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/689331
VOL. 53 ISSUE 22 JUNE 7, 2016 P133 then came the high-performance multi-cylinder engines pushed ever further forward by rev-hun- gry Mr. Honda. But with greater specialization it became harder to find direct links. Most especially when engi- neering fashion veered away from the two-stroke engine (which, as any fool knows, is the ideal power unit for a motorcycle). Going four-stroke should have reduced that distance, but it did not; I have been repeatedly assured by factory engineers. Not even electronics are being developed in racing. Road bike electronics are derived from the car industry, and if anything the flow of information goes not from racing to the road but the other way around. If there is one redeeming fea- ture, however, it is the limited en- gine rule. For 2016, the allocation was increased by one to seven, but (here's the rub) these must be sealed before the first race of the year, with no modifications except for safety, and then only if all the manufacturers agree. Here is an opportunity for truly beneficial development: high- revving low-friction engines that have to do a decent mileage (on average something short of 900 miles). Again, I'm told that the materials and techniques are so highly specialised that they don't impinge on road bikes, but you never know what might come out of it. As then president of Honda Motor, Nobuhiko Kawamoto, once told me back in the 1990s, when asked why they bothered to race two-strokes when Honda almost exclusively made and sold four-strokes, his response was typically epigrammatic: "If you only ask the questions you know you want to ask, you never come up with any unexpected answers." But what does it do to the racing? Well, you might ask Valentino Rossi, who can easily remem- ber a time when Honda would happily go through two or even three engines in a race weekend if necessary. He went through one too many at his home round at Mugello. Poised on his winning teammate Lorenzo's back wheel, looking well ready to attack when the time was ripe, his Ya- maha expired all too publicly in a cloud of white smoke. Sweet irony: Lorenzo's bike blew up in exactly the same way in morning warm-up. One less lap and he would have used that engine in the race. Naturally Yamaha's lips re- mained as tightly sealed as the engines, but we can surmise that the failures were top-end rather than with the crankshafts or con-rods because in neither case was there a great efflu- vium of engine oil. Holed piston seems most likely, possibly due to a major valve derangement. In each case, it was one of their first three engines. Now each has broken out number four; more than halfway through the overall allocation after just one third of the season. By comparison, both factory Ducatis are still on their third mo- tors, and likewise all the Honda riders except Marquez, who broke out his fourth way back at round four at Jerez, and stopped using one of his first pair that same weekend. Honda has not withdrawn that engine yet, prob- ably on a point of pride. This means they have been unable to break the seals and open it up to check wear, etc. The only officially withdrawn engines so far are three from the two Aprilia riders Bradl and Bautista, and one of Baz's satellite Ducati. Yamaha's engineers will learn something. Even if only to cut the factory riders' rev limit back down to that of the satellite riders Smith and Espargaro, each still on their third of seven engines with none lost so far. Which might make it a bit harder to keep winning races. The riders will have to live in fear. The penalty for going beyond the allocated seven en- gines is a start from pit lane, five seconds after the green light. At least that's not as bad as stopping at the trackside sur- rounded by a smelly cloud of smoke. CN