The Team Phoebus Story
By Andrew and Olivia Kwong

It all began one day in our advanced physics class, taught by Mr. Morrison who later became our coach. Each day Mr. Morrison would begin with announcements or some story about a giant corn weevil that had eaten "Little Timmy." On this particular day, Mr. Morrison was particularly peeved because someone in the counseling department had received a notice and hadn't gotten it to him until the day before. He passed it around the class and asked if there was anyone interested in working on it. It was, of course, the first pamphlet from the DOE/Crowder College about the inaugural Solar BikeRayce. A couple of people said that they were interested, but as we were all still a bit comatose (it was first hour), we couldn't muster enough hooplah to throw our class into one of our famous all-period tangents. Instead we learned about magnetic fields.

Later that day, after school had ended, I went up to the Science Loft and talked with Mr. Morrison about the serious possibility of entering the competition. We chatted for a few minutes and he said that he would write up an initial proposal, but that I needed to drum up some other students to commit to the project. Most people didn't think that the project would actually happen, but as I started writing letters and got some sponsorship things started moving along. Early support came from Michael Shin, Jon Marjamma, and Ry4an Brase (and many others that have since slipped my mind), all of whom stayed with us until the end. Once we picked up Shimano as a major sponsor, our team really started to grow. Jimmy Labit was also a big help as he put me in contact with Sharon and Bill Harris, who in turn brought in Mark Bacon/Lakin and Mike McLaughlin (who each brought their shops, Maplewood Cyclery and Sun & Ski Sports, respectively, into the project). Our bike came from Mike McLaughlin's basement - a trusty Schwinn Worldsport. The panels were very nicely donated by Suncraft, a small solar operation in South St. Louis, Missouri. We purchased the motor from Chronos in California and it was regeared by Heat Transfer Systems. After "bumping" into Monsanto repeatedly, Mr. Morrison found some financial support from Monsanto.

All these things came in a last minute rush and as parts and pieces arrived, we quickly threw things together over the course of a few long nights/days at the Harris' house, having almost taken up residence in their basement. Thanks to the pizza support team of Mrs. Smeltzer, our team remained well fed. Things really became official when Kate Pyatek designed the Team Phoebus logo, found a silk screener and sent out an order for full color t-shirts. Kate also hand embroidered a hat with the team logo for a little extra advertisement.

In the meantime, other members were busy training with Mr. "Huffin' Puffin'" Morrison, Jimmy "The Billy Goat" Labit, and the hills and streets of fair Ballwin. We practiced rider exchanges in the dark while being coached by the crazy neighbor and watched Adam Smeltzer have a near death experience during practice with a lightpost and a bush.

Things weren't always life in the fast lane, there was a lot of work done by everyone beyond just training in cycling techniques. A lot of times there was quite a bit of waiting involved, timing riders to look for improvement required waiting for them to return from their riding loops. There was also a lot of design work done on paper, as well as research on different battery types and general solar energy.

In an effort to advertise our team, we cut an enlarged version of the team logo out of colored contact paper and stuck it to the rear window of our minivan. We also stretched out the use of two packages of stick on letter to spell out the 20 team member names on one of the side windows. Sponsor stickers were also stuck on the side windows of the minivan.

For additional funding, the principal of Parkway South High School, Mr. Larson, allowed the team to sell sodas during break time at school. Basically volunteers from the team took the place of three soda machines by plunging their arms into freezing cold ice water to grab the sodas chilling inside and hawking them during various breaks. There was even a competition to see who could hold their arm in the icy water for the longest time which was won by John Haugen. The information was then put into a spreadsheet by Mike Shin (as pictured), so we could find out how much we made. All in all, the fund raiser did not make the team wealthy, but it did contribute some much needed funding as well as promote the cooperative team spirit.
The time came for us to go to the actual race. We left in a caravan of two cars and a minivan. We made quite a sight, as Ry4an happened to have a marker used for car windows which was used liberally.

The following are a couple of photos from the actual trip and race. For more details, try reading the Team Phoebus Race Journal.

This was our bike, the culmination of all the hard work of several weeks.
Of course, no bike entered into the race could be complete without a bell. We chose a stylish Mickey Mouse bell.
Naturally, no school student is happy without music. We neglected to bring speakers, but that was quickly fixed by temporarily borrowing the alarm clock speaker in the hotel room.
This is Mike Shin, one of our riders. He was the only one dedicated, brave or is it silly enough to shave his legs for the race.
Adam Smeltzer was another one of our riders. Although the dreadlocks weren't exactly the most aerodynamic thing, his riding speed didn't seem to suffer for them.
Andrew Kwong was the instigator of this whole project. We punished him by making him one of our riders. :)
No team is complete without the proper amount of fan support for the purpose of keeping up morale. From the smallest fan on up, we had a lot of support. Not only did their families give up their students, husbands, and wives when they were working on the bike team, but many of them accompanied us to the race or met us there to cheer us on. We're very thankful for all the support that was given by everyone.
The half mile sprint determined the riders' starting, or pole, positions. Andrew rode the sprint for our team and won the best starting position for us by riding at a blazing 26.19 miles per an hour.

Ready, Set, Go!
This is Mike, hanging out before it was his turn to ride. Due to technical difficulties, we were not able to use our motor for the first couple of laps. Because both Adam and Andrew ran into the same problem, Mike was pretty worried about running into the same trouble. However, to his credit he stayed calm and was the first of our riders to overcome the difficulty, boosting morale and giving us a more optimistic outlook. After that, hard work brought us back to earn second place in the race.

The team after the race.
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If you'd like to add more to this story, send your suggestions via e-mail to ophey@xammit.com

These pages are dedicated to the past, present and future members of the Parkway South High School BikeRayce Team. Compiled and designed by Olivia Kwong. If you would like to link your page to ours, please take a look at the information at the end of the Links Page.