Lightning riders

Warp Drive

Pictures and verbage by Eric Warp

The following pictures are construction details of the Warp Drive, my Lightning P-38 with 2mm Coroplast body, 4mm Coroplast cargo shelf, and bubble fairings created thanks to the WISIL guys being so damn smart (and being generous enough to post their construction secrets for the rest of us). My friend Gary Souza rode this bike to take third place in the Open Category in Eppie’s thegreatrace.org, a major northern California regional triathlon event held in late July.

Side view of Warp Drive, the Coroplast-clad P-38 that helped win third place in a field of 360 triathlon teams and over 100 individual entrants at Eppie’s Great Race (Sacramento, California) June 29.
	¾ view of Warp Drive. Two homemade bubble segments are topped with a Karl Abbe Zzipper fairing donated without permission from my wife’s Rotator Pursuit.
Detail of front fairing support I brazed together out of chromoly. It slips over front boom extension tube and 2 bolts hold it in place at the rear.
	Cargo shelf underside. This piece supports the weight of all my gear, and is zip tied to a standard cargo rack.
Cargo shelf top. The blue piece is to keep my Blackburn pack with my Camelbak from sliding back into the back of the fairing.
	Front fairing support. ¼″ chromo stays keep the vertical piece rigid in relation to the horizontal piece that slips over the front boom extension.
Front fairing support as it’s attached to the bike. I leave the door attached to the front fairing when it’s removed from the bike to make reassembly easier.
	The entire Coroplast fairing, except for the door, comes off with the snipping of about 10 zip ties. It reminds me of an insect shedding its exoskeleton.
Gary Souza (cyclist) and Phil (kayak pilot) with trophies. Gary passed pacelines of roadies (about 100 riders) like they were standing still for the entire 12.5 miles of the cycling portion of the triathlon, keeping a steady speed of about 30mph.
	Race standings. Gary’s team (#380) came in third. If you look at the other standings, you can see how far ahead they were — and this after their runner had a bad start and came in later than his training times. By the way, the first place finishers used a ringer for their runner, a guy they pulled from the Olympic trials being held at the time here in Sacramento.
Gary dismounting as the catchers try to figure out what it is they’re catching and where to hold it. Gary was the 17th rider in, out of a field of over 500. Right after this picture was taken, he ran across the American River pedestrian bridge and handed off to the kayak pilot.
	Gary Souza at the finish line, ready to whup open the door to the Warp Drive. He was relaxed and happy — wasn’t even breathing hard.

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