"...see, if you make them round, they work a whole lot better..."

Solar car wheels tend to be very light and will be very delicate. Getting tyres on and off is therefore a delicate operation. We have had help from Gary at Wheel Fit near Waterbeach (15mins drive away), and we went to get some instructions on how to do it ourselves…

Taking a tyre off

Levering the first bit of bead over the rim...

...and the next bit.

After about 50 degrees it should be possible to do the rest by hand.

Putting a tyre on

Putting the tyre soap on the bead all round on both sides.

Pushing the first bead over the rim.

Putting the tube in.

Pushing the second bead on.

This was a really useful trip. Before this, the combined efforts of Hannah, Lucy, Martin and Rich couldn’t get the tyre on. Now – a single member of CUER should be able to do it. Thanks guys!

- Charlie

The highly-awaited 'Angel of the South' was turning out to be a bit of a disappointment...

The team were very excited to get the new chassis back to the workshop today. It has taken shape amazingly quickly over the last week at Formet’s factory in St. Neots. The Aluminium space-frame structure weighs only 18kg – an improvement of 9kg from Affinity’s steel chassis. This puts the team on track to achieve a vehicle weight of around 174kg. Well done Charlie! Only…two-ish months behind schedule – surely a new record for speedy completion!

CUER's entry in the "Design a New Coca-Cola Can" contest was swiftly rejected.

The bearing fittings for one half of the motor have been completed and the team is preparing to assemble most of the structural components in the wheel section while its other half is modified to allow for adjustment.