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Last year our college Team “ ASHWAMEDH” was trying its first attempt in all over India held competition “QBDC”.

QBDC stands for “Quad Bike Design Challenge” which is held for Mechanical and automobile students. These students from all over India participate to gain practical knowledge in their area of interest.

Competition consist of some static and some dynamic events. For any event there is a “Technical Inspection” which is done first by organizers who are experts in their respective fields. Technical Inspection is highly important as it gives license to Quads to run on tracks and participate in dynamic events. Inspection is done on the basis of rulebook provided 6-7 months before the competition.

Rulebook consist of requirements such as the vehicle’s wheelbase ,ground clearance ,chassis material ,quad length ,wheel’s type and various other details, according to which participants have to build the quad bike based on the instructions in the rulebook. Inspection is done for rider’s safety and to avoid an accident in the event area. No quad is allowed on track if it is unable to fulfill the minimum requirement mentioned in rulebook.

Last year our college team failed to complete the Brake Test due to some transportation issue which is necessary for the quad to race on tracks. The team tried its level best to bring the quad near the brake test track which was a great milestone for them. However they gained points in static events like cost report, CAE report, Design Evaluation, Sales Presentation which helped them to lift their rank amongst others.

There are famous lines in India “HARKAR JEETNE WALE KO BAAZIGAR KEHTE HE”. We had failed at that point last year. This year we incorporated the lessons learned and this year we tried to build it again but better. Journey started from the end of previous failure. We had fixed at the time of returning “APNEKO NEXT YEAR MACHANE KA HAI”. Then after 2-3 weeks team members gathered and started to build each and every requirement mentioned in the rulebook. We first start bending hollow pipes 2.5mm in width on CNC machines. We had our CAD model(Using SolidWorks ) ready with which we weld bended pipes and built reinforced chassis. It was necessity for us to build new transmission because chain drive was unable to capture the distance from engine sprocket to constant velocity shaft at the end. So one another shaft is introduced between them and from that to CV shaft at end is driven by strong belt. Two Aluminium blocks are used to hold the driven shaft firmly at given position. However maintaining both cv shaft/axle and wheel shaft from inner hub of rear wheels joined is being difficult for us due to improper wishbone lengths. Wishbone is just used to hold the wheels. Somehow we managed it. Now the big problem was there for us to pump brakes. Pumping brakes is not that easy if you don’t have a proper instruments for that process which will cost you in thousands. This process is being difficult because we are using two calipers on a single master cylinder(hand brake cylinder).This was very difficult work. Then we come to an end conclusion that hand brake will work on single caliper and foot brake with comparatively larger master cylinder will work on remaining 3 calipers, which was right decision for stopping vehicle in Brake test. Brake test consist of 40metres track. Quad have to gain a minimum 30kmph speed and should stop in last 5metres.From this criteria we are able to stop all four wheels at a time. Wiring work was not that hard, we did it in couple of days. Finding new sensors was bit difficult because we were using old Pulsar Bike wiring, who was not in production for a long time. Thus main parts are assembled and the quad was ready to run on tracks.

At the mid of January quad was ready and in working conditions but we were facing some issues of rear axle, overheating of engine and exhaust pipes, wire burning, attaining required speed. Our quad was weighted 250Kg,which was not remarkable by us at that time. We have to bring new tires which will result in improving traction of the quad. We all 25 members of the team were exhausted and were not able to raise that amount. College helped us by providing a fund from which we were able to manage both tires and some spare parts for competition.

We used Polypropylene Sheets to enhance the look of the quad by painting it and named the quad as “PEGASUS” someway related to Ashwamedh (Horse)..Blue paint is spread with the help of compressor. Spraying paint in inner part is being difficult so we disassembled the vehicle again and spray the combination of two colors viz. light green and dark blue. Thus we are ready to “MACHANE KE LIYE” for the competition.

This year we secured secured AIR-8th rank in the event. Our seniors very delighted.

Students from previous year were very happy watching our quad smashing through tracks and participating in each and every event.