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/128331
GP Tech Update: A New Swingarm For Valentino in streetbikes or in less intense racing classes have a major effect when the bike is making 240 horsepower. The flexibility of the swingarm affects a bike's ability to find traction. Normal motorcycle suspensions have somewhere between three and four inches of vertical travel on the swingarm. Once you lean a bike totally over, that travel doesn't work as well . Really big bumps might move the suspension, but the suspension cannot accommodate all the fine alentino Rossi arrived at Assen for the Dutch Grand Prix with the third swingann variation of the year on his Yamaha MI, having tested the new piece on his bike after the Catalunian GP two weeks ago. Rossi has played with chassis length all year, but merely playing with the length of the chassis is not sufficient for him to get the all-important traction that he seeks. As with everything else that we are seeing in MotoGp, things that make a small difference V surface changes that disturb the bike. The search the n is for a suspe nsion system that allows the rider to put down rea l power when leaned right over, something that then gives you a real advantage in getting out of the corners. To allow the bike's tires to follow the road and get the maximum poss ible grip, the swingarm must therefore bend sideways and flex over the bumps. The problem is that while you want the swingann to bend and flex sideways in a quite subtle fashion, you want it to stay very rigid along its length. If you are putting 240 hp down through the rear chain, then that same chain is trying to shorten one side of the swingarm with the same HOhp. The prob lem then is to get a swingarm that is very stiff front to back but very precisely flexible side to side. As MotoGP bikes have made more and more power, the balance between straight line rigidity and sideways flex has become harder and harder to manufacture accurately. Maintaining this balance is the reason for the rash of swingarms machined from solid material. (Suzuki, for instance , debu ted a new design of swingarm this year that it credits with the change in its fortunes , simply because it can now change the flexibility accurately with a new machining process.) In his first tests on the Yamahaat the start of the year, Rossi lengthened the swingarm . At tests after the Jerez race, he tried a slight1y shorter setup (this was used at Le Mans), and after that race a new swingarm was tried and used successfully in Mugello and Catalunya. The bike looked identical, and only a new sticker set gave away the change . But after the Catalunya test , Rossi tested again, with ye t another variation. Again the swingarm looked the same, but Rossi seemed to like it more . No one at Yamaha wou ld comment on the new swingarm other than to confirm new parts were tried in practice after Catalunya and that the test was a success. Crew chief jeremy Burgess did say, "Y ou can have all the power you want , but it is useless without traction." With a slightly longer swingarm, as the sides of the arm are longer a swingarm , based on the old design would be more flexible , simply because there is more leverage . Conversely, if the arms are shortened but the specification is unchanged , then the flex wou ld be stiffer. Yamaha won't say whether it has gone more rigid or more flexible, but what we do know is that Rossi has given the Yamaha MI a new lease on life, and of all the riders on the track, he's the one most likelyto be able to use it. Nel/ Spalding Gibernau's Smashed Fender The reason for 5ete Gibernau's glum expression on the pod i- Aprilia'§ Fate to um after finishing second to Valentino Rossi for a th ird straight time this past weekend in the Dutch Grand Prix at Assen is easily explained when you see the state of his front fende r after the race . Valentino Rossi waited until halfway around the last lap to outbrake Gibe rnau - and as he did, he drifted w ide, and Gibernau turned into him. The result ing crunch left Gibe ma u with a damaged front fender and second place. Neil Spold ing Grand Prix Motocross • 2005 The promoter of the World Motocross Championship, Youthstrea m, has put forth the following schedule for next year 's championship. The sched ule is expected to be ratified by the FIM at its annual congress in October. The ser ies is as follows: March 20 - Flanders Grand Prix (site to be announced) April 3 Portuguese Grand Prix (Agueda) April 10 Spanish Grand Prix (Bellpuig) May I • Dutch Grand Prix (TBA) Grand Prix of Europe (Teutschenthal, Gennany) May 8 May 22 Italian Grand Prix (TBA) May 29 Grand Prix of Great Britain (Isle of Wigiht) June 12 Japanese Grand Prix (Sugo) June 26 • French Grand Prix (St. Jean d'Angely) July 3 • Swedish Grand Prix (Uddevalla) july 17 Czech Republic Grand Prix (Loket) July 31 Belgian Grand Prix (TBA) August 13 - Irish Grand Prix (BaIIyKelly) August 21 - British Grand Prix (Donington Park) August 28· Gennan Grand Prix (Gaildorl) Sept. 18 - South African Grand Prix (Sun City) 10 JULY 7, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS be Revealed Soon Who 'll end up purchasing Aprilia - Ducati, Piaggio or Bombard ier/Rotax! That's the field of three that the fifteen or so compani es and financial institutions wh ich had expressed interest in acquiring a controlling inter- est in the troubled high-profile Italian manufacturer, has now been narrowed down to . Don't take my word for it: That's the view of the man who'll be charged with supervising the handover when (not if) the takeover happens - Aprilia CEO (amministratore de/egoto) Franco Cattaneo, who was appointed in March by the compa ny's debtor banks and is now running the company in the wake of the effect ive departure from the reins of power of Aprilia's form er president lvano Beggio, the man who spent the past 30 years turning his father's bicycle factory into a fifth force in world motorcycling . Speaking to the Italian magazine Panorama on May 20, Cattaneo pulled no punches. "The new owner of Aprilia will be determined in a few weeks, and I hope that in any case a preliminary agreement will be signed before the factory shutdown in August ," he declared . ''Although we had some other expressions of interest . in the final analysis it will be one of three companies who'll assume the task of turning the company around - either Piaggio, Ducati or the Aprilia's ongo ing participation in all three classes of Grand Prix racing! "It was a typical financial crisis. with the brand , the tech nology and the products already in place, but absolute ly no idea of planning ahead and undertaking proper financial planning, to mainta in a balance between revenues and investment," states Cattaneo . "Until the beginning of this year, it was hoped that a Euro 120 million top -up wo uld be sufficient to resolve the crisis, but that turned out to be a pipedream, and by Easter there wasn't a single Euro left in our pockets. We had to stop production. Beggio had already declared he didn't have the funds needed to recap italize the company, so we had to look elsewhere . I don 't know if in the future it will be possible for him to maintain even a small shareholding in the company - but that's how it goes . He 's always been an opt imist - but in the end he went too far." Such words coming on the record from the man charged with the day-to -day running of the Aprilia Group confirm the fullextent of its present financial difficulties, as revealed a month ago in the last edition of LIE. It's now certain that the company will be drasticalty restructured as and when a takeover occurs - and Canadians, Bombardier. We're loo king for an industrial partner capable of recapitaliZing the business to the tune of at least Euro 120-150 million (approximately $146 - $183 million) - this isn't just des irable, that at the very least this will entail substantial cuts in expenditure which w ill inevitably result in significant downsiz ing of the whole operation, with resultant layoffs and likely reductions in the model range . At the worst, it may involve the break-up of the Aprilia Group as it presently stands , though Cattaneo cautions that "Simply selling off Moto Guzzi would not resolve the it' s a necessity. Of course, they may bring a financial problem . and neither would an operation involving a partner along w ith them in order to do this, such as a ven ture cap ital fund - but the vital thing is tha t they partial share- swap or a similar paper-chase, such as some of the sta teme nts about Aprilia wh ich [Piaggio boss , Roberto] Colaninno has made seem to infer, wh ich do n't do anything to resolve the cr isis. We need cash, at least Euro 120- 150 million of it - but even if we get it, I must be frank and say that we 're going to have are themselves a strong and viable manufacturing operation, w ith the knowledge and expertise to do what's needed. And that they do it quickly." But how did such a serious situation arise - especial- ly in the wake of the roll-out of the acclaimed new RSV IODOR range, and against the background of 40th Anniversary to dow nsize the wo rkforce considerabty .·· Alan Cathcart