Five-time WorldSBK champion, Jonathan Rea, has signed a new multi-year contract with his current Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK squad. It’s rather unusual for any rider or team to commit for more than two years but if you’re as good as Rea (who took home the championship crown five years straight), your team would probably do the same to continue the fruitful relationship. (more…)
We’re all so caught up by horsepower figures that we usually overlook many other areas of performance. One very important principle regards weight, or the lack of it, to be more specific which leads to the saying, “light is right,” which also corresponds to power-to-weight ratio.
That’s what all the brow-ha-ha over the likes of the BMW S 1000 RR HP4 Race and Ducati Superleggera V4 lies.
In Newton’s Law of Motion, the lighter an object, the less force is required to make it change direction of motion. It’s all in the equation: F = ma where F is force, m is mass and a is acceleration. As such, force has a larger figure when mass is higher, acceleration being equal.
For the rider in you and I, it means that it’s easier to make a bike change directions, accelerate and decelerate.
But an even easier term to understand is “power-to-weight” ratio. It’s a simple math by dividing the engine’s horsepower to the bike’s weight. Let’s show you a few calculations so you can see for yourself.
Let’s take a generic 1000cc sportbike, as an example. Let’s say that the engine produces 200 hp and the bike weighs 180 kg.
So, 200 hp/ 180 kg = 1.11 hp/kg
Now, say you managed to drop some weight by swapping out the stock exhaust system with a lighter aftermarket item, shaving 15 kg in the process.
200 hp / 165 kg = 1.21 hp/kg
Now, you drop even more weight after dumping the rear passenger’s seat and the footpegs. Besides those, you removed the entire tailsection and install a tail-tidy. (Note here that we’re not encouring you to modify your bike!) You shaved another 8 kg in the process.
The power-to-weight ratio now is:
200 hp / 157 kg = 1.28 hp/kg
For comparison’s sake, let’s assume that you don’t want to swap anything out, thereby maintaining the bike’s stock weight of 180 kg. Instead, you look to push power higher by performing modifications to the ECU, injectors, etc., which nets you an extra 10 hp.
Thus,
210 hp / 180 kg = 1.16 hp/kg
That’s lower than if you had chucked out 10 kg of weight.
Let’s try to equal 1.28 hp/kg. To reach that ratio, you would’ve to modify the engine to produce:
1.28 X 180 kg = 256
Yup, your engine needs to produce a MotoGP-level 256 hp.
As you can see above, the easiest route to making you bike go faster is by lightening it. It’s also much cheaper because you can remove superfluous parts on your bike, compared to installing go-fast stuff such as ECU, exhaust system, injectors, valves, pistons, conrods besides engine work such as porting and flow. You might as well just buy a homologation special superbike!
Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, your bike will be much easier to ride with lower weight. It’ll accelerate quicker, while saving much more engine power and fuel in the process. It’ll take less distance to brake too, saving your energy and causes your fingers and arms to tire less.
To wrap up, there’s another saying: “Losing weight is free horsepower.”
The current conditions revolving around the COVID-19 pandemic are being handled as we speak but due to its highly infectious nature, all major events that usually pull in crowds by the thousands have to be either postponed or cancelled. The latest event to fall in this growing list is sadly INTERMOT 2020. (more…)
If you have ever felt turned on upon laying your eyes on a beautiful motorcycle, chances are that one of them is the 2020 Ducati Superleggera V4. Sexy in design, powerful in nature, and a symbol of extreme mechanical engineering, Ducati took the teasing to another level by posting up a video of how it’s made. Depending on how you react, it might be labelled as NSFW, ASMR, or one of those satisfying videos on the Internet. (more…)
The 2020 MotoGP calendar was recently announced with 13 confirmed races around Europe and the Petronas Yamaha SRT squad is eager to get some racing action happening in 2020. Both Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli are excited for their first race of the season which is scheduled to take place in the middle of August. (more…)
Week in week out (apart from 2020), we see pro riders in Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP battle it out: Leaning their bikes so far over that they drag their knee and elbow sliders on the track.
Then we head out to Karak Highway and see riders who clamber all over their bikes like MotoGP riders but are way slower than riders who ride so relaxed and upright. Or like that food delivery fellow who stuck his leg out while braking for corner, only to have the road grab his sneaker and fling that leg up and back so violently that I thought it was going to be ripped off (quite comical).
Should we ride like MotoGP riders? They’re the best riders in the world thus they must be doing something right, correct?
Not necessarily.
First and foremost, equipment.
Their bikes are fitted with so much high-end gear that you and I could never imagine having on our standard roadbikes. But more specifically, tyres and chassis.
Here’s a fact. Marc Marquez was the one who brought the elbow down technique to MotoGP. Why did he drag elbow? He first tried and then honed the technique when he was in Moto2, which he found was difficult to ride. Remember that the Moto2 “manufacturers” consist of frame makers, not the main manufacturers themselves.
Also, all MotoGP riders who raced against him have said that he doesn’t use as much lean angle in the class. It’s because the Honda RC213V isn’t a bike for the traditional long arc, high midcorner speed cornering style. Instead, Marquez unlocked it’s secrets by braking hard, dumping it in very near the apex, stand it up early and blast it out of corners.
Contrarily, the Yamaha YZR-M1 is low and long, built for the traditional long arc cornering style, which pays off in high midcorner speeds. This is why Jorge Lorenzo leans the bike to 62 degrees off vertical. The higher your midcorner speed, the further you have to lean for a given corner.
But it’s tyres and the bike’s chassis which allowed the riders to ride as such.
One great example was when Michelin took over from Bridgestone as the spec tyre supplier.
The Bridgestone has a very grippy front tyre. As such, riders could carry lots more speed into corners. Besides that, they could brake very late and hold lots more trail braking into corners.
It’s the opposite when Michelin first arrived: The rear tyre had so much more grip. Yamaha’s factory team test rider found out the hard way and crashed heavily in Turn 3 at the Sepang International Circuit (the fastest turn). Another test rider crashed at Turn 5 (downhill, sweeping left). The regular riders started complaining that the front tyre lacks grip.
Because of that, riders began braking harder when they were upright and used less trail braking.
Another example?
Jorge Lorenzo remarked that he never used the rear brake on the Yamaha but he had to do so on the Ducati to make the bike turn into corners and when in corners to make it hold the line.
The best things we can learn are the fundamentals of riding.
Watch closely how they squeeze the brakes instead of slamming down on it. How they trail brake into corners: The let the brake lever go progressively until full lean, followed immediately by rolling into the throttle (best guy to watch is Andrea Dovizioso). Study how the countersteer into corners: Watch closely as the push on the inside bar, while pulling on the one outside. Look at how they turn their heads to look through corners instead of keeping them in a straight line with the bike.
So, stop trying to lean way off the bike to pull the bike down into corners like Marquez. Note here that lean angle follows corner speed, not how much you pull.
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