Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126784
~ ~ UI ::;, 0 0 4( 0 II: CD W > l!! UI .> CD UI 0 ~ 5 :z: 00 0') Go " 0') C\l .... CI'J = = < i Oll The RADD-suspended Honda presents new solutions to old problems faced by today's fortts. says its maker. Production plans are unknown. Pushing front end frontiers: • The RADD Suspension System By Rex Reese When it comes to designing and building motorcycles, form is generally as important - if not more - than function. In other words, how a bike works isn't enough; it's got to look pretty sharp too. A scan of the latest crop of road burners, like Kawasaki's Ninja or the Honda Interceptor will reveal that they were shaped as much by marketing as engineering. Enter RADD, aka Rationally Advanced Design Development. It's the company which is backing a suspension 'yS! it'-crealed - by - C11.ib-r~cer-- James Parker of Santa Fe, New Mexico. According to Parker th is is the way motorcycle suspension will be. But, if the RADD Suspension System will be part of motorcycling's future, lime will tel!. One thing is definite: it is diHerent. Parker operates his own general contracting company in anta Feand builds houses. To promote his new - aeslgn- Cronrend. he created ~D, from which he hopes to establish a development deal with a major (Japanese. who else?) manuIacturet..Parker says that he's already working "very slowly with a manufacturer" at present, but doesn't care to mention any names. "They (the company in question) like to play things close to the chest," says Parker. To ensure any claim and benefits which may come hi way, Parker says that he is working with an experienced patent attorney who's familiar with government red tape, the primary pitfall for' many budding inventions. If Parker's system is as good as he claims, then the time and money already invested may eventually be worth it. "Interest in the motorcycle industry is cautious," he adds. Even to those who are familiar with the bizarre appearance of such machines as the ELF endurance racer (which is equipped with its own brew of center-hub front suspension) must agree that the RADD system is well, different, too. But Parker says it works well, overcoming many problems which plague current fork designs. "Forks," say Parker, "could be described as a bad engineering solution" when it comes to attaching the front wheel to the rest of the motorcycle. Parker believes that the 3D-plus year reign of telescopic forks as they exist now has been all but played out. The prbblems of steetitlggeoh1etry, ha"fid- ling and suspension operation must be answered with new solutions. "The way forks are designed today, they have so many compromises," Parker observes. But his design "compromises less." Parker says that his approach to the problem comes from two points of view. As a Norton dealer and club racer in the early '70s, Parker says he had the opportunity to "see where things break when you build a race bike." He observed that the forks. were subject to lateral as well as vertic1e forces, transmitting them up into the steering head and back down into the frame. This is why frames have lots of tu bes, he reasoned. Further inspiration came in 1978 when the fabled ELF endurance racer came out, and even though Parker thought that the bike's center-hub steering system and suspension arrangement was a step in the right direction, hedidn't think that it went far enough. Parker thought that the ELF design's main flaw was that it didn't eliminate "bump steer;" when, as the front wheel hits a bump in the road, the impact creates a tendency for it to turn, or steer, in spite of what the rider may have in mind. Other problems that Parker believes are inherent with the ELF include limited steering clearance and suspension travel. "I did a number of analysis drawings of what they had," says'RADD's inventor, "and -disco-