VOL. 50 ISSUE 34 AUGUST 27, 2013
P45
(Left) Jay Leno helped
introduce the new Brough
Superior Moto2 to the
media last week. The bike
will make some wild-card
rides in 2014 with a plan
for a full championship
attack in 2015.
fuel tank and bodywork
in a single monocoque
fabrication – thus cutting
weight while increasing
stiffness. The Brough
Superior Moto2 follows
in the traditions of the
brand by also employing
wishbone front suspension and a rear-mounted
radiator for the Honda-spec engine class.
"Moto2 is meant to be a prototype class for chassis manufacturers," says British-born TaylorMade boss Paul Taylor. "While
the racing is fantastic, the level of
innovation has been frankly disappointing and our new Brough
Superior aims to address that."
Designed in Great Britain but
built in the U.S., the new bike
has been jointly developed for
Brough by Taylor and UK-based
designer John Keogh, who
worked with Buell on creating the
Firebolt and other models.
According to Taylor, their aim
has been to produce a GP racer with an optimum stiffness to
weight ratio, while at the same
time delivering a very wide range
of adjustment to suit different riders, circuits and track conditions.
It has several innovative features,
including an integral fuel cell positioned just behind the engine, running vertically to below the swingarm pivot and thereby centralizing
mass. This also allows a constant
weight balance to be maintained
as the fuel level drops.
All this makes the Brough Superior's chassis a true monocoque design, unlike the current
Ducati Panigale Superbike that
doesn't carry the fuel in its frame,
but in a separate tank that's not
integral with the chassis.
Brough Superior's new Moto2
racer also has an ultra-light allcarbon fiber swingarm that allows the Penske shock to deliver superior compliance via
significantly reduced un-sprung
weight, while the radiator is positioned at the rear of the motorcycle (the bike's monocoque is
only as wide as its four-cylinder
600cc Honda motor) to minimize
The Brough Superior uses a unique
carbon fiber composite chassis
single and a wishbone design front
suspension.
the complete bike's frontal area,
for enhanced aerodynamics.
The Brough Superior Moto2's
front suspension is a single wishbone design with conventional
damping via gas charged, fully
adjustable Traxxion cartridges
housed in 43mm diameter fork
tubes. Use of a wishbone combined with a telescopic fork allows the large fresh air duct feeding the radiator to pass through
the center of the monocoque,
thus also improving intake flow.
Former AMA racer and factory Buell racer Shawn Higbee
has been developing the bike on
track, and feels it is now ready to
race.
"It's very narrow, so that's one
advantage," Higbee said. "And
