much harder than
accelerating.
Safe riding,
GROM
One of the quickest ways to save money is to
look at how you plan meals and shop for
groceries.You may leave a little in the budget for
weekly takeaway meals, but there are some
simple ways to stretch your money further with
meal planning and online grocery shopping.
THE BENEFITS OF MEAL PLANNING
To create a successful meal plan, it’s important to only
consider meals that your household enjoy and think of ways to
get creative with items you already have at home. As most
households spend between $100-$200 per week on food, this
can be a significant area of spend leakage for the household
budget.
If you are not comfortable with setting up a complete
household budget, you could start by setting a simple goal to
reduce your grocery expenditure. A meal plan could include 3
meals per day or just nightly meals to help you stay organised.
Once you have worked out your meal plan, you can create a
structured shopping list to help you buy only what you need
for the week or fortnight. This reduces the likelihood of buying
additional meal options that may go to waste.
Meat is the most expensive ingredient when meal planning, so
it pays to split meat into smaller portion sizes and stretch it
further. For example; you could cut 1 or 2 chicken schnitzels
into portions for multiple chicken schnitzel wraps or use 1kg of
mince across 2 meals, instead of cooking additional leftovers
that often end up in the bin. Alternatively, when cooking
spaghetti, lasagne, pasta bake or tuna bake, it’s a clever strategy
to prepare a large batch that can be separated into meal
portions and frozen in foil containers from the supermarket.
Your ‘future self’ will thank you on busy nights when you can
take a home cooked meal from the freezer and leave it in the
oven to cook while you focus on the nightly routine.
Some good tips for meal planning; ensure that you look a day
ahead to ensure that you are thawing meat overnight and have
everything ready to go. It is also a great idea to chop
vegetables for a couple of meals and store in containers to
reduce your preparation time for each meal. Plan consecutive
meals that have similar ingredients to help you prepare
multiple meals at the same time (ie; diced capsicum for baked
potatoes, spaghetti and fried rice).
THE BENEFITS OF ONLINE GROCERY
SHOPPING
Online grocery shopping is the best way to save money at the
supermarket. Not only can you purchase straight from your
previous shopping list, but you can also order from the specials
list (half price, if possible) and stick to your allocated budget as
you “add to cart”. Always review your order before submitting
to see whether you have duplicated items or purchased
unnecessary ‘extras’. You could also keep an additional
shopping list of household items that can wait for a sale (50%
off), as this is often where the biggest savings are. A good tip
to reducing your grocery bill is to never shop when you are
hungry or short on time as you are more likely to purchase
extra items.
COST OF CONVENIENCE
If you are really wanting to save on your grocery bills, consider
the additional cost of convenient meal options. This is
especially true when you consider the difference between
homemade spaghetti ($10) and takeaway pizza ($40+). It
makes sense some nights to find a convenient solution,
however you can significantly reduce your food budget by
making most meals ‘from scratch’, preparing multiple meals in
bulk or choosing some convenient options for each meal (ie;
pasta packets) to reduce your cooking time when life is busy.
10 MEALS UNDER $10
Chicken drumsticks with mash and veggies
Spaghetti Bolognaise
Vegetable Lasagne
Fried rice with chicken and veg
Stuffed baked potatoes
Beef casserole or stroganoff
Honey mustard chicken with mash or rice
Tuna bake
Chicken schnitzel wraps
Beef stirfry
For many families, the cost of returning to school can be
financially demanding, including school uniforms, stationery,
fees and other costs. Here are some easy lunch snacks that are
budget-friendly:
FUN LUNCH SNACKS UNDER $1 PER SERVE
English muffin mini-pizzas
Popcorn
Fruit skewers
Savoury skewers (cheese, cabana, capsicum, cherry
tomato, pickle, cucumber)
Nachos
Vegemite or salami scrolls (puff pastry)
Mini fruit muffins
Chicken or beef meatballs
Cucumber and carrot sticks with dip
Yoghurt
Written by Deb Herring (CDDA)
Career Development Association of Australia
Top Ender Community Contributor
38 The Top Ender | Tri-Services Magazine Incorporated FEBRUARY/MARCH 2021 39