Cycle News

Cycle News Issue 31 August 8, 2017

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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VOL. 54 ISSUE 31 AUGUST 8, 2017 P125 think back 23 years, to 1994, can you think of any major advance- ment in alternative power sources made by either Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Ducati, BMW or Aprilia? Aside from the mass (and sadly inevitable) abandon- ment of two-stroke technol- ogy, everything we ride is good, old-fashioned four-strokes, from MotoGP to a Kawasaki Z125 Pro. Two-stroke lovers have had some hope in recent times, especially with KTM's brilliant fuel-injected two-strokes, but that's only going to last 23 years at best, unless competition vehicles are given an emissions respite—which, given the current march toward zero emissions from the EU, I find hard to imagine. MotoGP has a lot to answer for. It is, in my opinion, the world's greatest sport, but it exists for two reasons: to sell bikes, and to power the march of technology. But if that technology is going to be unsellable in 23 years' time, is racing at that level not just a giant waste of money for Honda, Ya- maha, Suzuki, Aprilia and Ducati? Formula One has been pushed by the manufacturers into devel- oping new technologies that will help them sell road cars and keep them relevant. The Energy Recov- ery System (ERS, formally Kinetic Energy Recovery System) is one example of alternative power used in racing. The system harvests and redeploys, via an electric mo- tor, heat energy from the exhaust and brakes that would usually go to waste, and can be used as a horsepower boost for six seconds per lap. This system has been in place since 2009, and Infinity has put an ERS system in their Project Black S concept car... Why can't MotoGP even begin to look at something like this, rather than just the V4, or inline-four, four-stroke engine that can be of use no to the wider world of mo- torcycling down the track? The sheer size of an ERS sys- tem is one inhibitor, but if we don't start developing other technolo- gies at the highest level of racing, via the companies that have the most money to spend, they are quickly going to find themselves irrelevant when it comes to world transportation. If the biggest companies won't do it, at least the smaller compa- nies are trying to save motorcy- cling from extinction. Leading the alternative-fuel charge are U.S. home-grown electric-bike start- ups like Alta, Zero, and Lightning; all organizations with their eyes firmly on a prize that is being largely ignored by the industry's leading players. And they're all organizations that have already gained a huge head start when it comes to developing the technol- ogy required for 2040. Electric bikes have some pretty severe drawbacks. Battery size, weight, range and charge times are all serious boundaries that must be overcome. I'll admit, these concerns have stopped me from getting an electric bike of my own, even though I really do enjoy zipping around on a Zero SR. Alternative power need not be boring. Currently, the only manu- facturer with any form of alternative power source is Kawasaki, with their staggeringly awesome super- charged H2 and H2R (but even then, that's just a supercharger bolted onto a superbike engine). There's talk of a smaller version coming out soon, and Suzuki has been teasing their turbo-charged Recursion concept for what feels like forever. If these bikes even- tually do make it to market, at least there will be a semblance of something happening at the highest levels of the industry with regards to alternative powertrains. We all know the benefits of riding a bike. If we focus purely on the environmental benefits and not the personal ones, according to MCN, "A study in Belgium found that if just 10 percent of cars were replaced by motorcycles in our most congested cities, congestion would be reduced by a massive 40 percent, and also cut up to 15,000 hours a day of vehicles be- ing sat stationary in traffic." Hopefully, the world's bike man- ufacturers put their thinking caps on and start coming up with some answers to the 2040 problem, or we could be facing a much bigger problem than just being stuck in traffic.CN

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