MotoGP Technology 3rd Edition

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MotoGP Technology ™

THIRD EDITION

Neil Spalding

“

Motorcycles look simple: just two wheels and an engine. But the reality is very different.

Roadbikes and MotoGP racebikes can be seen as very similar. Size-wise, they are not far apart.

But the roadbike isn’t expected to be able to go through a corner at more than 60 degrees of lean or exceed 210 mph on a regular basis.

Chassis

Chassis

If you have a good chassis the chances are you have a good racebike

Marc Marquez at full lean.

Once you understand the forces that the current lean angles are putting through the tyres you have to respect the job the tyres are doing.

CENTRE OF GRAVITY

400kg CENTRIFUGAL FORCE

230kg WEIGHT (FORCE OF GRAVITY)

60°

460kg

218 MotoGP Technology

MotoGP Technology 219

Chassis

Chassis

If you have a good chassis the chances are you have a good racebike

Marc Marquez at full lean.

Once you understand the forces that the current lean angles are putting through the tyres you have to respect the job the tyres are doing.

CENTRE OF GRAVITY

400kg CENTRIFUGAL FORCE

230kg WEIGHT (FORCE OF GRAVITY)

60°

460kg

218 MotoGP Technology

MotoGP Technology 219

Engines

I

Engines

Fast forwarding the future

RIGHT Yamaha’s final 800cc engine at Valencia in 2011.

BELOW Casey Stoner’s Ducati. The engine is definitely at the centre of the motorcycle.

t’s in the name. Motorcycle. And it’s very obvious that it makes this particular two wheeled vehicle very different from any others.

Cycling can be quite technical, but without the distortions introduced by an engine the physics of how everything works is relatively simple.

The addition of an engine makes everything far more difficult to understand. Many more forces are added to the equation once you have a ten-kg steel crankshaft spinning away at 16,000 rpm. The concept of ‘flying on the ground’ is an attempt to pin down the reactions and effects an engine adds to the two-wheeled experience.

The initial power plants in MotoGP were all normally aspirated and capped at 990cc, a seeming attempt to distance the new class from World Superbike, which used 1000cc engines at that time. In contrast to the then SBK custom of balancing the performance of twins and fours by using differing capacities, MotoGP has always used weight to balance different engine concepts. In line with this, several different engine configurations were allowed under the overall 990cc limit (including, at first, 500cc twostrokes). Minimum weights were based on the number of cylinders: three cylinders or less 135kg; four or five cylinders 145kg; six cylinders or more 155kg. No more than six gears were permitted.

However as the years have gone by the allowed engine designs have been ever more restricted, and minimum weights have increased.

For years the MSMA (Motorcycle Sports Manufacturers Association) set the technical rules for all the GP race classes. In MotoGP they deliberately reset the rules every five years, to stimulate development and to refresh the grid.

The move to 800s in 2007 was intended to reduce power levels, but all that happened was the revs went up and pneumatic valve systems were needed to keep the valve gear reliable.

After the financial crisis of 2008 however it

Yamaha’s 2017 M-1 engine is the latest in a line that can be traced directly back to 2005. An in-line 1000cc four-cylinder with four valves per cylinder, pneumatic valve springs and a bore no larger than 81mm. This engine has a reverse rotating crankshaft and a gear train to drive the cams up the back of the centre of the block. It also has a seamless shift gearbox in an integral case with its own oil supply.

180 MotoGP Technology

MotoGP Technology 181

Engines

I

Engines

Fast forwarding the future

RIGHT Yamaha’s final 800cc engine at Valencia in 2011.

BELOW Casey Stoner’s Ducati. The engine is definitely at the centre of the motorcycle.

t’s in the name. Motorcycle. And it’s very obvious that it makes this particular two wheeled vehicle very different from any others.

Cycling can be quite technical, but without the distortions introduced by an engine the physics of how everything works is relatively simple.

The addition of an engine makes everything far more difficult to understand. Many more forces are added to the equation once you have a ten-kg steel crankshaft spinning away at 16,000 rpm. The concept of ‘flying on the ground’ is an attempt to pin down the reactions and effects an engine adds to the two-wheeled experience.

The initial power plants in MotoGP were all normally aspirated and capped at 990cc, a seeming attempt to distance the new class from World Superbike, which used 1000cc engines at that time. In contrast to the then SBK custom of balancing the performance of twins and fours by using differing capacities, MotoGP has always used weight to balance different engine concepts. In line with this, several different engine configurations were allowed under the overall 990cc limit (including, at first, 500cc twostrokes). Minimum weights were based on the number of cylinders: three cylinders or less 135kg; four or five cylinders 145kg; six cylinders or more 155kg. No more than six gears were permitted.

However as the years have gone by the allowed engine designs have been ever more restricted, and minimum weights have increased.

For years the MSMA (Motorcycle Sports Manufacturers Association) set the technical rules for all the GP race classes. In MotoGP they deliberately reset the rules every five years, to stimulate development and to refresh the grid.

The move to 800s in 2007 was intended to reduce power levels, but all that happened was the revs went up and pneumatic valve systems were needed to keep the valve gear reliable.

After the financial crisis of 2008 however it

Yamaha’s 2017 M-1 engine is the latest in a line that can be traced directly back to 2005. An in-line 1000cc four-cylinder with four valves per cylinder, pneumatic valve springs and a bore no larger than 81mm. This engine has a reverse rotating crankshaft and a gear train to drive the cams up the back of the centre of the block. It also has a seamless shift gearbox in an integral case with its own oil supply.

180 MotoGP Technology

MotoGP Technology 181

Aerodynamics

I

Aerodynamics

were devised in response to the all-enveloping ‘dustbin’ fairings pioneered by NSU and MotoGuzzi in the mid-1950s. This bodywork, windtunnel developed, completely enclosed the front wheel and engine, and was carefully shaped to be affected as little as possible by cross-winds.

In the way of imitative racing fashions, many other such dustbins joined them on the grid, with less well-designed and engineered fairings. They were condemned for being too sensitive to crosswinds, as well as for being poorly mounted. The dustbin was deemed dangerous.

Amongst accusations of dirty dealing and sharp practice the FIM brought in new rules, which decreed that front wheels must remain uncovered. The factories that had developed efficient streamlining — advanced aerodynamics

© Clive Challinor

Wings arrived, looked like they were going away again and then came back. They still seem to be an acquired taste though…

n early 2015 a new technology sprouted from the front of most MotoGP motorcycles.

Wings. They were the outward evidence of a serious attempt to gain a competitive advantage.

During 2016 Ducati in particular pushed the limits of the current rules on aerodynamic assistance. Other factories followed suit, to a much lesser degree. By the end of that year, amongst much debate on safety, it appeared wings had been banned; but the 2017 rule book gave them one more chance, but this time the wings would be enclosed.

Why did they arrive; and what happened when they did?

The current rules on motorcycle bodywork and thence aerodynamics have been around, with just a few tweaks, since the late 1950s. They

had kept the lower-powered Moto Guzzi singles competitive for years — blamed those factories without access to wind tunnels for the changes.

They had come at a sensitive time: street bike sales were under attack from a new generation of cheap cars, and within a few years many factories withdrew from racing, citing rising costs and falling sales.

The new rules established the ‘look’ of race and sporting motorcycles that survives to this day: front wheel and suspension out in the wind, rider exposed from the side, along with at least half of the rear wheel. It is the fashion… how bikes are meant to look.

LEFT Jorge Lorenzo through Woodcote at Silverstone in 2017. Ducati’s second attempt at an Aero fairing provided maybe 40% of the down force of Ducati’s 2016 finest, and perhaps that is a good thing.

You can see the direction of the force — straight down through the centreline of the bike.

You might want the vertical component, but the horizontal component can be a pain.

284 MotoGP TECHNOLOGY

ABOVE The Moto Guzzi 500 V8 with its full ‘Dustbin’ fairing. The wind tunnel-developed Dustbin fairings were seriously efficient, but their less well-developed bretheren weren’t so stable.

LEFT Yamaha found the wind could put the brakes on…

MotoGP Technology 285

Aerodynamics

I

Aerodynamics

were devised in response to the all-enveloping ‘dustbin’ fairings pioneered by NSU and MotoGuzzi in the mid-1950s. This bodywork, windtunnel developed, completely enclosed the front wheel and engine, and was carefully shaped to be affected as little as possible by cross-winds.

In the way of imitative racing fashions, many other such dustbins joined them on the grid, with less well-designed and engineered fairings. They were condemned for being too sensitive to crosswinds, as well as for being poorly mounted. The dustbin was deemed dangerous.

Amongst accusations of dirty dealing and sharp practice the FIM brought in new rules, which decreed that front wheels must remain uncovered. The factories that had developed efficient streamlining — advanced aerodynamics

© Clive Challinor

Wings arrived, looked like they were going away again and then came back. They still seem to be an acquired taste though…

n early 2015 a new technology sprouted from the front of most MotoGP motorcycles.

Wings. They were the outward evidence of a serious attempt to gain a competitive advantage.

During 2016 Ducati in particular pushed the limits of the current rules on aerodynamic assistance. Other factories followed suit, to a much lesser degree. By the end of that year, amongst much debate on safety, it appeared wings had been banned; but the 2017 rule book gave them one more chance, but this time the wings would be enclosed.

Why did they arrive; and what happened when they did?

The current rules on motorcycle bodywork and thence aerodynamics have been around, with just a few tweaks, since the late 1950s. They

had kept the lower-powered Moto Guzzi singles competitive for years — blamed those factories without access to wind tunnels for the changes.

They had come at a sensitive time: street bike sales were under attack from a new generation of cheap cars, and within a few years many factories withdrew from racing, citing rising costs and falling sales.

The new rules established the ‘look’ of race and sporting motorcycles that survives to this day: front wheel and suspension out in the wind, rider exposed from the side, along with at least half of the rear wheel. It is the fashion… how bikes are meant to look.

LEFT Jorge Lorenzo through Woodcote at Silverstone in 2017. Ducati’s second attempt at an Aero fairing provided maybe 40% of the down force of Ducati’s 2016 finest, and perhaps that is a good thing.

You can see the direction of the force — straight down through the centreline of the bike.

You might want the vertical component, but the horizontal component can be a pain.

284 MotoGP TECHNOLOGY

ABOVE The Moto Guzzi 500 V8 with its full ‘Dustbin’ fairing. The wind tunnel-developed Dustbin fairings were seriously efficient, but their less well-developed bretheren weren’t so stable.

LEFT Yamaha found the wind could put the brakes on…

MotoGP Technology 285

Yamaha

Yamaha

The Mission One journey: through three capacity changes Yamaha’s MotoGP bike has always been at or near the front

Once Furusawa, Rossi and Burgess got the basics sorted the Yamaha has remained fully competitive.

It’s always changing, but it never really looks very different. The secret is in an effective and wellunderstood core design.

It’s a design where everything is focused on the handling — even the engine is specified as much for its handling effects as for its power output.

46 MotoGP Technology

MotoGP Technology 47

Yamaha

Yamaha

The Mission One journey: through three capacity changes Yamaha’s MotoGP bike has always been at or near the front

Once Furusawa, Rossi and Burgess got the basics sorted the Yamaha has remained fully competitive.

It’s always changing, but it never really looks very different. The secret is in an effective and wellunderstood core design.

It’s a design where everything is focused on the handling — even the engine is specified as much for its handling effects as for its power output.

46 MotoGP Technology

MotoGP Technology 47

“I went to work in MotoGP to try and understand how a racing motorcycle really works... I had spent the previous 30 years riding motorcycles, at first just on the road, then racing.. Every time I thought I had understood a particular aspect, something new happened that disproved my entire theory.

With MotoGP starting in 2002 I knew that the factories would have to develop new bikes. I wanted to be there while they did that, and I wanted to record the development of a whole new class of racing motorcycles.

They didn’t disappoint.. and along the way I have worked out how the game of Grand Prix motorcycling is really played... this is my book, the full history of these fantastic motorcycles and details of the secrets that let them go so unbelievably fast” - Neil Spalding

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I

f you want to understand what goes on under the skin of a racing motorcycle and what makes them work the way they do, there is no better starting point than MotoGP Technology.

MotoGP was created as the 21st-century pinnacle of motorcycle racing.

The intention was to create the most powerful and fastest motorcycles ever made, to develop the technologies needed to win, and to use those technologies to improve the motorcycles we see on the road every day.

The bikes are all prototypes, developed for one purpose, lapping the Grand Prix circuits of the world as fast as possible.

MotoGP commands the best factories, engineers and riders. There are now six factories on the grid. Each has its own views of how a winning bike should be designed.

The first paragon of MotoGP was Honda’s visionary five-cylinder RC211V. Then came Yamaha’s innovative response, made to celebrate their 50th anniversary with a MotoGP world championship.

These two giants have been joined at the top by the vivid red Italian Ducatis.

Suzuki and Aprilia are strong challengers.

And in 2017 the burgeoning KTM factory has joined the grid.

Each machine is individual. Each is aiming at the same goal.

This book provides new insight into the design of these racing motorcycles, including:

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MotoGP Technology

• A review of all the point-scoring bikes of the last decade • The technologies and skills they have had to master • How the dynamics of riding are translated into engineering

THIRD EDITION

• Analysis of the sophisticated electronics of racing • Examination of how riders like Rossi and Marquez require different technical responses

MotoGP Technology ™

03995 >

9 781999 885601

Neil Spalding

ISBN 9781999885601 £39.95 RRP

THIRD EDITION

Neil Spalding

ng

• 304 pages

HOP HOUSE DESIGN & ADVERTISING / TOP FLOOR / 18 CHURCH ROAD / TUNBRIDGE WELLS / KENT TN1 1JP 01892 547539 / e: studio@hophousedesign.co.uk

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CLIENT: PHOEBUS APOLLO PUBLISHING / PROJECT: LOGOTYPE DESIGN FILE: CMYK .ai (Illustrator) SMALL (use no larger than 30mm across width of diamond DATE: 24/8/17

• Easy-to-follow graphs and tables showing the science of machine development at the summit of motorcycle sport.

• large format: 210mm x 270mm • case-bound with dust jacket • heavyweight gloss paper • full colour throughout

For more information please visit

motogptechnology.com

£39.95

16/10/2017