Isle of Man TT

[allstaruk08]

Yeah this years I watched the coverage on itv but there wasn't that much about them.

Jesus you can hear them bottoming out at bray hill on that video! I bet they're pretty hefty machine to throw about.

The best bikes are heavily modified and much lighter than stock, but still at least 360 lbs(WSBK's are this light, but only a couple of the TT bikes are that light and most will be in the neighborhood of 400 lbs pounds or so.)

i was on about the electric bikes with the weight i bet all the batteries and a electric motor weigh a good 600LB. Yeah it is crazy how much weight they shave off for the WSBK's im sure its close to 30kg for the suzuki.

[Gatecrasher]

i was on about the electric bikes with the weight i bet all the batteries and a electric motor weigh a good 600LB. Yeah it is crazy how much weight they shave off for the WSBK's im sure its close to 30kg for the suzuki.

The winning Motoczysz bike that Michael Rutter used was at Portland International Raceway yesterday and was taken out for a few laps during our lunchtime break. The bike looked incrediblly narrow and the battery packs are much smaller than the previous years. Also based on the mid corner spped and acceleration onto the main straight traction more than weight was the issue holding all that torque back. It is not published but looking at the bike I would be surprised if the actual weight was still 600lbs. The bike is seriously quick and battery technology will only get better each year as research dollars pour into laptops, phones and hybrid cars. Like it or not electrc cars and motorcycles will be in the future. I just hope they don't install speaker devices to make rumble sounds under the hood like VW have done with the GTI

[Gatecrasher]

After posting could not help but to google the bike. 200hp and 220Nm of torque =D>

http://green.autoblog.com/2012/06/02/mo ... ired-butt/

To my surprise the article actually lists the dry weight in the specs, 525lbs. Given that it does not need to carry gas, the bike is easilly well below the 600lbs mark as well as having the rear end of a non-celebrity based on the article.

[allstaruk08]

Haha yeah I quite like the noise of the electric motor. Them specs are impressive can only imagine what they will bring next year. Just read the uni in my town is building a moto 2 spec bike to race at the TT next year, but they need £30,000 from fund raising and sponsors to complete it. I think they're cutting it a bit short with build time and dialling in the bike ready for the TT .

[Gatecrasher]

$30k will get them a couple of motors, controller, a battery pack and a donor bike. The Motoczysz machine is a completely different animal. The front suspension looks like it cost more than that to develop never mind the rest of the bike.

Good luck to all the university teams as competition is what drives innovation. Sometimes brainpower can overcome cash, we see it all the time in F1, some of the innovations are more about out of the box thinking rather than just CAD or windtunnel time. Although Motoczysz is spending more than the current competition their budget is still tiny for what they are achieving, I hope they get a payout one day by landing a nice contract on their technology before the big companies roll in.

This is still racing on a budget with real engineering at the core, pushing boundaries with very limited rules. If you have the chance watch the movie "Charge", simply awesome.

[allstaruk08]

They're building a moto 2 spec bike so a Geo Technology engine based on the Honda 600cc CBR and regulated electronics. No production bike parts will be permitted for the frame, swing arm, fuel tank, seat and cowling, any suspension front and rear except electronic, they're not allowed carbon brakes due to cost cutting and loads of other stuff lol. just looked up motoczysz i'v seen them at the TT but i didnt really know about them they look like an impressive little company.

[strad]

Same guy that built his own Moto GP bike and engine isn't it?

[Pierce89]

Same guy that built his own Moto GP bike and engine isn't it?

Yeah, it had a crazy front suspension. It wasn't a fork at all. The motor was a V4 with twin counter rotating crankshafts.

[autogyro]

Hub center steering has always been better than forks, they just dont like the looks.
It is the same as using modern transmission technology like auto and semi auto button shifted units allowing for a complete improvement of the whole motorbike concept including ergonomics. It isnt 'hairy' enough for them.
Used hub center steering back in the 70's on this landspeed record bike.

[strad]

And it went like stink and handled like a dream if I recall.

[mzivtins]

I dont think hub-centre steering has been used for those reasons, we've seen it sparingly, most famously in the bimota tesi, beautiful bike:
old:


new:


The problem is conventional upside-down ohlins forks mount at the headstock, and allow the frame to be designed and shaped to give the best flex possible when a bike is on lean angles greater than 30degrees. If you add hub centre steering, you lose a lot of area to work with.

When the bike is on full tilt the frame and swingarm bend and twist, if these were 100% rigid, a bump would overload the tyre and put you on your arse.

This exact reason is why we find ducatis with beautiful frames, they are steel trellis frames, they dont need to be big as the steel is more rigid than aluminium (like the twin-spar japanese sports bikes) but the challenge is to design a steel trellis frame with the right flex in the right place, they aren't just randomly made.



Suzuki actually made a trellis like frame out of aluminium whilst incorporating the twin spars:


The swingarm is equally important in this respect, unless braced they will twist under load and cause accelerated wear.

So when looking at the entire handling package of a motorcycle, hub centre steering is a massive step backwards in todays motorcycles... they just wont handle as good at 45 degree lean angles as their standard counterparts.

just to beat this point death... the Bimota (the same guys who built the hub-centre tesi) made the SB8R... they wanted to use a full carbon fibre frame, but found it would be way too 'stiff' causing problems when racing... so they adopted this as a compromise:

[Tommy Cookers]

Hub center steering has always been better than forks, they just dont like the looks.

most hub centre steering (ie double sided) has not had correct steering geometry and/or a useful amount of lock
(because to get these wheel bearings of about 5" dia are needed)
the steering axis should (more or less) bisect the rolling radius (that's why forks have had offset since 1888)
(ask Ken Sprayson)
HCS is ok at Bonneville though

single-sided HC steering (Elf) had a good run in endurance and GP, but was never right (ask Ron Haslam) (geometry IMO)
pre-war the (different route to HCS), OEC duplex had the same fault, too much trail (for different reasons)
(and always wanted to only go straight)

current bank angles in MotoGP are at the limit of telescopic forks sliding action though(and don't work for Ducati ??)
(they wouldn't work for other makes without PTFE-loaded bushes and clever fluids)
these other makes have more problems at the rear ?

[MadMatt]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/motorsport/22684974

[Speng]

One word: sidecars! Awesomeness.

[SectorOne]

Marc Marquez looks to be running with a different set of physics,