~ Auto Buzz ~: ESSAY: What’s Coming? Do you want the motorcycle of the future to be simpler or more complex?

Thursday, 14 May 2015

ESSAY: What’s Coming? Do you want the motorcycle of the future to be simpler or more complex?



Kawasaki H2 streetbike studio view Surely, motorcycle manufacturers have built prototypes to evaluate how best to build the bike of the future, and just as it is with today’s traditional motorcycles, packaging will be the key. We see automakers, facing tightening fuel consumption (US) and ever-lower carbon emissions (Europe) building usual-sized cars with smaller but turbocharged engines, driving through eight- and nine-speed transmissions that keep the powertrain on its fuel consumption “sweet spot” most of the time. Bike builders have not been given orders to cut fuel consumption or carbon production, so their only motivation to study such things is the need to be ready when regulatory bodies get around to us. This is called “contingency engineering,” and a lot of it is going on. Setting aside the big question of whether turbo engines can be made rideable as motorcycle powerplants, how would the package look? A 500cc twin would be compact, but it would need a Kawasaki H2-style pressurized intake airbox, insulated exhaust plumbing to the glowing turbo, and some kind of charge air cooler. Transforming the normally explosive turbo powerband into something more like the rideability of Ducati’s Diavel would require throttle-by-wire and an electric turbo-accelerating motor to hammer the usual turbo lag. Royal Enfield Continental GT studio side view That, in turn, would need a bigger alternator and battery. Instead of having a wastegate, the turbo-accelerating motor, operating as a generator, would use surplus exhaust energy to charge the battery. Also, the fewer the cylinders, the greater the need for a balance shaft. How big would this package be, and what would it cost? The manufacturers have a good idea. When it comes to extremes, F1 is already there with a formula that requires cars to recover braking energy for re-use in acceleration.  Could a flywheel-storage KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) be integrated into a motorcycle’s gearbox? Into its front wheel? Hybrid motorcycle, anyone, with a 75-pound battery, e-motor, and IGBT (insulated-gate, bipolar transistor) controller? I get this far and run out of interest, because I come to my senses. I hope the manufacturers do, too. The above is just bloating the parts count with systems that can waft the price of motorcycles more and more out of reach. The nature of the motorcycle is simplicity, and all these changes run directly opposite to that. Two wheels, an engine, and a place to sit. I like it. 2015 Yamaha SR400 static side view Kawasaki Ninja H2. Royal Enfield Continental GT. 2015 Yamaha SR400. BMW K1600GTL Exclusive.

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