KTM's carbon-fiber chassis—
though this could hardly be
called an innovation since the
material was first used in the
1980s. It gained little momen
-
tum, then fell out of favor, for
probably all the wrong rea-
sons—that in racing, convention
succeeds better than invention.
Copy but improve.
Early non-metallic efforts
came from Britain. Notably
from the then-independent
Suzuki team, in a spell when the
factory had taken a step back.
They were thrown on their own
resources to try to keep the ob
-
solescent square-four RG motor
competitive.
Step forward, innovative
designer Nigel Leaper and the
then new honeycomb-sandwich
board, developed for the aircraft
industry (for such things as
inner walls and tray tables) and
eagerly adopted by the racing-
car world.
Leaper devised a folded and
bonded chassis to contain the
square-four engine, immediately
nicknamed "cardboard box."
Ridden by, among others, Niall
Mackenzie and Rob McElnea,
who described the ride as
"plush" while mechanics found
it to be crash-proof almost to
the point of indestructibility.
Both achieved top-10 finishes
against full-factory Honda and
Yamaha opposition.
Leaper designed an auto
-
claved full-carbon Mk2 for the
V4 that the factory produced
for the following year, but the
I
t's encouraging to think that
racing is an important tool for
research and development—a
place where motorcycle design
is advanced. Just as warfare
accelerates technological prog
-
ress.
Sadly, it's only marginally true.
This worthy aspect has always
been hostage to regulations,
and never more so than with
today's dumbing down into cost-
saving conformity, where not
even cylinder bore size is free.
Perhaps this is why advances
in recent decades have been
confined to minor (although
not unimportant) aerodynamic
tweaks and active ride-height
adjustment.
The year 2023, however, did
see something fundamental.
P106
CN II IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
BLACK ART WITH A
CHECKERED HISTORY
CARBON
FIBER
