WORLD SUPERBKE
WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 9/JULY 13, 2014
MAZDA RACEWAY LAGUNA SECA/MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA
P40
LOOMING HECK
With all items of electronics cost set
to be capped in 2015, there was one
notable exception in the list and that
was the wiring looms each bike can
run. Literally hidden from view, wiring
looms are not exactly the sexiest part
of a the technology that race bikes
possess, but like all technology good
ones cost a lot of money and last a
long time while cheap ones can go
wrong and have an impact on results.
The main imperative on using a full
racing wiring kit – which vary in price
from a couple of thousand to much
more than that – is that the connec-
tors need to be connected and broken
hundreds if not thousands of times.
Race bikes by their nature get pulled
apart regularly, sometimes deliberately
and sometimes by accident.
The connectors on your streetbike
are not rated to be unplugged and
plugged in often in their normal life,
only for annual servicing.
In race use, the specialist watertight
connectors that link the custom race
ECU to its family of sensors, tell backs
and other input or output devices need
to be taken apart multiple times in some
instances, and thus they take a knock.
Hence special braided sheathing
to stop abrasion, aluminum screw-on
connectors with two or more water
seals, and most of it some form of
derivation from the first kinds of trick
wiring looms and connectors, modeled
on those found in military aircraft.
There is now of course a whole
sub-sect of motorsport engineering
dedicated to wiring looms for racing
and that is not only because it is a
low volume, seasonal business, but
because race wiring looms are by their
very nature custom parts. If you have
